"35mm Slides to Digital Conversion & Photos?" Topic

I've got some old color slides that I took on vacation a long while back, and am interested in getting at least some of them digitized, and perhaps to make some photo prints of a few as well, too.

Haven't been able to find a local service that can digitize them for me, without shipping them off, and I don't really want to use that option, in the rare even they might get lost.

So, anyone got a recommendation on how to proceed at home, with converting them to at least digital images?

I've read there's equipment and software that can assist with that, but really don't know where to start, or what's available. I did see that one system has some software for covering over dust spots too, but can't recall the name of that right now.

I've also got some really old, black and white slides that I might be interested in doing this as well to, so it probably makes sense to purchase a little slide viewer/scanner/downloader, given the numbers I'll probably be dealing with.

Any tips on good equipment that doesn't break the bank to make that possible?

How about what to use to make photo prints directly from the slides, or should I digitize them first, and then have prints made from those?

Many scanners or scanner/printers have the ability to do that. Slow but effective.

many photo printers have a slide scan option

Several camera shops will do this as a service

Try newegg.com, they have programs for converting VHS tapes to digital and they may have some for slides and prints. Plus they have a good rep and good prices. My IT guy turned me on to them and I have made several purchases in the past.

Dave

There's some interesting comparisons of methods here :

link

I've used a scanner tool like the HP adapter – it does give good quality but it's 1 slide at a time so pretty slow. I like the idea of the digital camera tool as well.

A slide scanner isn't so expensive – this one's £40.00 GBP link They also have a £20.00 GBP model but that seems to interface only with an iphone so is less use generally perhaps.

The other option is getting someone to do it for you – in return for money of course! A professional service should have a high quality scanning method, but it depends how many you need/want to do.

I saw a youtube video where a guy built his own out of cardboard box and used his digital camera and photo editing software to make copies of his own

Thanks for the replies, and tips.

Bought a 5MP scanner box off eBay for $30 USD, so I'll see how it works, and will report back.

I don't have too many color slides to convert, but suspect if I used a service to do them for me, they'd cost at least that or more, perhaps, to take care of them.

Then, I'll be able to do all the other old, B&W slides for free.

If you have the negatives as well there are specialist scanners for negatives which can be bought quite cheaply. In the UK I've seen them in Lidl or Aldi (I forget which)