Slides or negatives to digital file

[wildmaven]

Not sure if this is the right forum for this, eek.

I just found a nifty device that transfers slides or negatives to digital files. Has anyone used such a device? The one I found is at http://hammacher.com (put item number dr-74083 in the top right search box of that site to find the item). It seems like a great idea. I have tons of slides and it always seemed cost prohibitive to get them transferred to digital files. Thoughts?

Marian

 

[selmerdave]

Hi Marian,

Since it is a film scanner but not called one, I'm suspect already. It is inexpensive compared to other film scanners, but unless I'm reading it wrong the results from a 5 MP sensor would not likely be too impressive. With my 5+ year-old Minolta scanner I get 27 MB TIFF's, and I think most new scanners these days will do better. My guess is they don't call it a film scanner because next to other film scanners it doesn't look too impressive, but as described it sounds like a "unique" item.

Dave

 

[Alpha]

Scanning slides doesn't have to be hard. But it can be pricey for a good scanner. The easiest and best results I've seen are from a Nikon Coolscan V ED with the batch slide attachment. Makes scanning a large number of slides really easy.

 

[skieur]

I am looking at a HD high resolution slide duplicator for around $79 but I need to import it, since it is not sold in Canada.

skieur

 

[frXnz kafka]

Scanning slides doesn't have to be hard. But it can be pricey for a good scanner. The easiest and best results I've seen are from a Nikon Coolscan V ED with the batch slide attachment. Makes scanning a large number of slides really easy.

I just spent the last 2 hours scanning negatives with one of these. They came out great.

 

[selmerdave]

I am looking at a HD high resolution slide duplicator for around $79 but I need to import it, since it is not sold in Canada.

skieur

Define "HD high resolution". $79 may or may not be a good deal.

Dave

 

[Alpha]

That's a bit repetitive lol.

High Definition High Resolution? WOW. I'm sold.

 

[Helen B]

Well, HD in videospeak is no more than 1920 x 1080 pixels.

 

[Alpha]

Well, HD in videospeak is no more than 1920 x 1080 pixels.

Are you talking about duplicating from a video still? If so, I don't quite follow you where the importance of HD fits in there, given that the native resolution of slide film is much higher than that.

 

[lasershot]

Quick question, is converting a negative to a digital file a way to not have to use a darkroom? Does it process it and stuff when it scans it?

Thanks

 

[Big Mike]

Quick question, is converting a negative to a digital file a way to not have to use a darkroom? Does it process it and stuff when it scans it?

It has to be developed before you can scan it. After it's scanned...it's no different than any digital image, you can use Photoshop (or whatever) to edit it and print it like you would any digital image.

 

[lasershot]

Ahh... Thanks for clearing that up