OK, there was some talk here(or was it on ABPW?) just a little bit ago about scanning old slides to preserve them, and in checking around, internet places seem to run about $.35 and up PER slide. Called one place in Buffalo, they want $1.00 each. Was just sitting here reading up on our HP3970 flatbed scanner(had it a while, never installed yet) and it has the back-lighting and a holder to scan (1) 35mm slide @ a time, or (2) 35mm negatives.
Got it hooked up, will try some slides/negatives on Thur. and see how they turn out & report.
Those rates are not unreasonable. Depending on the hardware/resolution it can take over a minute per image.
Just a point--for 35mm negs you need some special software. Each brand of film (and each sensitivity of film with a brand) has a slightly different orange cast, and your software needs to be able to deal with this by either 1) having custom filters for each brand, or 2) being "intelligent" about the conversion.
Option 2 will invariably make mistakes, so decent software of that type will let you fine-tune the colour manually.
Or you could just make a slide copier and use your camera--best would be at least a 5 meg and 6 meg would be better. And you could make the whole thing out of wood, easier if you use flexible black material between the camera/camera lens and the slide holder.
I'll have to play with it to see. Looks like the operation does the "preview" scan, then lets you select the final scan area and play with the resolution, color comp., etc. before committing it to disk.
If you are not using XP, check e-bay for a Polaroid Sprintscan 35+. It will give you 2700DPI resolution and 24 bit colour. Combined with the Polacolor software and a SCSI card it makes scanning a snap. You should be able to pick one up for ~$75. Oh yes, it handles 35mm slides and negatives. No prints, no 120 fmt, but it will cope with 127 super slides.
Groggins wrote:- Norm- SWBO and I have converted about 1500 slides using her HP3670 scanner which is similar to yours. She scanned. I edited, using "Irfanview", and "photofiltre" (both freeware-See Pricelessware.org) to adjust colours, size, contrast, sharpen, etc- nominal learning curve for each program. There is also DCE Enhancer which is a quick useful tool for nominally required changes.
Our slides were all those that were salvageable out of perhaps 10000 which had resided in boxes, stored in basements, over at least 3 residence changes and 20 years. Many had just faded out due to our poor storage practises. Took a lot of work but since they cover a big chunk of our 2 son's youth it was worth the effort. Good luck!
Been using an Epson 2450 for a few years now. It does a great job with negative strips and positives. Auto aligns so no fussing with previews. Just import into photoshop and away I go.
Tue, Jan 24, 2006, 11:19pm snipped-for-privacy@madbbs.com (Norman=A0D.=A0Crow) doth say: OK, there was some talk here
Yep. I believe I started that, finding my Nam slides still in decent shape, and wanting prints. Turned out I DO have a slide copier. But, apparently one, or both, of my two sons got ahold of it at some time or other. Was missing three screws - I found replacements - but, can't find the adapter, for connecting to the camera. Been so long since I used it, can't recall if it connects direct to the camera, or to the lens. Either way, can't connect it. It was with other camera equipment, but didn't find a camera bag. Don't know if I just haven't found that, and the adapter is in it, or if both are gone forever. I've got some other camera stuff I can'f find either. Ah, the joys of having offspring. Anyone know if it connects to the lens, or the camera?
JOAT You only need two tools: WD-40, and duct tape. If it doesn't move and it should, use WD-40. If it moves and shouldn't, use the tape.
I've scanned several hundred 35mm slides using a similar, HP5370C scanner. (the HP5370 has a masking piece for four slides at a time, but probably uses the same backlight that yours has.) It worked well, but the scanner software didn't help much with faded color of aged slides. I found the best approach was to set the scanner software to max resolution (which makes a HUGE file size), then use Paintshop Pro to clean the images up a bit. (I'm familiar with Paintshop, but you could probably use any good graphic editor.)
Chris is correct, it takes a LONG time to scan slides, especially if you're using the high resolution settings. My scanner can take about
4-5 minutes to scan the bed, when it's set to max resolution. Then, it seemed a big waste of time, when you're only looking to scan less than 10 percent of the scanner bed, just to get images of four slides. But, I'm happy to have the files now - glad I spent the time to go through them. I now have some nice pictures that my parents made, when I could only see them before with a projector or slide viewer.
I was surprised at how I could manipulate the images after getting the initial file from the scanner. Some of them came out really nice, even the color was improved. Some of my slides are over 40 years old, and Paintshop was able to correct the color for most, plus get rid of some dirt specs and graininess. (sp?)
Did get a few scanned today. I'll post some on ABPW. These slides are nearly
50yr. old, stored in a metal slide box. They seem to have lost a little bit of the brightness, so may play with the colors/brightness/contrast a little. All in all I'm pleased.
Be interested in seeing the results. You are satisfied with the resolution and pixel density you are getting?
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ If you're gonna be dumb, you better be tough
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Lots of info in the scans, but the Royal Guard pic is showing some nasty horizontal scan line artifacts, and you need to make sure you're cleaning the dust off the slides. It's easier than touching them up after.
I did some very basic correction in Photoshop and beside the issues above they look great, Norm. The color cast is easily dealt with, at least in PShop...
If you want me to toss them back at you post-tweak, let me know.
Yes, I'm pretty happy. As I said, they seem to have dimmed a little, but my primary photo editor is Microsoft Picture It. I can open them in that after scanning & hit "Auto levels fix",it brightens them right up. The resolution seems fine to me, and I'm just using the default pixel density from the scanner software, haven't really played around with it yet.
Thanks anyway, Dave, but I've already deleted them and will start over. As I replied to Mark, the Auto levels fix in Microsoft Picture It seems to brighten them up nicely. I was seeing some dust in them too, and still learning where to position the slide in the adapter and to get the dust out. I was seeing some "white spots" in some of them which I assume is some deterioration in the slide, rather than dust. It's an ongoing learning process for me, but unless they are really bad, I'm just happy to be able to preserve them. There's a lot of history in them. If I remember correctly, they were taken with a Kodak Retina 3C, which back in the late '50s was a pretty respectable camera. Don't even know where it is now, gave up on it after 20yr or so when the shutter started getting gummy and wouldn't maintain speed, generally over-exposing. Should have sent it to a good shop for cleanup, but it wasn't really capable of handling the newer higher speed film, so just gave up and moved on.
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