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Help ! -slides into pics - HOW?


Guest transit

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Guest transit

... as the title states , can anyone give "cheap and easy" advice on how to turn 35mm slide pics , into "normal " pics , so i can post on here ???? Thanks in advance :unsure:

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... as the title states , can anyone give "cheap and easy" advice on how to turn 35mm slide pics , into "normal " pics , so i can post on here ???? Thanks in advance :unsure:

With out a proper slide scanner,

the best way is project onto a screen or Matt white wall

and take photos with the camera in a fixed position.

This refers to movies but its the same sort of principle

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With out a proper slide scanner,

the best way is project onto a screen or Matt white wall

and take photos with the camera in a fixed position.

This refers to movies but its the same sort of principle

SteveHB and myself have previously discussed this method of transfer of old 8mm film to video in another thread and although the method works and is fairly foolproof it does not give the best quality.

I now use a dedicated negative / slide copier which only cost about £60 and does a great job, but as it is designed for 35mm format it will not work with my even older 120 rollfilm negatives. I have previously tried 2 other methods.

1) Many scanners, particularly HP models come with a negative / slide scanner built into the lid. this is usually slow and does not give fabtastic quality as it is a bit of an "extra" built into what is otherwise a standard sheet scanner. Again it is really designed for 35mm only.

2) Using a conventional scanner I have placed transparencies (slides, / negatives) of any format on the scanner bed, placed a piece of diffuse glass on top to hold it flat without putting the scanner lid down and to evenly spread the top lighting and then illuminating it with an angle-poise lamp. Scan only the required area at the highest possible dpi setting. this works but needs a fair bit of experimentation and setting up, again it is slow but results can be quite acceptable.

Having said that, SteveHB's "photograph the screen" method does work and after a bit of setting up will give acceptable results.

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What is the highest dpi that any of us can carry out, I know this will create enormous files; just interested ?

The prospect of a 300 Mb, 4800 dpi scan of an 1878 photo intrigues me.

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A friend of mine recently bought a new scanner - a CanoScan 5600F. It came with what Canon call a film and slide scanner which turned out to be a rather flimsy plastic frame for mounting film and slides above the glass.

She hasn't yet tried it so I don't know how well it works, but it would be easy to knock up a frame like this to hold the slides centrally above the glass ?

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A friend of mine recently bought a new scanner - a CanoScan 5600F. It came with what Canon call a film and slide scanner which turned out to be a rather flimsy plastic frame for mounting film and slides above the glass.

She hasn't yet tried it so I don't know how well it works, but it would be easy to knock up a frame like this to hold the slides centrally above the glass ?

Think you may be disappointed in the results if the scanner you are using is not meant to scan slides. I have a Canoscan 3200 (with slide adaptor) which I have used, especially for the B & W war damage pictures. Slides give reasonable quality as around 250 to 300dpi, and the file sizes are managable.

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Think you may be disappointed in the results if the scanner you are using is not meant to scan slides. I have a Canoscan 3200 (with slide adaptor) which I have used, especially for the B & W war damage pictures. Slides give reasonable quality as around 250 to 300dpi, and the file sizes are managable.

Ah well - was just wondering. What is the critical factor, CCD quality ?

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Guest transit

....well , many thanks for all the advice . - it seems after all this amazing digital/ computer revolution in these recent years , it looks like i'll have to resort back to the "projector" and picture off wall method which i used to do 30 years ago !!!! Oh well , at least i can use a digital camera !!!!!!! Watch this space for results and update !! :rolleyes:

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....well , many thanks for all the advice . - it seems after all this amazing digital/ computer revolution in these recent years , it looks like i'll have to resort back to the "projector" and picture off wall method which i used to do 30 years ago !!!! Oh well , at least i can use a digital camera !!!!!!! Watch this space for results and update !! :rolleyes:

Hi transit,

there is another way of photographing slides that's not mentioned above.

A mounting bracket can can be fitted to 'some' SLR cameras.

High Definition Digital Duplicator

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Ah well - was just wondering. What is the critical factor, CCD quality ?

Maybe, but my scanner switches to a different mode (much slower) when the slide adaptor is used. I remember trying to scan slides with an old (basic) machine and the results were unusable.

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What is the highest dpi that any of us can carry out, I know this will create enormous files; just interested ?

The prospect of a 300 Mb, 4800 dpi scan of an 1878 photo intrigues me.

If you scanned at 4800 dpi (dots per inch) on a standard scanner for an A4 sheet which is about 10" x 8" then it would give a massive file as you say, but as a 35mm slide is only about 1" x 1.5" and you are only scanning that much smaller area you can use a higher dpi to allow you to enlarge the scan to a bigger size withouit loss of quality through pixelation.

Most scanners which can do slides will set a higher dpi automatically.

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Think you may be disappointed in the results if the scanner you are using is not meant to scan slides. I have a Canoscan 3200 (with slide adaptor) which I have used, especially for the B & W war damage pictures. Slides give reasonable quality as around 250 to 300dpi, and the file sizes are managable.

Yes you probably would be dissapointed as there is more to it than just holding the slide on the scanner bed. the lid of these scanners usually has a light built in to shine light down through the slide / negative (transmitted light) rather than the tracker bar inside the scanner (reflected light) which is used for standard document and photograph scanning.

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All very similar to the one I am now using, all give very good results, they scan in seconds and produce the equivalent of a 5 megapixel digital image.

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Hi transit,

there is another way of photographing slides that's not mentioned above.

A mounting bracket can can be fitted to 'some' SLR cameras.

High Definition Digital Duplicator

Thanks Steve,

I have also used this method before using "copying tubes" I had some for my old Leica screw mount Leica II (1937 vintage) and Leica IIIf (1952 vintage). they fit between the camera body and lens, and then another bit between the lens and slide holder to give true 1:1 scale copying of 35mm originals. Obviously it required a camera with interchangable lenses and the copying kit had to have a compatible lens mount (in my case Leica screw mount) and it didn't realise that they made these for the digital camera market. Mine copied film to film, ideal for doing duplicate copies of slides where there is only 1 master copy or for turning 35mm negatives into B&W slides.

Copying tubes are easy to use, almost foolproof (especially with a camera that his TTL metering of exposure, - like digital cameras do) and they always give me excellent picture quality. If this is available for your digital camera I would be tempted to give it a try.

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