Saving slides

[slat]

My wife and I recently found a lot of slides at her parents house what is an easy way to view them to see if they are something we want to keep?
If they are something we want to keep what would be the best way to scan them to save to an external hard drive?

 

[RAZKY]

My wife and I recently found a lot of slides at her parents house what is an easy way to view them to see if they are something we want to keep?
If they are something we want to keep what would be the best way to scan them to save to an external hard drive?

I like to view mine on an LED light box with a loupe. You can lay them on the light box and copy them with a digital camera and macro lens.

 

[mrca]

I like to view mine on an LED light box with a loupe. You can lay them on the light box and copy them with a digital camera and macro lens.

It's how I digitize my negatives. Camera on tripod or rolling stand, mounted in the cardboard slides will be flat. I tether to lightroom and can adjust the brightness as it comes in then fire the camera from lightroom instead of a remote trigger so no camera shake.

 

[wfooshee]

The absolute best way to digitize them is with a dedicated film scanner, but you're looking at around 3 to 4 hundred dollars, if not more, for a decent one.

Flatbed scanners have adapters for slides and negatives, but they're not as sharp as with an actual film scanner.

Here's a comparison I made scanning a slide with my Epson flatbed scanner, and with an actual film scanner:

Full frame, flatbed:

Full frame, film scanner:

Cropped enlargement, flatbed:

Cropped enlargement, film scanner:

The difference isn't just resolution, or dots per inch. A flatbed scanner simply isn't capable of focusing properly on a transparency, as the slide or negative isn't actually on the glass surface, there's a slight gap.

It is very time consuming to scan the slides, especially if you need to make corrections after scanning for color balance or exposure, and you usually will. My own workflow is at least 5 minutes per slide, usually closer to 10 or 15, with some taking a couple of hours before I was happy with them!

The scanners, either flatbed or film, will come with software, but the best software that I have found is Vuescan. It supports about a billion scanners, the license is not expensive and is forever, with updates forever. If you're a Photoshop user, Vuescan becomes available in the Acquire menu in Photoshop. Finally, make sure your scanner supports an infrared feature called ICE, which is capable of filtering most dust out of the slides, saving you years (figuratively speaking) of effort cleaning the digital images. It makes the expected passes for red, green, and blue, and then makes an infrared pass. Anything that shows as a shadow on the infrared pass is not part of the image, and the software subtracts that from the image.

A Kodachrome slide of my aunt from 1954, unfiltered, then filtered by the scanner. I did not do any of this manually by cloning or healing brush in Photoshop:

Finally, a comparison of duplicating through the camera vs. film scanner:

Full frame, DSLR dupe:

Film scanner:

Crop of the center, DSLR dupe:

Center crop, film scanner:

As for initially viewing the slides, I had the advantage of Dad's slides all being in projector trays already, and I had his projector as well. Without projections, a light table is about the best you can do, but you will need magnification to really examine the images.

 

[Strodav]

I started in film and have converted hundreds of prints, color and B&W negatives and color slides to digital. I tried a few different methods like using my dslrs with copy boards or rear lit film holders, but settled in on an Epson Perfection V500 photo scanner (the newer V600 is less than $250), which has served me very well over the years. You can select the scan resolution. It converts negatives film to positives and removes the antihalation mask on color film, but the convenient film holders that hold the film and slides flat on the scanner are well worth the money. There is no need to take your slides out of their holders.

 

[AlanKlein]

I'd send them out to a lab that specializes in this. Pull out the ones you want to keep. There're probably a lot that are duplicates or just not worth keeping.

 

[RacePhoto]

I'd send them out to a lab that specializes in this. Pull out the ones you want to keep. There're probably a lot that are duplicates or just not worth keeping.

I have a flatbed Epson V200, it's nice. I have a Nikon Coolscan - older, and a HP slide scanner. Last year I started trying to digitize more slides, higher resolution, and I now own a couple of slide copiers that fit on the DSLR, one is a nice bellows. I have placed slides on a back light, LED flat panel, and shot them on a copy stand. All of these work OK and have different levels of results and success.

What the OP needs to ask is, how much time and money does someone want to spend, making their own scans or copies?

I quoted your reply @AlanKlein because when I had a project last Fall for making 18x24 prints from old slides, I sent the slides to Legacy Box. They came back 24MP $39 for 2 "items" slides, $19.99 to have them on a thumb drive.

Roughly $60 for 48 slides. Which was much easier and better quality than all the self made scans I have done over the years.

If someone is considering just making copies to have copies and they don't need big hi res images, you can take them to Costco or Walgreens.

What I'm saying is this. If it's a one time deal and the number of slides is limited and someone doesn't want to get all involved and complicated... send them in!

The $20 for the thumb drive is a fixed cost, so more slides, that won't increase. 100 slides would run around $100. There are places that cost less and make smaller images. Yes I culled the similar and duplicates and I have some pretty nice copies.

 

[webestang64]

Our price at my lab starts at $1.49 each scan (2000 res). Goes down to 65 cents each over 1000 slides.
$4.95 get them on cd, data dvd, usb (yours) ($12.95 ours) or dropbox.
We use a high end Noritsu 1800 series scanner.

Do it yourself.....well, how much time do you have? Costco or Walgreens have TERRIBLE scans but are cheap.

 

[slat]

Thank you for the responses. We need to go through them and get an idea of how many we have. That might give us a better idea of how to proceed.
Would it be a better idea to scan the slides and negatives just to be able to have a digital copy, since they probably won't last forever. Then pick the best ones to have them done for items we really want to keep?
What are some good film/slide scanners? I wouldn't have a problem spending $300 or so.

 

[wfooshee]

My current scanner is a Pacific Image PrimeFilm XEs, which I got at B&H Photo. It's about 400 bucks right now. I saw it on Amazon as well, same price. It comes with its own software, which I hated. Like I said, I use Vuescan, which is a 100-dollar license, but it's forever, and will include updates forever. (You do need the 100-dollar license to use a film scanner. There's a 40-dollar version that only does flatbed scanning, though.) Also, its license is for use on up to four computers. I've used it on 3 film scanner so far, two Nikons (which were excellent scanners, but short-lived, although both were second-hand) and now the Pacific Image. Vuescan comes from www.hamrick.com

 

[webestang64]

Would it be a better idea to scan the slides and negatives just to be able to have a digital copy, since they probably won't last forever.

If the slides are Kodachrome they will out last everything. Same goes for for most BW negatives.

 

[RAZKY]

If the slides are Kodachrome they will out last everything.

Kodachromes fade quicker than E-6 slides when exposed to light.

 

[webestang64]

Kodachromes fade quicker than E-6 slides when exposed to light.

Other way around.

 

[RAZKY]

Other way around.

"Kodachrome's fade time under projection is about one hour, compared to Fujichrome's two and a half hours." Wikipedia.

 

[webestang64]

"Kodachrome's fade time under projection is about one hour, compared to Fujichrome's two and a half hours." Wikipedia.

Never heard that before. Guess you do learn something everyday. At least the K-14 will be stable for a very long time in storage but the E-6, not so much.
So I guess the test was under the light the entire time? That should maybe be about 400 slide showings? Hmmmmm