Converting 35 MM slides to a digital format

[Winni-Retired]

I have approx 2600 slides that my parents had shot in the early 50's to mid 70's.

I also have several hundred more from my late teens, military service and later on college days.

I would like to convert them to a digital format, allowing me to distribute them to my family members

All I seem to be able to find is an interface product, that will link to a PC, but is limited to 1 to 3 slides per event.

Since they are already in racks, it would be nice to have them feed into a reader and "" snap a digital copy "".

I know I can send them out for professinal processing, but half the fun will be looking at how life was "Back in the Day" .

Has anyone done this type of activity yet ?

[Resident 2B]

This will do the trick, but it is expensive.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/486036-REG/Braun_34502_Slide_Scan_4000.html

There are less expensive ways to go, but you would need to feed them one by one into the scanner.

Good luck!

R2B

[JTA]

We purchased an inexpensive slide scanner but you have to scan one slide at a time. It allows you to relive those days one picture at a time but it takes patience. Fortunately, we're retired. I think that some printers can scan slides.

[Just Sold]

I have the HP Scanjet G4050 photo scanner and it does 16 35mm slides at a time. Lists for $219 but you can find it on line for much less. Great product for photo, negative and slide digitizing.

I have about the same number of slides as you plus lots of photos and have gotten about half digitized so far. It is always a question of time to get it done. Since it will slow down your computer to store them there get a separate hard drive. I have a Terabyte hard drive that is great for storing large quantities of data like photos and slides.

http://h71016.www7.hp.com/dstore/MiddleFrame.asp?page=config&ProductLineId=551&FamilyId=1331&BaseId=21567&oi=E9CED&BEID=19701&SBLID=&jumpid=re_R295_store/buyguides/printing/byg-scnimage-hp-scanjet-g4050-photo-scanner&psn=fax/copiers/scanners

[BroadHopper]

Stop at Ritz Photo at the Belmont Mall. I believe they are capable of converting 35mm slides and movies to digital format.

[NoBozo]

I have an HP Scanjet G4050 flatbed scanner. It can scan 16 slides at a time..but it is still slow because you have to insert the 16 slides in the frame mount provided. The quality of the scans would certainly be acceptable to most people. However, I am picky so I would rate the quality (Clarity) of the output to be just slightly less than optimal. The problem I believe is that the cardboard slide frame prevents the actual film from being in intimate contact with the glass of the flatbed scanner..therefore the clarity is slightly "OFF"

I have Purchased and subsequently Returned 3 different cheaper ($100) 1-3 slide dedicated 35mm scanners.. The clarity of the output was NOT acceptable.

Professional services are NOT cheap...I think about $1 per slide if I remember correctly....and clarity is not guaranteed. :look: NB

[JPC]

I had a number of slides converted to digital at Walmart and they were $0.28 each. This was last year so I'm sure they are still the same. They load the files in a CD with their veiwing application.

[rick35]

I bought a dedicated slide/film scanner and started to scan all my old negatives of family photos. Its a long process in order to get the highest resolution possible which is needed due to the small size of the slide or negative. The plan is to use some quiet evenings while at the camp this summer to make a dent in the project.

Another option is to outsource the process. There's at least one company that offers scanning service performed in India. As I recall they post all the scanned images online and you pay for the ones you want. That assumes you can accept that your slides will be sent to the other side of the world and safely returned.

[rgilfert]

A few years ago I bought a Canon CanoScan 8800F flatbed scanner for exactly the same purpose. My Dad used to take color slide pictures back in the '50s and I wanted to convert them all to digital format. This flatbed scanner comes with attachments that allow you to scan color slides (6 at a time), 35 mm positive or negative film (12 at a time) and 120 mm film (3 at a time). The included software (ArcSoft Photo Studio) is extremely powerful and allows you to tweak/massage the images as you process/scan them. At very high resolution the process is pretty slow...but I found that it provided me time to enjoy the old photos and reminisce. It was time well spent and thoroughly enjoyable. I don't have experience with any other scanner.....but I have been extremely happy with the quality and functionality of this product!