Digitizing Slides

[Grumpwurst]

I'm sure someone here knows the answer to this question.....

I have tasked my father with tracking down the photos he took on our family vacation to WDW in 1985. I just want to get the archived before something happens and they get lost. My dad is like me and takes tons of pictures.

Well, he hasn't had a chance to look yet, but he's pretty sure that 90% or more of the pictures he took was on slide film and therefore are sitting around in the form of slides (both B&W and color). Some of those (maybe a dozen or so) were developed into a prints but for the most part he thinks they are slides.

Ideally, I want these in digital form so I can archive them on DVD, harddrive and my Flickr account. Plus, to use for possible blog posts in the future.

Is there any way that you can go directly from the slide to a digital image (jpg, tiff, etc) or am I going to have to get them developed into prints and then scan them?

 

[Roger]

Yes, you scan the slides directly.

Some flatbeds can do this. Others use dedicated slide/negative scanners.

It kind of goes like this:

Acceptable: Flatbed
Good: Slide scanner
Best: Drum scan

 

[Grumpwurst]

Roger,

I knew you'd have some input since I remember from Disneyland you telling me that you used to be quite the photographer with slide film.

What are your choices if you don't possess one of these devices? Getting the developed as prints and then scan those?

Also, I used to have a flatbed scanner that had the slide attachment, but I could never figure out how to make it work. It just seemed to make a horrible looking image.

Plus, my parents used to have a slide scanner but couldn't figure out how to make it work

 

[Roger]

How soon would like to have these done?

Honestly, I switched to using the flatbed all of the time after I got it and the results were acceptable. I got the flatbed because I have a few rolls of medium format to scan. Those weren't that bad, except my computer didn't like the 120MB tiff files too much.

Here's a recent one I scanned from the flatbed:

<img src="http://www.themeparkphotos.us/cpg140/albums/uploads/061807/C/2007-06-18_22-56-42_0019.jpg" />

Printing the slides and then scanning the prints? Conventional (the old fashioned way) prints made from slides may lose some detail/dynamic range, and will lose the punch of slide film.

I've heard that some people have gotten better results by using a slide duplicator lens on a 5D than even scanning with a slide scanner (but not drum).

 

[Grumpwurst]

How soon would like to have these done?

The timeline for this project is totally dependent on my dad. He first has to find them, then I have to wait for them to make their next trip up to Oklahoma City from Houston. They are planning on coming in the next few weeks because they want to see my brother's kids before they go back to school.

I just wanted to be prepared before they got here.

When scanning slides from a flat-bed scanner, was there a special setting that your scanner had to do this. Maybe from the scanner software?

 

[Roger]

First, the flatbed has to have a backlight in the lid in order to scan negatives and slides. And then you choose positive or negative film inside the scanner software.

My flatbed included holders for negatives, slides and medium format strips. The system is pretty good at only scanning the parts that need to be (excluding the holders automatically)