Slides to Digital via DSLR

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Bruce n Philly
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p.1 #1 · Slides to Digital via DSLR

FWIW,

I just wrote a blog piece on how I transferred my 35mm slide collection to digital using my 5D Mk II. I hope you find this useful.

I don't make any money on any of this, I just like to write and do some projects. This may not be the best way to do it, but for those interested, my blog piece may be of help. Let me know what you think.

By the way, the total cost to me was $0 as I did it with the equipment I already had laying around.

http://travelthroughpictures.com/photo-items/convert-35mm-slides-digital/

Thanx,
Bruce in Philly

Sep 03, 2012 at 08:14 PM

Rodney O
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p.1 #2 · Slides to Digital via DSLR

OP,

An interesting project. But you might want to add a short summary paragraph to your blog describing what you were doing. Figured I'd add this summary for others that may be interested.

Basically what you did was to simply back light the slides using your modified projector. And photograph the each slide with your DSLR.

There are a number of various slide holders that would let you do the same thing and make your sides better fill the camera's sensor area. Using the projector, you did get the advantage of the slide projector loading one slide right after the other.

But since the slides images did not fill your camera frame, unfortunately a lot of detail was certainly lost. Not sure how well you were able to handle dust or slide warps.

Your photos do look good. And they are now certainly more accessible as archived memories.

hth
Rodney

Sep 07, 2012 at 04:34 PM

Bruce n Philly
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p.1 #3 · Slides to Digital via DSLR

Thanx,

I will add that summary to my blog piece.

Dust was just not an issue because, I think, I shook the slides vigorously and shot them with compressed air in the tray. Seemed to work.

Warp: That is why I used such as closed aperture as to get a deeper depth of field. Again, seemed to work.

Regarding loss of potential detail: Yes, whenever you crop, you lose. My 5D Mk II is a pretty high pixel count sensor so again, it seemed to work well. I do wish I had another lens such as a real macro lens that probably would have decreased the amount I had to crop.

Bruce
www.TravelThroughPictures.com

Sep 14, 2012 at 01:00 AM

alexdi
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p.1 #4 · Slides to Digital via DSLR

Interesting project. I'd be curious to see some full-res samples, or perhaps even one your raw files. When I was digitizing 8mm film with 40D last year, the chief issue was fitting the projected image into the camera's dynamic range. I'd be very tempted to bracket (as you proposed) and HDR many of the slides.

Sep 20, 2012 at 04:34 AM

Bruce n Philly
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p.1 #5 · Slides to Digital via DSLR

Sure Alexdi:

Here is the link to the elephant RAW in my blog's scrolling portfolio:

Elephant RAW

The only issue with HDRing, that I see is the time it will take to do all of the slides. Unless you can batch process them, I see a large slide collection taking a lifetime.

My blog piece on transferring:

http://travelthroughpictures.com/photo-items/convert-35mm-slides-digital/

Let me know what you think.

Bruce in Philly
www.TravelThroughPictures.com

Sep 21, 2012 at 02:42 AM

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