Slides To Computer

[Tufty]

I've scanned all my old b/w photos and created a video studio presentation with them and it brought back some very happy memories (its nicer than flicking through photo albums)

I've got a lot of old photographic slides from my youth and would like to transfer them to my computer as well so I can eventually put them all together as another presentation with music of the day

I've tried scanning them but it doesn't work and the only thing I can think of is using a slide projector and taking a photo of the screen

I don't have a projector and haven't got enough slides to warrent buying one

Ideas anyone

[Crossy]

Any photo shop that offers a film to photo CD should be able to do the job for you

If you have more slides you can get a proper negative/slide scanner but they are expensive, the slide adaptors for regular scanners are not really adequate.

If you own a digital SLR camera you could use one of the slide copying attachments, although I've had limited success with these due to the crop-factor of my EOS D60.

DC

[bangbuathong]

Any photo shop that offers a film to photo CD should be able to do the job for you 

If you have more slides you can get a proper negative/slide scanner but they are expensive, the slide adaptors for regular scanners are not really adequate.

If you own a digital SLR camera you could use one of the slide copying attachments, although I've had limited success with these due to the crop-factor of my EOS D60.

DC

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

my fotoshop around the corner (and it is a small one) offers this service.

[bkk_mike]

You do get scanners that can take slides.

As an option, it does seem to be restricted to more expensive scanners, but that's because you need a higher resolution scanner.

I've got a Canon 4200F that has a slide adaptor on it that I got at Fortune IT Mall. It still wasn't excessive though. I vaguely remember the price being something between 5,000 and 10,000 baht.

Edited May 27, 2005 by bkk_mike

[Firefoxx]

As Crossy has said, flatbed scanners that have slide scanning (or film scanning) attachments are not adequate for slide scanning, unless your expectations are very low. Even the more expensive (20k baht) flatbed scanners are not up to the task.

Also as Crossy said, there are dedicated film scanners for doing the job. If the photo store does proper film scanning, they will have these scanners and can do it for you. Avoid shops that use flatbed scanners (ask first). I know that Kodak PhotoCD kiosks use film scanners, but I don't know where they are (or even if there are any in Thailand...).

[stumonster]

a brand of scanner with the attachment is genius - I told my stepfather to buy on on the strength of some reviews and he has been happy with it for his slides.

there is a shop in panthip on the 3rd floor , west, that sells the brand

this was 2 years ago - so maybe they have gotten better ... me lou

[dclaryjr]

Here are some examples of 35mm color slide scans done with a $100 scanner:

Thailand 75

Edited May 27, 2005 by dclaryjr

[Crossy]

Here are some examples of 35mm color slide scans done with a $100 scanner:

Thailand 75

I'll qualify my comments

Cheap scanners with film / slide attachments will be fine if you want to put the images up on the web, they are just not up to it if you want to do decent size (10x8) prints.

Remember that a 'proper' film scanner will have an optical (not interpolated) resolution of 3200 dpi upwards. Your average $100 scanner will have an optical resolution of around 300x600 dpi (yes it's asymetric), on a 35mm slide this will give a practical image of about 800x600 pixels.

I will say that the posted samples have come out remarkably well

What was the original image size??

It all depends on th final usage.

Edited May 27, 2005 by Crossy

[katana]

A while back I had the same problem of needing to scan in some slides.

The Primefilm 1800u does an OK job and is about £100 in the UK.

http://www.scanace.com/en/index.php

[Crossy]

A while back I had the same problem of needing to scan in some slides.

The Primefilm 1800u does an OK job and is about £100 in the UK.

http://www.scanace.com/en/index.php

That looks quite an impressive little scanner and it is a proper (film only) film scanner

The optical resolution of 1800 dpi is probably just about adequate (4 Mpixel). The cost rises exponentially as you go higher because of the tighter mechanical requirements, I hate to think how much their automated slide scanner (3600dpi 48bit) costs

I'll bet you can get it in Pantip at a bit better price.

Edited May 27, 2005 by Crossy

[Tufty]

Thanks for the swift replys guys

Buying a new scanner is out of the question (I've only had this one for 6 months) so it looks like I am off to the shops to get a few prices, I've seen lots of the shops in Pattaya offering to put photos on CD's so I don't know why I didn't think of that in the first place

[dclaryjr]

Cheap scanners with film / slide attachments will be fine if you want to put the images up on the web, they are just not up to it if you want to do decent size (10x8) prints.

<snip>

I will say that the posted samples have come out remarkably well   

What was the original image size??

It all depends on th final usage.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I was pretty happy with the way these turned out considering they were 30 year old Kodachrome slides. But you're quite right--this wouldn't work well if you were trying to print 8x10's. I don't remember what the original scan was before I scaled them back for the webpage.

[Firefoxx]

When you consider that film/slides can usually be easily printed to 8x10's at the shop (using traditional methods), it's no wonder that most people don't think that flatbed scanners are good enough for scanning negatives/slides.

I've tried it myself, with a mid-range flatbed, and although the slides come out good enough to look at on the screen/web, it's nowhere good enough to print... hardly even enough to do a 4x5.

[Gary A]

I had a top of the line Epson that did a great job and it had resolution to burn.

[bkk_mike]

Remember that a 'proper' film scanner will have an optical (not interpolated) resolution of 3200 dpi upwards. Your average $100 scanner will have an optical resolution of around 300x600 dpi (yes it's asymetric), on a 35mm slide this will give a practical image of about 800x600 pixels.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I think you need to move your knowledge forward about 5 years.

The Canoscan 4200F (that I mentioned above) is $90 in the US, and has an optical (not interpolated) resolution of 3200 x 6400 dpi.

You're right though - if I had a flatbed scanner that was only 300 or 600dpi, I wouldn't use it to scan slides either...

[Crossy]

Remember that a 'proper' film scanner will have an optical (not interpolated) resolution of 3200 dpi upwards. Your average $100 scanner will have an optical resolution of around 300x600 dpi (yes it's asymetric), on a 35mm slide this will give a practical image of about 800x600 pixels.

I think you need to move your knowledge forward about 5 years.

The Canoscan 4200F (that I mentioned above) is $90 in the US, and has an optical (not interpolated) resolution of 3200 x 6400 dpi.

You're right though - if I had a flatbed scanner that was only 300 or 600dpi, I wouldn't use it to scan slides either...

I also need to change my nationality, it's 134 quid in the UK (about $250), most annoying how we always get ripped off in Europe, there's one on Ebay (US) Buy-it-Now for $89

7000 Baht in Pantip, better but still not $100

Academic really, as the OP says he can't afford a new scanner anyway

And I do agree, a very capable scanner.

Edited May 28, 2005 by Crossy

[dclaryjr]

Here are some examples of 35mm color slide scans done with a $100 scanner:

Thailand 75

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I will say that the posted samples have come out remarkably well

What was the original image size??

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I can answer that question now. We were cleaning house today and I ran across some more old slides sitting in a rarely used drawer. They were pictures of my sister and are over 40 years old. The native resolution for a 35mm slide is 1800x1222.

[Firefoxx]

My comments were based on current models, the models with 3200x3200 resolution. I've done numerous scans of slides/film, and they were nowhere near the native resolution of the film.

Just to make sure I wasn't delusional, I went and did another scan, at 3200x3200. The result was a scan that looked OK on my screen (1024x768), but absolutely useless at its scanned resolution, and hardly fit to print. From my judgement, the "true" resolution is worse than a 1 megapixel camera. I was using an Epson mid-range Photo Scanner with slide attachment.

Remember that a typical flatbed's "true" optical resolution tops off at around 600 dpi (including current models). Anything above that and it's just messing with you. There is a reason why true film scanners cost upwards of $1000 and your flatbed costs $100. To expect a good scan of a tiny area from a cheap piece of equipment using a hack method (and the transparency adapters are hacks) is unrealistic.