35mm slide scanning service

I have a million 35mm slides in shoeboxes
and was thinking of sending them off
to a scanning service to put them on CD
and then I would have them to make prints.
Any suggestions for services ?

"Phil Schuman" wrote:

I have a million 35mm slides in shoeboxes
and was thinking of sending them off
to a scanning service to put them on CD
and then I would have them to make prints.
Any suggestions for services ?


This will cost you a fortune. It would be far cheaper to buy a slide
scanner, do it yourself and sell the scanner on eBay afterwards.

In fact, if you buy a used scanner on eBay, you might get back what
you paid for it.

This will cost you a fortune. It would be far cheaper to buy a slide
scanner, do it yourself and sell the scanner on eBay afterwards.

In fact, if you buy a used scanner on eBay, you might get back what
you paid for it.


Especially if it's a Nikon.
AAvK

Tony Polson wrote:

This will cost you a fortune. It would be far cheaper to buy a slide
scanner, do it yourself and sell the scanner on eBay afterwards.

That's a good idea if you've got a few hundred hours of your time to
spare.
Either choice will prove costly, either in terms of money spent or time
spent scanning.
So the first thing the guy needs to do is to winnow down those
"millions" of slides to just the keepers.

"AAvK" wrote:


This will cost you a fortune. It would be far cheaper to buy a slide
scanner, do it yourself and sell the scanner on eBay afterwards.

In fact, if you buy a used scanner on eBay, you might get back what
you paid for it.


Especially if it's a Nikon.


Absolutely. The residual value of used Nikon scanners continues to
impress.

However, the fact that production of at least some models has stopped
will tend to keep used prices high.

Phil Schuman wrote:
I have a million 35mm slides in shoeboxes
and was thinking of sending them off
to a scanning service to put them on CD
and then I would have them to make prints.
Any suggestions for services ?


Consider sorting your slides and narrowing down only the images that you
actually want prints for .. or digital copies of. These images take a
notoriously long time to scan and process. Further, paying a service for this
is going to be pricy. The cheapest I have seen is Costco at $0.29 a slide and
the resolution is likely pretty low.

--
Thomas T. Veldhouse
Key Fingerprint: 2DB9 813F F510 82C2 E1AE 34D0 D69D 1EDC D5EC AED1

"Phil Schuman" wrote

I have a million 35mm slides in shoeboxes
and [want to get them scanned. Advice?]

Has anyone tried using a slide duplicator and DSLR for
getting digital copies of slides rather than scanning?

A DSLR can generate a 10MPix image in a second, a scanner
in a minute. Image degradation may be worse but slides
[non-professional slides] are scanned so they can be
viewed on the computer or printed to 7x9" on the inkjet:
neither of these require much in fidelity.

--
Nicholas O. Lindan, Cleveland, Ohio
Darkroom Automation
http://www.nolindan.com/da/index.htm
n o lindan at ix dot netcom dot com

Nicholas O. Lindan wrote:

"Phil Schuman" wrote


I have a million 35mm slides in shoeboxes
and [want to get them scanned. Advice?]


Has anyone tried using a slide duplicator and DSLR for
getting digital copies of slides rather than scanning?

A DSLR can generate a 10MPix image in a second, a scanner
in a minute. Image degradation may be worse but slides
[non-professional slides] are scanned so they can be
viewed on the computer or printed to 7x9" on the inkjet:
neither of these require much in fidelity.

Yes, that's the sensible solution for large casual collections and
family photos. It's unlikely the OP will print more than a handfull of
these at full size. These could also be used to cull the slides for
favorites if there is no working slide projector in the house any more.

Here's some tests I did with a jerry-rigged cardboard tube & closeup
lens on a 6MP DSLR with full pixel crops:
http://www.edgehill.net/1/?SC=go.php&DIR=Misc/misc-photos/slide-dup
-expect some loss of dynamic range before fiddling in photoshop and not
super sharp but useable.

--
Paul Furman
http://www.edgehill.net/1
Bay Natives
http://www.baynatives.com

"Tony Polson" wrote in message
...
"Phil Schuman" wrote:

I have a million 35mm slides in shoeboxes
and was thinking of sending them off
to a scanning service to put them on CD
and then I would have them to make prints.
Any suggestions for services ?


This will cost you a fortune. It would be far cheaper to buy a slide
scanner, do it yourself and sell the scanner on eBay afterwards.

In fact, if you buy a used scanner on eBay, you might get back what
you paid for it.

Not only that, but its a good bet that most of those slides don't merit
scanning into your computer. (mine certainly don't) So you can triage them
out by doing it yourself, and "deep six" all the bad ones....This makes you
look, (and feel) like a much better photographer....:^)
Actually, the real advantage is that you can crop out the good parts of
many of the badly composed ones.......

"Thomas T. Veldhouse" wrote in message
.. .
Phil Schuman wrote:
I have a million 35mm slides in shoeboxes
and was thinking of sending them off
to a scanning service to put them on CD
and then I would have them to make prints.
Any suggestions for services ?


Consider sorting your slides and narrowing down only the images that you
actually want prints for .. or digital copies of. These images take a
notoriously long time to scan and process. Further, paying a service for
this
is going to be pricy. The cheapest I have seen is Costco at $0.29 a slide
and
the resolution is likely pretty low.

Yes. - I just finished building a light box for that very purpose.....It is
an 18 inch by 18 inch by 5 inch deep box with a crinkly plastic front that
contains about 500 watts of 5000 K lights......I can put it upright on the
table in front of me, and view my slides toward it just as if I was outside
looking at the daytime sky. (except I can work after dark, and without
getting a crick in my neck)