Scanning Thousands of Slides

Currently I have thousands of slides from the 1960/1970s which I want
to scan onto CDs. The quote from Jessops - never the cheapest - is 50p
per slide - OUCH!! I don't want to have to rig up a projector and
screen and take photos one at a time. So is there a slide scanning
device - with automated feed - that I can connect to a USB2 port of a
PC - for scanning batches of slides say 100 at a time? Many thanks -
CJB.

CJB wrote:
Currently I have thousands of slides from the 1960/1970s which I want
to scan onto CDs. The quote from Jessops - never the cheapest - is 50p
per slide - OUCH!! I don't want to have to rig up a projector and
screen and take photos one at a time. So is there a slide scanning
device - with automated feed - that I can connect to a USB2 port of a
PC - for scanning batches of slides say 100 at a time? Many thanks -
CJB.


So, if by 1000's you mean - say - 3500 your target price
to beat/break even is 1700 quids worth of gear.

If that's the case, you're "ok".

Amazon's new "link" features
shows some helpful stuff, starting he

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...lance&n=172282

BugBear

CJB wrote:
Currently I have thousands of slides from the 1960/1970s which I want
to scan onto CDs. The quote from Jessops - never the cheapest - is 50p
per slide - OUCH!! I don't want to have to rig up a projector and
screen and take photos one at a time. So is there a slide scanning
device - with automated feed - that I can connect to a USB2 port of a
PC - for scanning batches of slides say 100 at a time? Many thanks -
CJB.

Your first thing to do is edit the slides, I to have thousands of
slides but probably only have hundreds that are really important. In
the US a Braun slide scanner, that takes a 100 slide tray, different
from Kodak trays BTW. Costs about $1400. A Nikon LS5000 with a slide
stacker costs about $1500. An Epson V700 takes 12 slides at a time and
costs $550. Each slide will take 2-5 minutes, for scanning including
Digital Ice, but not counting cleanup in an editing program, about US
$90 (Adobe Photoshop Elements). If you want to scan slides non stop
make sure you have 1.5-2gb of RAM in your computer, scanning is a
resource hungry proposition.
Jessops will probably do in a week what it will take you literally
years to do (scanning is immensly boring, even cutting the grass may
sound better the father you get into your slides).
I would pare the slides down and take them to Jessops and be done with
it.

Tom

On Thu, 06 Jul 2006 11:52:59 +0100, CJB wrote:

Currently I have thousands of slides from the 1960/1970s which I want
to scan onto CDs. The quote from Jessops - never the cheapest - is 50p
per slide - OUCH!! I don't want to have to rig up a projector and
screen and take photos one at a time. So is there a slide scanning
device - with automated feed - that I can connect to a USB2 port of a
PC - for scanning batches of slides say 100 at a time? Many thanks -
CJB.

Having recently moved to digital I too have slides to scan (15,000 - since
the early 70's)

I worked out the costs and bought a Nikon Coolscan 5000 ED and SF210
feeder. The SF210 was used off ebay with a 'modification' to be able to
scan plastic mounts without too many problems.

I figured the cost of this equipment was a lot cheaper than getting someon
else to do it.

It will take a LONG time to complete, but I'm starting with the 'need to
keep' slides first


Clive

Very many thanks for the ideas and info. Many of the slides are boxed
new and probably not even looked at!!

Unfortunately there any many more than 3,000.

Its nice to see that there are bulk slide feeders - but only 50 at a
time. But I hadn't thought of the dust and cleaning issue.

Anyway many thanks to everyone who replied.

I'll keep you informed as to progress, especially if I find solutions
useful to others.

CJB.

Mark Roberts wrote:
CJB wrote:

Currently I have thousands of slides from the 1960/1970s which I want
to scan onto CDs. The quote from Jessops - never the cheapest - is 50p
per slide - OUCH!! I don't want to have to rig up a projector and
screen and take photos one at a time. So is there a slide scanning
device - with automated feed - that I can connect to a USB2 port of a
PC - for scanning batches of slides say 100 at a time? Many thanks -

Nikon has made some good scanners with batch capability. I've used the
Coolscan LS-4000, which is one of them. The bulk feeder for slides
holds about 50 slides , IIRC, and it's a fairly pricey accessory.
Several hundred dollars in addition to the price of the scanner
itself. Of course, you may be able to find both the scanner and bulk
feeder for much less money second hand now. The cheapest you can
probably get into new equipment for this job is the Pacific Image
PowerSlide 3600, which is around $900 US
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/cont...t &sku=430671
I have no experience with this unit.

I'm currently using a Minolta Scan Multi II, which also has a 50-slide
feeder, for any bulk scanning jobs I have to do (which is blessedly
few these days!)

I'd note that you probably ought to consider some automatic dust and
scratch removal, like Nikon's Digital ICE, mandatory for the number of
slides you are planning to scan. Manual clean up could take years! My
Minolta doesn't have this kind of feature but as I rarely do much
slide scanning these days, I can live with this limitation rather than
go to the expense of replacing this scanner.


--
Mark Roberts Photography & Multimedia
www.robertstech.com
412-687-2835

On 6 Jul 2006 03:52:59 -0700, CJB wrote:

Currently I have thousands of slides from the 1960/1970s which I want
to scan onto CDs. The quote from Jessops - never the cheapest - is 50p
per slide - OUCH!! I don't want to have to rig up a projector and
screen and take photos one at a time. So is there a slide scanning
device - with automated feed - that I can connect to a USB2 port of a
PC - for scanning batches of slides say 100 at a time? Many thanks -

CJB,

I'm doing just that right now (see http://www.michna.com/photos/
) and am going the same route that Mark Roberts describes in his
message, a Nikon LS-4000 ED scanner with the Nikon SF-200 slide
feeder.

My experience is not too good. The slide feeder is unreliable,
the autofocus is highly unreliable (have to rescan often), the
sharpness depth of field is too narrow for curved slides (most
of those not under glass) and the scanner is far from getting
the full resolution of the film.

The latter, of course, is a question of price. You just have to
understand that a 4,000 dpi consumer scanner doesn't give you
the utmost of information crammed into 4,000 dpi. In fact, I'm
scanning at 2,000 dpi, because the 4,000 dpi scans are not
sufficiently sharper to warrant the higher resolution. In fact,
they are hardly sharper at all.

But I'm doing it anyway with that scanner, because I see no
better way to do it within my budget.

The price of the scanner is not a very big issue, because you
can sell it again after you're done.

Please ask if you want to know any specifics.

Hans-Georg

--
No mail, please.

wrote:

CJB wrote:

Currently I have thousands of slides from the 1960/1970s which I want
to scan onto CDs. The quote from Jessops - never the cheapest - is 50p
per slide - OUCH!! I don't want to have to rig up a projector and
screen and take photos one at a time. So is there a slide scanning
device - with automated feed - that I can connect to a USB2 port of a
PC - for scanning batches of slides say 100 at a time? Many thanks -
CJB.


as an aside it would be easier to scan the negatives if you still have
them? film scanners have been on the market longer so are cheaper.


You know, now that you mention it ... they've never given me my
negatives back when I took film in to have it processed for slides.

CJB wrote:
Very many thanks for the ideas and info. Many of the slides are
boxed
new and probably not even looked at!!

Unfortunately there any many more than 3,000.

Its nice to see that there are bulk slide feeders - but only 50 at a
time. But I hadn't thought of the dust and cleaning issue.


"Only 50 at a time" does't take into account the possibility of
refilling the hopper during the process.

In any case the decision is: how much of your life and/or money is
this project going to claim? If you do it yourself, no matter how much
you have edited the pool and streamlined your process and made
efficient your technique, it is likely to eat you alive; if you pay to
have it done, you will _pay_, and aside from losing control of the
adjustments, you are vulnerable to inadvertant or purposeful loss of
slides.

I still think the best solution is to buy the equipment and train an
intelligent "intern" who can work nearby for easy supervision, and at
a reasonable rate.

--
Frank ess

snippage has occurred

In rec.photo.digital wrote:
as an aside it would be easier to scan the negatives if you still have
them? film scanners have been on the market longer so are cheaper.


There are no negatives when you shoot slide (color reversal film). In fact,
they are called positives and the slides ARE the film that was in your camera.

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

In rec.photo.equipment.35mm CJB wrote:
: Currently I have thousands of slides from the 1960/1970s which I want
: to scan onto CDs. The quote from Jessops - never the cheapest - is 50p
: per slide - OUCH!! I don't want to have to rig up a projector and
: screen and take photos one at a time. So is there a slide scanning
: device - with automated feed - that I can connect to a USB2 port of a
: PC - for scanning batches of slides say 100 at a time? Many thanks -
: CJB.


I just finished scanning a huge number of slides and found that I was
adjusting the scan settings for each slide. To make a long story short
it was a slow painful process that I never want to repeat!
--




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