Does anybody know how to scan slides?

[Cleita]

I'm not doing too well.

[Catshrink]

1. What are you using?

I have a Prime Film scanner that is made for slides and negatives. I have trouble with the slides also. They come out too dark. I can use photo editing software to fix it, but it's annoying.

But I have many boxes of slides from when I was a photography nut. I'm trying to get them in electronic format -- and slowly but surely I'm getting there.

[Cleita]

4. No, nothing fancy like that.

Is it not possible on an ordinary scanner?

[coralrf]

5. no..you will get very poor results.

you will reduce the quality enormously. You need a negative scanner..or better yet..a good digital camera. I take a lot of pics. I can use a Nikon F5 and scan or a D1X and get it on..the D1X wins every time....

[Cleita]

6. I have a digital camera.

How do you do a slide, photograph it? I'm confused.

[coralrf]

8. You want to make a digital image on a slide?

You want to put the digital image on a 35mm slide..?

[Cleita]

10. No.

I have a bunch of slides from the 1960's that I want to print out as photographs because my projector broke down and frankly I just want pictures. The photo store wants too much money because the quality isn't that great, they are just family stuff.

[coralrf]

13. Buy a film scanner...

or slide scanner. Nothing else will do it well. Modifications of flatbeds do a poor job. Think about it..you are using about 5% of the scanner on a flat bed..and 100% on a slide scanner.

[Cleita]

14. Thanks for the suggestions.

It gives me something to look into.

[TreasonousBastard]

15. I have one of those, too...

and it does great slide scans. I've gotten beautiful 185 MB images for murals from it already.

You have to tweak it to get the gamma right in the initial scan, but it will scan properly when set up right.

Right now, mine's dead, though-- I did something stupid and screwed up the optical mechanism.

[SlavesandBulldozers]

2. do you have a slide scanner?

or are you using a normal flat-bed scanner?

[Cleita]

3. Normal flat bed.

[coralrf]

7. wont do it...

If I remember correctly, Polaroid made a good scanner that was not expensive. Maybe hard to find. Nikon makes a bunch of them. But you need a FILM scanner....no matter the brand.

Try this. Have the negative printed at a medium size. Then take the print to a pro joint and have them scan.

If you want to get into this as a hobby, get a dig cam. Or get a Coolscan..

[kayleybeth]

9. You need an adapter

for your flatbed scanner. I have one that scans slides and negatives. It is an AWESOME capability to have. I got mine on Ebay for about a hundred bucks brand new. Just do a search for "film adapter". Mine is made by Epson but I'm sure other companies make them as well.

[Cleita]

11. Thanks I'll try that.

To get them converted professionally would cost more than that.

[DS1]

16. Try a local Kinkos

You'll probably be able to get some quick instruction and just pay for your time on the machine

[coralrf]

12. they come with most scanners now...

but they will not help with resolution

[Deja Q]

19. There's a new epson scanner

(3200x6400 optical DPI) that'll do nice scans of negatives and can easily be made into 8x10 prints with no loss of clarity.

The model is $200.

Wish it came out in July before I bought my HP 5500, though it does an acceptable job of scanning negatives... far better than microtek, which is all-around crap to begin with!

[TreasonousBastard]

17. Before spending any more money, try this.

Take a slide out of the plastic or paper mount and put it in the scanner with the emulsion side up and scan it. In the scan preview, crop down to what part you want to keep.

Part of the problem with scanning slides in a flatbed is that the mount adds some space and allows reflections, so this might solve the problem. Or it might not, depending on the scanner.

Don't scan to some ridiculously high level of dpi. Most scanners scan at an optical resolution of 1200-2400 and that 9600 or more is guesswork on the part of the scanner and usually doesn't work very well on most of them.

If all else fails, you might think of buying a new scanner. HP and a few others have scanners around a hundred bucks that have slide and negative scanning gadgets built in. Or, a dedicated film scanner which will work better for various technical reasons.


I buy from B&H Photo and can recommend them most highly (although I walk into the store and don't know how their mail order is)

here's a list of their film scanners:

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=NavBar&A=search&Q=&ci=1151

If that link doesn't work, just go to their homepage and click through digital stuff and then to scanners

I don't know why they don't list Nikon's on this page, but the Pacific Image PrimeFilm scanners do work very well. I have one, and until I broke it, it was fantastic. Great value for the money.

[Cleita]

18. Thanks for the idea.

I'll try that and see if I can get it to work. I'll post if I have any success.

[Enraged_Ape]

20. Here's a cheap and easy way to do it

It's not perfect, but I suppose it's better than nothing...

http://www.abstractconcreteworks.com/essays/scanning/Backlighter.html

[Cleita]

21. That looks like it has possibilities.

I tried removing the mounting and the scan I got was better but still very poor. I couldn't improve it much in edit. It's too late for me to try your link tonight but I will work on in tomorrow. Thanks for the link again. Everyone has given a lot of helpful suggestions here and one is bound to work without too much unnecessary expense.