Slides to jpeg

I worked for many, many years as a professional photographer, my negative and slide and video archives could easily fill a large garage.

I have a Nikon Coolscan II, high end quality professional scanning for the time, recently I made a slide/negative copier using an old slide copier that fits on a 35mm film camera, it sits on the end of a 50mm Rokkor Macro lens with 1:1 extension and is connected to a Sony NEX digital camera (14.2 Mp), I can't tell the difference in image quality between the two systems, the biggest difference is that I can copy half a pack of slides on the Sony in the time it takes to copy one slide on the Coolscan,

I'll look through my archives later, "Dinner Time"

Glenn

My kids, in their late teens, are quite taken by slides when projected at large on the wall. Thought they would be bored and off in 5 minutes back to computers.

To Glenn, is it your old slide copier that is providing the light source. If not, then what are you using?

Your experience seems to back up what I have read elsewhere, that macro is much faster and just as good as scanners.

I'll shoot some pics of my setup later in the week and post them.

For light I'm using a flash, I have also found that daylight or a non eco friendly old fashion bulb alright as well for easy colour balance, the bonus being that I can focus easier than by flash, those fancy new bulbs they recon will help save the planet seem to have a weird colour balance sometimes creating more post processing.

I forgot to mention that I'm shooting Raw (not in the ...) from there I can process in Lightroom or Photoshop to any format I like.

Just remembered, the Father in-law is coming to stay for a few days around Christmas ... think I'll disappear into the office and continue inputting slides.

Regards
Glenn

OK so us simpletons whohavent got

a) a pile of money
b) camera gear

What's the best option..... ?

Would it cost a huge amount to get this done professionally? And how would you know they were doing it well not "on the cheap" qualitywise?

For my own interest I looked up slide digitisation services. Michaels page gives a good idea of range of services and prices, all dependant on level of quality required.

Film Scanning | michaels Camera Video Digital, Melbourne Australia

Cheapest way of looking at your slides is through your projector. But next slide night get a cheap digital camera plus tripod, and photograph the screen image - other peoples efforts have looked quite OK when they throw the image up on computer or tv.

If your hobby is photography then more than likely somewhere along the line you will get a macro (and a fish eye, and telephoto etc). It's not as if a macro is just purchased for slide copying - it just happens to be useful in that respect; and how can it be adapted. If it can be adapted then it can save considerable money and time if ou get the results you want. See if a second hand digital SLR and macro is within your budget.

As to what is quality? Slightly subjective and slightly technical. Replication methods may slightly change colour, contrast etc, and it may not matter in most cases. Areas in and out of focus, because the original image material is not held flat, can be a problem.

I'm still at the experimental stage. Tried a home scanner, but not happy at all. Have used generic slide digitisation services, which are OK for run of the mill images (not much better than the home scanner) - no good where high quality reproduction is required. Have experimented with macro copying of printed photos, got to watch reflections off gloss paper, but otherwise happy. Next step is to get organised and try it with my'best'slide. If having used all resources at hand, and still not happy, then I will try expensive retail therapy - just got to trust the image to the postal system and the replication service.

If I had enough money I'd just buy the best digital camera available and go on holidays to take the same photos, plus more! Pay someone else to do the more dangerous shots that I'm probably to old (wise) to do now.

I discovered my old slide copier fitted my daughters newer 'D something' Nikon as well as my old FE2. I quickly did some passable copies using both available light and flash. I need to get hold of it again and persist with refining the process and knock the 'pile' off..

When I've got a minute

Don.

My specific is that I have a heap of slides from the late 70s / early 80s when I did a lot of overseas travel. Frankly is just to much trouble to get a projector etc to relive the memories. I'd like to get decent quality copies but it's not as if they are professional shots to start with.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by VladTepes

OK so us simpletons whohavent got

a) a pile of money
b) camera gear

What's the best option..... ?

Would it cost a huge amount to get this done professionally? And how would you know they were doing it well not "on the cheap" qualitywise?

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I stickytape a piece of white a4 paper onto an outside window, then bluetak some slides (or negatives) to it

then I take photos of the slides with whatever digital camera that has a macro lens. typically my OMD EM5 with a extension tube

results are as good or better than using my Epson perfection flatbed scanner, but a whole lot faster and easier AND FREE !!

It seemsi need to add that the only camerai own these days is an inexpensive social point and shoot job.

Wish I could just get someone else to do it for me....