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Archive 2017 · 35mm slides to digital

  
 
Robert Spencer
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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · 35mm slides to digital


new here & hoping it`s the right place to post this question. I have come across a bunch of my old 35mm Kodachromes (2X2). I want digital copies made. What might be some of my options?
thanks. bob



Jul 31, 2017 at 07:20 PM
rdeloe
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p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · 35mm slides to digital


Do you need high quality or just a decent digital version for memories? High quality from a drum scanner is expensive. Scanning yourself is an option if you do it a lot, but finding a reasonably priced slide scanner is challenging, and learning how to scan is a job of work. Were I in your shoes, I'd find a local company that does scanning and give them a 12 to see how they do. then get them to do the rest if the quality is acceptable. Good luck.


Jul 31, 2017 at 09:18 PM
melcat
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p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · 35mm slides to digital


Kodachrome is tricky, both from the colour correctiion point of view and because infrared dust removal doesn't work. Whoever you get to do it, question them closely about whether they've scanned Kodachrome in particular before.

Also, if those are the cardboard mounts, they sometimes fall apart with age, necessitating hand remounting.



Aug 01, 2017 at 05:45 AM
bootster
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p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · 35mm slides to digital


I bought a OpticFilm 8200Ai and it works pretty well. It comes with SilverFast software which is pretty hard to get comfortable with. I still am learning how to use it. You don't have to use that particular software, but it is pretty good if you learn how to use it. It does both film negatives and slides. A little pricey, but not bad if you consider what those memories are worth to you. Good luck.


Aug 02, 2017 at 08:34 AM
chez
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p.1 #5 · p.1 #5 · 35mm slides to digital


I've used ScanCafe previously with good results.


Aug 02, 2017 at 08:42 AM
Peter Figen
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p.1 #6 · p.1 #6 · 35mm slides to digital


I'm going to back up Melcat on this. Having drum scanned many hundreds, perhaps thousands of Kodachrome slides in the last twenty years, I can say with some authority that Kodachrome itself can be somewhat of a pain in the ass to scan, not to mention that you're likely to lose the bottom two or three stops of exposure on any inexpensive scan - from Kodachrome having a higher d-max than any other commonly used slide film. Scanners of all varieties tend to "see" Kodachrome differently than they see other types of film and the way we humans see the film on a light box. Kodachrome tends to scan very blue in the shadows unless you take preventative measures either while scanning or afterward in Ps. A used Nikon slide scanner can do a pretty good job if you want to tackle this yourself. If you're going to outsource this, definitely send a few out to see if they meet your needs.


Aug 02, 2017 at 01:18 PM
Robert Spencer
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p.1 #7 · p.1 #7 · 35mm slides to digital


I`m still researching. Have been looking at this product. Actually I have a lot more Ektachromes. I just used Kodachrome as a generic term.


http://vi.vipr.ebaydesc.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItemDescV4&item=271854592846&t=1465421112000&tid=10&category=83877&seller=xtre_barg&excSoj=1&excTrk=1&lsite=0&ittenable=false&domain=ebay.com&descgauge=1&cspheader=1&oneClk=2&secureDesc=0#ad-image-elm_38_gallery_img_0



Aug 04, 2017 at 01:58 PM
Peter Figen
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p.1 #8 · p.1 #8 · 35mm slides to digital


Well, for $65, more or less, you really do get what you pay for. My opinion is that you'll probably be disappointed in both the quality and the resolution, which is only 1800 dpi, not really much for 35mm format. If you're going to put your own time into this, you should probably get a slightly better scanner. You could pick up a used Nikon slide scanner, scan your slides and then re-sell it on eBay when you're done, and have much much better scans to boot.


Aug 04, 2017 at 02:20 PM
umgrizz
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p.1 #9 · p.1 #9 · 35mm slides to digital


Peter Figen wrote:
Well, for $65, more or less, you really do get what you pay for. My opinion is that you'll probably be disappointed in both the quality and the resolution, which is only 1800 dpi, not really much for 35mm format. If you're going to put your own time into this, you should probably get a slightly better scanner. You could pick up a used Nikon slide scanner, scan your slides and then re-sell it on eBay when you're done, and have much much better scans to boot.


I do not have this product (nor would I buy it) but I agree with Peter. I think what you would be buying would be frustration and disappointment. If all you want is low resolution scans, you would probably be better off putting the slides in a shoebox and shipping them to one of the many companies that advertise such services.

Curt



Aug 04, 2017 at 03:44 PM
melcat
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p.1 #10 · p.1 #10 · 35mm slides to digital


I used a Nikon Coolscan. The advantage for Kodachrome is that you can reduce the intensity of the blue LED (Nikon call it the "gain", as does the Vuescan software I used) while still keeping the R and G LEDs at full brightness.

Ektachrome is a lot easier. It's still blue, but correctable in Photoshop. The Nikon has an infrared channel which sees the dust, and good scanning software like Vuescan removes the dust spots from the file. (That's what doesn't work with Kodachrome, because the slide surface isn't smooth.)

I agree with the above posters about the cheap scanner linked. At 5Mpx, what's the point? And no IR channel, so manual dust spotting with Ektachromes. Finally, the quality of the scanning software matters a lot, so you want a scanner supported by good software.

In case you don't know, manually spotting out dust in Photoshop is very time consuming.



Aug 04, 2017 at 06:54 PM
artificialyello
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p.1 #11 · p.1 #11 · 35mm slides to digital


bootster wrote:
I bought a OpticFilm 8200Ai and it works pretty well. It comes with SilverFast software which is pretty hard to get comfortable with. I still am learning how to use it. You don't have to use that particular software, but it is pretty good if you learn how to use it. It does both film negatives and slides. A little pricey, but not bad if you consider what those memories are worth to you. Good luck.


I have the OpticFilm 8200i SE and got the Vuescan Professional for it which is much faster, on the Mac and configurable than the included SilverFast. I scan to DNGs, with several passes and the Digital ICE IR channel activated. IR does improve some, IMHO on Kodachrome too!

VueScan really makes the difference and is well worth the money even though SilverFast is included. I'd recomend anybody to dich the later and go for VueScan directly. It's a free download and fully functional from the get go, with watermarks. No, this is not an ad...

VueScan is found here: http://www.hamrick.com/




Aug 09, 2017 at 11:43 PM
mikeengles
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p.1 #12 · p.1 #12 · 35mm slides to digital


Hello
I have an Epson V800 flatbed scanner that also does slides very well.
I have been working through over 20 years worth of slides and negatives
The Epson is very fast and does 18 images at a time. Extra film holders are quite cheap and speed up the process considerably. It is supposed to be a 6400 DPI scanner, but it really is about 4000DPI.
It also has Digital ICE. I use the Epson scan programme that comes with the scanner. This allows you to preview all the images adjust them individually and the start scanning. Ektachromes or negatives take about 2 mins using ICE at low setting and 3200DPI and 48bit The advantage of this is that as soon as one scan is produced, you can start processing in Photoshop. The scanner will work with Vuescan and is also bundled with Silverfast.
The main advantage is the speed and the ability to do 18 slides on strips at a time. It does 12 slides in holders. It is quite expensive
MDE



Aug 10, 2017 at 11:46 AM
Robert Spencer
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p.1 #13 · p.1 #13 · 35mm slides to digital


This forum is great. I would like to thank all who replied. Your advise will surely help in the selection process. I can take it from here.


Aug 10, 2017 at 01:58 PM
Alan321
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p.1 #14 · p.1 #14 · 35mm slides to digital


Film and slide scanners have optics in them. Better optics allows better scans, but it costs more.

Scanners, or at least the decent scanners, have a DMax value that indicates the dynamic range they can capture. Some cheaper scanners quote a high DMax but are actually referring to 16-Bit per channel capacity of the scan file rather than how many of those bits are usable.

Nikon Coolscans were excellent and probably still are, but Nikon stopped supporting them years ago. That was easier than keeping up with Windows for a low-volume item.

If you are scanning slides yourself and processing them a bit like you might a DSLR file (i.e. as a photographer rather than as a typical member of the public who puts up with anything that remotely resembles a "picture"), then budget about 10 minutes per scanned image. That will include figuring out what to do with the originals so that you'll know exactly where they are if you decide you want a better scan later on.

1,000 slides at 10 minutes each will take 166 hours, or about 3 weeks of full-time work. Slide scanning is usually a long-term project.

Also, 1 scan at 4000dpi and 16bits/channel will create a 130+ MB tiff file. Unless you spend a lot of time tweaking each scan as you go, you'll need the flexibility of 16-bit tiff files to let you extract the optimum 8-bit jpeg file from it for long-term storage. otherwise you may lose a lot of highlights and / or shadows, which may then require a re-scan.

On the bright side, if you can afford the time needed to process many slides then you can more easily justify buying a decent scanner



Aug 12, 2017 at 09:12 AM
melcat
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p.1 #15 · p.1 #15 · 35mm slides to digital


Alan321 wrote:
Nikon Coolscans were excellent and probably still are, but Nikon stopped supporting them years ago. That was easier than keeping up with Windows for a low-volume item.


It doesn't matter, because Ed Hamrick continues to support Nikon scanners in his Vuescan software. There is even a firmware initialization bug in my model of the CoolScan which Nikon won't fix but Vuescan works around.

When I bought my scanner, Nikon's software didn't work properly on Mac anyway...



Aug 13, 2017 at 03:18 AM
George Orwell
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p.1 #16 · p.1 #16 · 35mm slides to digital


melcat wrote:
It doesn't matter, because Ed Hamrick continues to support Nikon scanners in his Vuescan software. There is even a firmware initialization bug in my model of the CoolScan which Nikon won't fix but Vuescan works around.

When I bought my scanner, Nikon's software didn't work properly on Mac anyway...


Is he repairing the Coolscans too?




Aug 13, 2017 at 10:55 AM
melcat
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p.1 #17 · p.1 #17 · 35mm slides to digital


George Orwell wrote:
Is he repairing the Coolscans too?


In the context of the post I was replying to, I obviously meant software support.

Unfortunately we do live in times where quite expensive, complex electronic and electromechanical items are usually thrown away and not repaired, because of parts availability and high labour costs. Think home cinema equipment and coffee machines. Even computers have ended up there. There are a lot of these scanners out there, so I guess it may be possible to find a local techniician, just as we would with a discontinued lens or camera body.

I did download the cleaning procedure for the internal optics, should they get dusty.



Aug 14, 2017 at 02:40 AM





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