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Digitalizing 35mm Slides (1 Viewer)

craig whitmore

Well-known member
Does anyone know of a way to copy 35mm slides using a Coolpix 4500? What would happen if I projected them to a screen and just took a picture? Do not need comercial quality. Have umpteen thousand slides taken as my family was growing up, and would like to put them on a cd for my kids to share with their famlies.

Second question: Printer just bit the dust. Looking at an "all in one" printer, scanner, copier. What kind of resolution should I look for in the scanner end in order to scan the slides? Maybe I should just get a cheap printer, and put the money in a decent scanner for the slides.

Thanks
Craig
 
craig whitmore said:
Does anyone know of a way to copy 35mm slides using a Coolpix 4500? What would happen if I projected them to a screen and just took a picture? Do not need comercial quality. Have umpteen thousand slides taken as my family was growing up, and would like to put them on a cd for my kids to share with their famlies.

Second question: Printer just bit the dust. Looking at an "all in one" printer, scanner, copier. What kind of resolution should I look for in the scanner end in order to scan the slides? Maybe I should just get a cheap printer, and put the money in a decent scanner for the slides.

Thanks
Craig

No expert here, but I used a basic scanner to do a number of kodachrome 64 slides I had. I think 300 dpi is the limit of human eyesite so go at least double that so you can enlarge etc. I wasn't hugely pleased (touch fuzzy I thought) but they work fine for powerpoint presentations and viewing on screen etc. Taking pictures of a projection doesn't sound like a great idea though. If you're going to try something like that then go for a close up on a projection table of some sort. Better yet, wait for an expert to answer your question.

Scott
 
Well, I'm no expert, that's for sure, but any decent flatbed scanner with slide/transparency/neg capability should do the trick for what you're doing. I've had various Epson models over the years, and the only thing that goes out on them is the lighting mechanism in the lid (starts to turn pink with age). Expect to pay from $100-300 for one. This time of year, too, you can probably find mail-in rebates through certain stores, making them even more affordable.

Nikon CoolScan scanners are, IMHO, among the best consumer machines out there, but they're not cheap, ranging anywhere from about $600 to $2000. Lots of newspapers use them for scanning negative film (those that haven't gone all-digital).

As Scott said, though, projecting them and photographing the projection will give you pretty terrible results. You'd be better off making in-camera digital dupes of the slides directly (by mounting the slides and backlighting them sufficiently to be re-shot). A very tedious process, indeed.
 
You can buy an attachment for the Coolpix995 for about £40 so I presume there would also be one for the 4500. I have the ES-E28 Slide Copying Adapter. Once you have them on the Compact Flash Card all you have to do is to download them to your computer in the usual way. I always mount my camera on a tripod but it is not essential. Roger
 
can I ask the same question backwards....

I was wondering if there's a way to convert digital images into slides? I already have access to a decent slide projector and was thinking if this was possible it could be useful, and certainly cheaper than buying a laptop and digital projector.
 
Craig,
For your projected use, and in agreement with Katy who I think has one as well, I would recommend for quality and price getting an Epson Perfection 4180 Photo (it is a flat-bed scanner with the necessary attachments for scanning 35mm slides).
 
Slide scanning is best done with a dedicated film scanner. Failing this there are some flatbed scanners with film/slide attachments that work fairly well. I have an Epson 3170 flatbed that is very good at scanning negs/slides (better in fact than my dedicated film scanner the Minolta dimage scan dual mark 1).
Beware there are also a lot of flatbed scanners that scan slides/negs very poorly.
 
postcardcv said:
can I ask the same question backwards....

I was wondering if there's a way to convert digital images into slides? I already have access to a decent slide projector and was thinking if this was possible it could be useful, and certainly cheaper than buying a laptop and digital projector.
Could be wrong but I don't think this can be done outside a pro lab. A&I in Los Angeles does it but it's pricey: $10 per file/image/slide. Don't know about Fuji's lab (also in LA) but it's probably comparable. Custom pro labs would be even higher (e.g., Weldon Labs also in LA).

Yep, Steve (Cuckooroller), I forgot to mention that my current scanner is the Epson Perfection 4180 Photo with all the slide/neg attachments. But it's the lighted lid that separates a regular flatbed scanner from one that can handle transparencies. I do dream of getting a Nikon CoolScan one of these years. They've come down in price from around $1,300 to $600 now (and of course there are also now higher-end models close to $2K).
 
Katy Penland said:
Could be wrong but I don't think this can be done outside a pro lab. A&I in Los Angeles does it but it's pricey: $10 per file/image/slide. Don't know about Fuji's lab (also in LA) but it's probably comparable. Custom pro labs would be even higher (e.g., Weldon Labs also in LA).

Yep, Steve (Cuckooroller), I forgot to mention that my current scanner is the Epson Perfection 4180 Photo with all the slide/neg attachments. But it's the lighted lid that separates a regular flatbed scanner from one that can handle transparencies. I do dream of getting a Nikon CoolScan one of these years. They've come down in price from around $1,300 to $600 now (and of course there are also now higher-end models close to $2K).
Thanks all;

Off track: Katy you must be the same Katy M I saw wirh photo credits at Cornells Ornithology Lab. Right?

Craig
 
postcardcv said:
can I ask the same question backwards....

I was wondering if there's a way to convert digital images into slides? I already have access to a decent slide projector and was thinking if this was possible it could be useful, and certainly cheaper than buying a laptop and digital projector.



Hi postcard





I think this company has been mentioned on BF before.



Home page: http://www.fotoserve.com/



For slides: http://www.fotoserve.com/shop/slides.html



They might be worth a try.










javva.

.
 
thanks for the info, and the links.

looking at the cost of converting digital files into slides I guess buying a digital projector in the future might well be a better way to go, surely they'll come down in price.
 
craig whitmore said:
Thanks all;

Off track: Katy you must be the same Katy M I saw wirh photo credits at Cornells Ornithology Lab. Right?

Craig
Actually I'm Katy P, and IIRC I've only sold one shot to them for their "Birds Online" project. ;)
 
postcardcv said:
thanks for the info, and the links.

looking at the cost of converting digital files into slides I guess buying a digital projector in the future might well be a better way to go, surely they'll come down in price.
If you're just wanting to project your digital images, I think (but don't quote me) that you can get an adapter/cable for your TV that'll enable you to plug your computer into the TV and show slides and even PowerPoint presentations. I know I've seen PowerPoint shows displayed on regular TV monitors, I just don't know what's needed to connect the two.
 
Sony DSC-H1

devon.birder said:
You can buy an attachment for the Coolpix995 for about £40 so I presume there would also be one for the 4500. I have the ES-E28 Slide Copying Adapter. Once you have them on the Compact Flash Card all you have to do is to download them to your computer in the usual way. I always mount my camera on a tripod but it is not essential. Roger

Does anybody know whether there is a slide rephotographing attachment that would fit the Sony DSC-H1?
 
Slides converted to digital usually suck. You can project them and photograph them if quality is not important. A decent slide scanner costs megabucks. A cheap scanner will not produce good results unless there is a backlight to it and even then it is dicey.
 
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