I am working through my collection of 35mm slides. I have already found some gems including chasing SR 4501 to Front Royal, and two fan trips on SEPTA in the early 1980s (one with Red Arrow 73). I would like to convert some of these images to prints for future easy reference in photo albums, and will also retain the slides. I have too many slides to scan using my Epson and want to speed up the process.

My question is what experience have you had with services like digmypics and scancafe.

Wesley

This is an excellent question and I would also be curious to read the responses from some who have had experience with these two companies.

Like many of us, I have thousands of slides going back to the 1960s, both railroad and family related. I can scan slides four at a time on my flat-bed scanner, but it takes around 6-8 minutes for a medium resolution image for the four slides. Way too slow for me.

Thanks!

Wes, I apologize for taking this discussion slightly off-topic, but there is another way to do this that works quite well. I discovered it after I too was confronted with the rather long image scanning times with my Nikon Coolscan, even when using it with a very fast computer.

I took the base of an old Honeywell universal repronar (the last kind of repronar they built, it would accomodate most regular SLR cameras instead of a special copy camera body) and combined it with an older digital SLR that is backwards compatible and can work with the manufacturers auto bellows and some of their older lenses. With an adapter to fire the strobe in the repronar base, this made a higher resolution copy rig than the coolscan, and it can copy slides as fast as you can load them into the holder on the slide easel.

I put a right angle viewer on it to make it easier to work with on the bench, but as long as all the slides you are copying are Kodak film in Kodak mounts you generally do not need to adjust focus, the rig has enough depth of field to carry the image.

As I recall it, the only two difficult aspects were getting the right color balance (which I prefered to do by using daylight white balance on the camera and inserting Kodak gelatin filters under the easel that holds the slide, you only have to do this once to compensate for the strobe color), and finding the software "switch" in the camera menu that gets it to record an image even if the lens is not the type that it can communicate with.

The "production" rate with this rig is usually more than 10X what the Nikon Coolscan can manage.

PC

PC -

Thanks, but I am looking for referrals for vendors like the ones I mentioned earlier.

Wesley

My daughter has had good success projecting the slide on a large (72") screen and digitally photographing it.

Joe,

Thanks for the reply.

I have too many slides to scan using my Epson, or other manual process, and want to speed up the process. Still hoping someone has used one of the services mentioned here. I have also seen digital slide scanners that feed like a slide projector and would be interested in hearing about those. But I do not have the time or equipment to covert a slide using a camera.

Wesley

I just found a Plustek 7200 slide and neg scanner at a garage sale for $20 and used that, its great easier and quicker than a flatbed scanner. Still dont have a program to clean up the slides etc but its nice to see them on the computer and at least easily viewable.
My problem is that i have some 2inch slides as well, what to do with them?

Mike Pannell

A Plustek 7200 for $20....... I believe you should have worn a mask and pointed a gun for that price, assuming it actually works.

As for Brother Paulson's original query, I hate to say this, but you're going to get what you pay for. As the saying goes, "I can give you fast, cheap, or good, pick two at most......" With slides or 35mm film, you're working with an idiotically tiny medium; you either need an expensive rig that gives you speed (what Brother Cook suggests ain't that cheap, but if you're processing 25,000 slides for commercial or archival work, it may pay for itself), or you use something that scans slowly and deliberately (the flatbeds such as the Epson 4870 Perfection, the PrimeFilm 1800u or 7250u, or any of the numerous Nikon Coolscans). The software demands of some of the newer scanners, coupled with the processing software, can be enormous, as many as ten gigs or more not including photo storage.

I can warn you that there is a technology out there that basically amounts to a light box that "takes a picture" of the slide with light behind it. One example of that I have seen: Stratford Labs, GFP-001 "Digital Image Copier." It would work for throwing up a basic preview or general idea for approval, but is definitely not publication quality.

One final suggestion: If you're diligent, slide scanners and the like show up on eBay, at thrift stores, etc. fairly often. I found a PrimeFilm 1800u for $10 at a thrift store in Arizona last time I was out there. It appears folks buy them just to scan a hundred or so prized family photos and then surplus them. Higher-quality stuff like Nikon Coolscans get used pretty intensely before they're replaced, so.......

This is the area of railroad preservation that I am most involved with and feel well qualified to comment on. Here's some things to consider with regards to digitizing a slide collection.

First, you need to decide what your objectives are and that will determine what kind of equipment, software, and skill sets you will need to invest in.

If you just want to make simple scans of well exposed and composed originals for the sake of sharing on the web or making reference prints, by all means, go buy a modern flatbed scanner with a transparency option and go to town.

However, if you want to make archival quality scans, as in "scan once and don't touch the originals again for the foreseeable future", or if you have a lot of originals that are not well exposed or have color shifts or a lot of artifacts, that takes a whole different level of commitment.

It's not just the hardware either, although that is extremely important. Much like photography, the skill of whoever is making the images has as much to do with the outcome as the equipment does, sometimes more.

--DIY--

If you wish to create your own archival quality scans, suitable for just about any purpose you can think of into the foreseeable future, be prepared to make a significant financial and time commitment. This is not a project for the faint of heart. Whether the scans are low resolution or high, it's a time consuming process and if you try to cut corners you may find out down the road that the scans are not sufficient for more demanding uses (such as published works). Then you'll find yourself faced with having to do them all over again with better equipment.

For archival quality scans, get a good scanner now and do it right the first time. In addition to a good scanner, be prepared to buy some good image editing software like Photoshop (or Photoshop Elements), a fast computer, a high quality display, display calibration tools, and extra hard drive space with a redundant back-up system. Be prepared to spend a lot of time learning how to use all of these tools, or make a commitment to pay for good training.

As far as the scanner, too many people focus on resolution as though that is somehow the defining factor of the quality of the scans the machine produces. While resolution is important, dynamic range (usually expressed as Dmax) is just as important. Unfortunately, Dmax is often embellished by the scanner manufacturers so while the claimed Dmax number may be a good starting point when comparing scanners, you need to talk to people who actually use the scanners you are interested in to see what kind of results they are getting. Even better is someone who has used many different kinds of scanners and can offer some sort of feedback that is relevant when compared to other products.

All that being said, finding high end slide scanners these days is neither easy nor cheap. Nikon was long the king of desktop slide scanners but they have apparently exited the business. Minolta's newest generation DiMage scanner was a great product but disappeared from the market when Sony bought them out. Plustek is still putting out slide scanners and they seem to be well reviewed, but they are all manual feed which requires your constant attention and a huge amount of time to make scans. You can still find Nikon and Minolta scanners in the resale market (such as ebaY) but the later models from these manufacturers often sell for many times what the originally sold for new.

I'm not going to comment on flatbeds for making archival quality scans because I personally don't think they do a good job of it. I know a lot of people swear by them and will give you all sorts of anecdotal praise for their Epson, Canon, or HP flatbeds, but these are usually people who have never had anything else and have no idea what a good scan really is. I own a number of flatbed scanners, including the Epson V700 and I can tell you that the transparency scans I get from this machine are no match for the scans I get from my Minolta DiMage 5400 II, especially if the original is on Kodachrome or has technical issues.

--Scanning Services--

Another option many people use are commercial slide scanning services where you send them your slides or negs, they scan them and send them back to you on disc. This is a particularly good option for those with a fixed number of originals since you can weigh the cost of DIY versus an outside service pretty easily.

A few of the services that do this are (in no particular order):

http://www.digitalpickle.com

http://scanmyphotos.com

http://www.digmypics.com

http://www.myspecialphotos.com

http://www.scancafe.com

http://www.slidescanning.com

If you want archival quality scans and don't want to make the investment in expensive hardware, software, or deal with the learning curve necessary for the DIY route, one of these services may be the answer. A few things to consider though.

1. What hardware are they using?
This is important if, for instance, you have a lot of Kodachrome slides and want to have dust and scratches removed (sometimes called Digital ICE). Not all scanners support Digital ICE Pro, which is what is necessary to use infrared filtering on Kodachrome.

2. How long have they been around and how experienced are their technicians?
I guess the reason for this question is self-evident.

3. Where is their scanning facility, on or off-shore?
Be aware that some services, such as Scan Cafe, ship your originals overseas (in their case to Bangalore, India) for scanning. I know that things get lost in transit all the time, whether the shipment is domestic or international, but personally I prefer to keep my originals as close as possible.

4. What file formats are available for the saved scans?
For archival quality scans, you should specify they be saved as TIF files rather than JPEGs. Some services offer the TIF option at no additional cost. Some charge extra. Some don't offer it at all.

Obviously the best scenario is a company that is local to you, that is experienced and has good equipment run by talented technicians, and has good prices. Obviously it will take some individual research to find a service that fits your specific parameters. I recommend getting a few (10 or 12) originals together use as test subjects. Make sure the selection includes well exposed originals as well as a few that are maybe a bit dark, some Kodachrome, and some that need dust and scratch removal. Narrow down some candidates and send this same set of slides to each one and see what you get back, and how fast. The results should paint a pretty clear picture (no pun intended) of which way to go.

Hope this helps.

Mike

I am scanning my slide collection (slowly) with a Pacific Image PowerSlide 3650 Automated 35mm Slide Scanner
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/430671-REG/Pacific_Image_PS3650_PowerSlide_3650_3600dpi_Automated.html

This scanner uses Braun 100 slot reels and 50 slot trays.

So I can load it up and forget it it, I am doing 900 dpi scans that give me a good screen image/video projector image, I have done some pre-press scanning at 3600 dpi which has turned out fine.

Since it runs unattended the scan time is less important, if it's done scanning I load another tray and hit start.

-Hudson

Edit: Fixed Link