Slides to JPG help wanted

[Randy]

Hey Group,

I have 5 Kodak carousels of 35mm slides (140 slides each for a total of 700 slides) that I want to copy to JPEGs. I was thinking of setting up my 5 Mpixil camera on a tripod and snapping pics off the projector screen.

Any suggestions/alternate methods? I don't want to spend a lot on equipment as I don't expect to ever take more slides so any thing I buy would never be used again.

Thanks in advance,

Randy

 

[Mitica100]

Randy, would getting a dedicated slide scanner be out of the question for you? It's the best way to bring out everything in the slides.

You can get one, do your slide scans and then put it up for sale on Ebay.

Just an idea...

 

[Unimaxium]

Well, it might be best to take the slides to a camera shop and have them scan them for you. Most camera shops offer this service nowadays I believe. You will be able to get a much better quality from them than from snapping pictures of the wall with your camera or even buying your own equipment for the job if you get it done at a high resolution. It will probably cost a good deal for 700 slides, but at least you won't have to buy equipment you won't use again, and it will likely be significantly better than snapping the projection on a wall.

 

[Kodan_Txips]

You will be horrified by how bad the results will be, if you re-photograph a projected slide.

Rather like a real low quality rip off DVD of the latest film at the cinema, where they took a camera into the cinema.

The thing to do is to ARCHIVE all those slides carefully, in waterproof containers, in a cool dry place. Before you do that pick out the best of them, and get them transferred to a CD by a good processing house.

I would try them with 10, to see if you like their results.

The aim is to get the image onscreen to be nearly as good as the original slide.

If you shoot off your wall, you may be lucky to get results that come anywhere near cheap print quality.

 

[Randy]

Thanks for the quick replies guys.

OK you've talked me out of trying the projector thing. Iwant to get them all copied and initial surveys cost it out at about <gulp> $600 to $700 CDN to get a lab to do it.

The wife wants a flatbed scanner anyway so I'm looking at maybe an Epson Perfection 2480 PHOTO scanner ($109 CDN +tax).

Being kinda lazy I was hoping I could drop my carousels on somthing, push a button and sit back down in front of Bugs Bunny. Oh well.

Thanks again. What is life without forums?

Randy :hail:

 

[Big Mike]

Make sure the scanner has the ability to scan transparency's and has a slide/film adapter. (that one does)

It will probably take a long time to scan that many but it will save you a load of money. You might also have to do some fixing if you want to print later.

 

[Randy]

Thanks Mike.

Ended up buying a Canon CanoScan 4200F Flatbed Scanner (higher resolution). Doing only 2 slides at a time is going to be a pain in the butt. We'll see how it goes.

Randy

 

[Big Mike]

How about a copy stand? I don't know much about them but someone here might.

Basically you have a stand that holds the slide and a camera with light source. Pretty much the same idea as your picture of the projection but maybe a bit more controlled.

 

[Randy]

Thanks Mike,
I'm kind of comitted to my current method. If I buy anything else, my better half is going to buy a gun
Randy

 

[Kodan_Txips]

I bought a zoom t mount slide copier for a dollar last week, and the T mount cost me 7 dollars.

It arrived today, it is brand new boxed, and it will allow me to use a flashgun to copy slides to film, AND to zoom in a bit and amend the composition.

its a sort of tube with a diffuser screen at one end, in front of which you place the slide, and it mounts on the camera instead of the lens.

Looks like a posh bit of kit for only a dollar.

 

[Randy]

Cool Kodan,

Scanned 2 slides with the Canon CanoScan 4200F to try it out. Results were adequate for my 19" LCD PC screen.

It's going to take a long time to do 698 more slides though. I'm going to look for another holder thingme that goes in the top of the scanner. That way while 2 slides are scanning, I can reload the other holder.

Thanks for the interest people.

Randy