Slide Conversion Tools

My father has boxes upon boxes of slides that I am interested in converting to a digital form. I have seen several scanners on the market, ranging from very cheap to very expensive. Does anyone here have a recommendation for what scanner they would prefer for this type of project? Or for what they would look for in a scanner (both features and red flags)? Most of the slides date to the 1960s and 1970s.

Thanks in advance!
Jim

I'd suggest the scanner sat next to me as I type, its the Nikon Coolscan VED. Sadly no longer in production but if you can find one on the used market its the best slide scanner by far. It can be used either with its own dedicated software or VueScan. I prefer the Nikon software myself but many users love VueScan.

I had to do a few for my mom. Although not as efficient as a scanner; back-lighting and taking a photo doesn't turn out too bad (60D + 24-70):

Scanning 35mm slides

Any suggestions for a commercial slide scanning service?

I used Larsen Digital for one batch; wasn't impressed but I'm not well-calibrated to the process so perhaps my expectations were too high.

But if anyone has first-hand experience with a commercial outfit I'd appreciate a recommendation.

Thanks in advance!

-TH

Hendo wrote in post #15398115
Any suggestions for a commercial slide scanning service?

I used Larsen Digital for one batch; wasn't impressed but I'm not well-calibrated to the process so perhaps my expectations were too high.

But if anyone has first-hand experience with a commercial outfit I'd appreciate a recommendation.

Thanks in advance!

-TH

ScanCafe comes up time and time again as a good option for negative scanning. If you decide to scan your own and want very high quality results pick up one of these from eBay:

http://www.nikonusa.co​m …per-COOLSCAN-5000-ED.html

They've been discontinued but are still one of the best dedicated negative scanners available. Note that because they were such a good device, used prices are sometimes higher than what they sold new.

The only issue with the 5000ED is that the Nikon software will not work with Windows 7 64 bit. To work around this, if you use a PC, is to use Win 7 Pro and install Microsoft's free Virtual PC to run XP mode. The NikonScan software runs fine in XP mode.

Just remember if you scan your own images that it's an extremely slowwww process and even after scanning you still have a lot of editing to do, especially for B&W. Digital ICE with the 5000ED does a fantastic job removing dust and scratches from color scans. However, Digital ICE doesn't work for B&W, and the best approach is by using a Wacom tablet and PS. Any B&W dust and scratch plug-in for PS that I've used has given a very poor result.

I've heard pretty good things about ScanCafe. They will send you low res proofs before they do the final scans and I believe you have the ability to cull out up to 50% non-keepers for no charge. The downside, for some, is that you're shipping off your originals to India. I use an Epson 700 flatbed with good results, but most likely would have gone with the Nikon if I could have found one.

Jim,

Be aware that this is not going to be a task quickly done. Scanning itself is not a simple matter and it takes time. But thats not all, post processing can take forever.

Lowner wrote in post #15399076
Jim,

Be aware that this is not going to be a task quickly done. Scanning itself is not a simple matter and it takes time. But thats not all, post processing can take forever.

Agree completely.

IIRC it took about 3 minutes per frame (color) using Digital ICE, Digital DEE, 4X multi-sampling and saving to 4000 DPI jpegs or TIFs. For 5000 images this worked out to about 250 hours of continuous scan time plus 100 hours of prep time (start-up, removing dust, cataloging and feed the film into the machine). I used much of my spare time after work and the task still took 4 months to complete.

The 5000ED can also make very quick scans if you don't use multi-sampling, Digital ICE or Digital DEE. However to get high quality scans the process is very tedious.

I'm still post processing images that I scanned several years ago