Digitising sailing slides shot on my old canon AE1 -advice sought

[Scarboroughsloop]

Dylan, if you choose to go the professional route then I recommend these guys:

www.video2dvdtransfers.co.uk

I know that they scan slides as well as the video transfer work - speak to Jim.

He's a good chap - ex Centaur owner and you may remember him as the forumite Jimbuoy.

 

[Miker]

I, too, have the problem of what to do with over 6,000 35mm slides accumulated over 40 years which my wife says will end up being chucked away. A year or more ago I bought an Epson V700 photo scanner but gave up after the first attempt, finding loading the 12 slide viewer very tedious. Unless there is a reasonably priced bulk scanner on the market, I shall have to be more disciplined and have another go, doing, say 100 each day and being ruthless in ditching unremembered stretches of countryside.

 

[Searush]

Dylan, if you choose to go the professional route then I recommend these guys:

video2dvdtransfers.co.uk

I know that they scan slides as well as the video transfer work - speak to Jim.

He's a good chap - ex Centaur owner and you may remember him as the forumite Jimbuoy.

I can second them. I had some old standard 8 cine done by them. The price was reasonable (I am a skinflint) the quality was good even on a large screen TV and they were pretty quick too. You may well get mates' rates if you identify yourself to Jim.

 

[Applescruffs]

OK....So send Low-Res or 'defaced' images to your potential clients.....if they are accepted then negotiate a price for the HD or cropped image and only if it's financially beneficial to you invest in the higher grade scanning software...simples.

Standard practice I would have thought ??

Cheers

 

[dylanwinter]

OK....So send Low-Res or 'defaced' images to your potential clients.....if they are accepted then negotiate a price for the HD or cropped image and only if it's financially beneficial to you invest in the higher grade scanning software...simples.

Standard practice I would have thought ??

Cheers

anyone who wants them wants top see how good they are first

if they go on a commercial site they have to be there ready straight away

 

[Applescruffs]

Dirty boy...

I've seen loads of images that have been 'defaced' with a copy write banner..or shown as 'low res sample only' .....If you pay...only then you get the hi-res image,.....or is that just the dodgy sites I visit ?......

It's probably different in the commercial world ?

Good luck all the same.

 

[Lakesailor]

That's the library's prerogative. As a supplier to an image library you have to supply hi-res images. Otherwise how is the library to know they can market a top quality image?

 

[PeterR]

I have used an Epson 4490 for about 5 years - does 4 slides at a time, image quality is excellent, better than any computer screen could resolve. The ICE dust removal software is not great so just make sure no muck on the slides. If I scan a print and then re- print it at home on an inkjet printer the image is better than a high street photo lab can do. Obsolete now, they go for about £30 to £90 on the bay but have to make sure that the slide scanning bit (which is the lid) connects correctly to the base - the plug terminals are fragile. The new models such as the Epson V550 retail about £199 and are presumably even better.
Robin
Pleiades of Birdham
MXWQ5

I have recently finished digitising about 4 thousand slides plus a similar number of both black and white and colour negatives using a flatbed Epsom 4490. According to the software the maximum resolution is 4800dpi which is what I used. However, it only takes four slides at a time and takes about 25 minutes to process them. If you have negatives in strips it will process about 16 at a time.

I used a Nikon Coolscan when I was working to digitise my existing professional slide presentations and transfered them to powerpoint. The results were excellent and perfectly adequate projected in lecture halls to large sizes.


The Epsom does not produce quite such good results but they are perfectly adequate for viewing on a 42 inch TV let alone on a computer monitor. Interestingly, the results from digitising the colour print negatives are better than scanning the paper prints from the same negative. That may be partly because I used 4800dpi for the negatives and 600dpi for the prints but the colour balance is also better using the negatives. The real problem with the negatives is making sure they are clean. However, churning through thousands of slides 4 at a time is tedious in the extreme. I just left the machine running and popped in and changed slides wheever I remembered. The problem is I now need to photoshop those with marks on and the ones I managed to scan back to front as well as adding details so that in years to come the kids know who what and where they are about. Another few winters work to go I think.

For my purposes I could not justify buying a Coolscan, for Dylans purposes it depends what magazines are prepared to accept.

I attach a couple of digitised images using the Epsom.

 

[Thistle]

Dylan, pm sent. Ian

 

[johnalison]

The Epsom does not produce quite such good results but they are perfectly adequate for viewing on a 42 inch TV let alone on a computer monitor. Interestingly, the results from digitising the colour print negatives are better than scanning the paper prints from the same negative. That may be partly because I used 4800dpi for the negatives and 600dpi for the prints but the colour balance is also better using the negatives. The real problem with the negatives is making sure they are clean. However, churning through thousands of slides 4 at a time is tedious in the extreme. I just left the machine running and popped in and changed slides wheever I remembered. The problem is I now need to photoshop those with marks on and the ones I managed to scan back to front as well as adding details so that in years to come the kids know who what and where they are about. Another few winters work to go I think.

For my purposes I could not justify buying a Coolscan, for Dylans purposes it depends what magazines are prepared to accept.

I attach a couple of digitised images using the Epsom.

Thanks for showing those. Although they are perfectly acceptable for web use such as here, or maybe for projection, the tones have been badly compromised and have clearly lost a lot of the gradations from the original. A good scanner should be able to record the whole of the slide's tones and in some cases, such as over-exposed slides, actually improve them.

 

[dylanwinter]

Thanks for showing those. Although they are perfectly acceptable for web use such as here, or maybe for projection, the tones have been badly compromised and have clearly lost a lot of the gradations from the original. A good scanner should be able to record the whole of the slide's tones and in some cases, such as over-exposed slides, actually improve them.

this is tougher than thought

the sonata racing made me go all squishy though

I am really looking forrward to seeing what emerges from my old snaps

replied to ian's PM

dylan.winter@virgin.net

D

 

[cliveshelton]

There's only one word to explain scanning negatives, slides and prints.......BORING.......BORING.......BORING
i spent a month doing it once and produced good results for my purposes (organising them and looking at them on iPad and TV) using an Epson flatbread thingy with holders.

+1 for paying a student to do it or professionals. You can earn more in the time saved than he/she will want. Cropping and tweaking comes later and can be done on demand once they're captured.

 

[John the kiwi]

View attachment 39509

attached is a slide from 50 years ago. Me on the left. My Brother in Law is a keen semi pro photographer and has some good gear. Frustrated with scanners we did this.
Made a carrier for a good dslr camera which was simple a piece of wood with the camera fixed at one end and a slide carrier at about 400 mm from the lense.
we tried various backlights including a remote slave flash behind the slide. Cant remember what the end source was but we were well pleased with the quality.
We were getting everything out of the slides that was there to be had. Shame that many of them were rubbish to start with.
once setup with focus etc you could photograh the slides as fast as you could load them.

(My sister did a similar thing with the family albums. She set up a tripod over the table and just photographed each photo in the albums and then sent each of the family members a DVD. Very successful.)

 

[jant]

The alternative is to pick out the best and send them away to a digitising company. I did this around 2-3 years ago - can't remember the cost but it was per slide and the results were very good. Just Google to find companies - ours was a one-person operation near/in Holmfirth, Yorks.

Dylan, think back to rostrum camera & pin registration. you will need a lightbox, a slide holder preferably one that you can gaffer tape onto the lightbox, camera on a tripod ) or copystand if you want to be fancy) shoot the slides after programming your camera to the correct white balance & exposure, process them in lightroom or PS...... simple!

 

[Lakesailor]

Photographically copying slides introduces a new set of curves into the profile. Contrast in an already contrasty medium is hard to control. The highlights will burn out and the shadows block in. Scanner software takes all this into account. With top-end software you can even choose the film-stock that it is optimised for.
Dylan is looking (if I read his post properly) for the repro quality that will make his images a more obvious choice than the run of the mill shots that so many libraries are stuffed full of.

 

[dylanwinter]

Photographically copying slides introduces a new set of curves into the profile. Contrast in an already contrasty medium is hard to control. The highlights will burn out and the shadows block in. Scanner software takes all this into account. With top-end software you can even choose the film-stock that it is optimised for.
Dylan is looking (if I read his post properly) for the repro quality that will make his images a more obvious choice than the run of the mill shots that so many libraries are stuffed full of.

I have been looking at the images

some are pretty good

Farming and machiney from the 70's

trucks

Rodeo,ranching

and finally sailing

so it is worth getting the best from them

I have been offered the loan of one of these

Plustek OpticFilm 7200

looks pretty good

D