duplicate slides...or ?

Wil Ferch · 07-10-2007, 08:06 AM

I borrowed a set of older 35mm Kodachrome slides ( yes...those old fashioned things !) from a buddy on a vacation we took many, many moons ago. I would like to either duplicate these slides or search for a more modern approach like maybe creating a dupe digital photo file.

Any suggestions on either of these approaches and what might work the best ... ???

- Wil

jhc · 07-10-2007, 08:12 AM

Best to scan these. You can get a flatbed scanner from Epson with a transparency adaptor for $100-750 and diy or you can take them to any photo lab or camera store and have them scanned for you anywhere from $2-10 per slide.

id10t · 07-10-2007, 08:14 AM

Good slide scanner (I *love* the Nikons with Digital ICE - takes errors/flaws out of the scans) and you're done....

djmcmath · 07-10-2007, 08:37 AM

A slide scanner is the appropriate approach, depending on how many slides you have and what your time is worth. Your local photo shop will probably charge about $3 per frame to scan those, which adds up pretty quick. Similarly costly, however, is the time it takes to scan them: I can do a roll of film in about half an hour, if I focus whole-heartedly and the film is already clean and everything works right.

So on the one hand, say, 20 rolls of 36-frame film is 720 frames, or about $2200 to scan at a shop. On the other hand, that's about 10 solid uninterrupted hours of scanning, plus the cost of a scanner and software, plus any overhead if you get interrupted and have to resume, or lose your place, or your files get corrupt and you lose 200 frames.

(shrug) I'd say scan 'em yerself, but then, I still have 300 rolls of film on a bookshelf waiting for me to get around to scanning them.

RallyJon · 07-10-2007, 09:54 AM

Scancafe.com. I just had a box of 1000 old family pic slides scanned for 24 cents each.

RoninLB · 07-10-2007, 11:18 AM

I found some good info, but I think it's old info.

http://www.flatbed-scanner-review.org/35mm_slide_film_scanners/35mm_film_slide_scanners.html

he says a routine flatbed scanner w/an adapter is not that good a result.

I'd like to find a dedicated slide scanner for @ $100 that's decent.

his suggestion is to use "Silver Fast" software.

jhc · 07-10-2007, 12:44 PM

Digital ice does not work on kodachrome. The problem with buying a dedicated film scanner is that you are stuck with it after the project is over. Any transparency scan from an Epson 3170 ($100) on up is usable. The causal user is not going to know what to do with 200mb+ TIFF file from a single scan from a dedicated film scanner.

RoninLB · 07-11-2007, 03:30 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by jhc

Any transparency scan from an Epson 3170 ($100) on up is usable. .

thx

RoninLB · 07-11-2007, 05:20 AM

Bingo [i think]
I just ordered

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1865046,00.asp

http://www.epson.com/cgi-bin/Store/consumer/consDetail.jsp?BV_UseBVCookie=yes&oid=63060806

refurbished including shipping and instant rebate $98.10

i guess i should find "Silver Fast" software after doing a test drive as the Epson uses the Digital Ice

TimothyFarrar · 07-11-2007, 07:25 AM

My suggestion is to have a professional duplicate the slides for you.

I have had very good results from a place called Gamma Tech in New Mexico.

Gamma Tech

I use them to take medium format digital files to 35mm slides for art show juries.

They can also scan the slides and give you digital files which might be much more useful for you these days!

Joeaksa · 07-11-2007, 07:32 AM

Buy a new one, scan the slides then sell the unit on Craigs List. Or look on CL for a used one.

At the rate I am scanning my Fathers old slides I will be dead before I get them all done!

07-11-2007, 10:58 AM

Photoworks out of Seattle will scan and put them on disk for you at a very reasonable cost. I had hundreds of slides converted in groups of 20 done for about $8 per group. The groups could be higher now, when I had them do it, 3 1/2 floppy was the only thing around, no CDR's yet. They also did old, really old family photo's too.

The quality of the conversions was excellent, crisp on a 21" monitor.

One problem with them, all the pics came back in their own file format, .swf IIRC, but their program (free) came with a conversion to .jpg program, pia to convert all of them, but it worked. That could have changed too, maybe now you can get them back in .jpg.

They're still around http://www.photoworks.com/ Prices look reasonable too.

07-11-2007, 11:22 AM

Most of my slide conversions were of underwater shots, Guam, Truk, Rota, Cocus, all on CD now. Murphy's Law being what it is, I can't find the CD's. Did find this one, conversions from print to digital they did. Hope they post.

New item on list, find CD's. Good news is, I was just showing the slides last week, all is not lost.

These pics were over 20+ years old when I had them converted.

Good Luck, Don