convert 35mm slides to digital format

drayer

hi was just wondering if anybody knows the best way of transferring 35mm projector slides to a digital format. Any help greatly appreciated

pete4130

Tried this almost every way I could think of. I had a Canon 9900F flatbed/neg scanner and the results weren't good at all, colour casts, poorly scanned etc.... I think Nikon dedicated neg scanners are meant to be a lot better than Canon neg scanners.
I tried getting them scanned in camera shops but the colours and quality wasn't as good as I'd hoped (expensive too if you have alot of scans to be done!).
The last option I tried was to buy a small light box and set my camera up on a photographic enlarger to shoot down onto the light box with a macro lens (wasn't an ideal macro lens that I was using) and that gave me the best results I found.

snellers

I have recently seen advertised in several of the photography mags a product which fits to the front of your lens (similar to Cokin...et al filter systems) whereby you place the neg into it, manually focus, then shoot. To be fair to the advert they state that results wont be as good as a dedicated neg scanner but the results are very good when compared to any of the 'do it yourself' solutions.
Guess it all depends on the funds available. IMO Nikon dedicated scanners are the dogs ****** ....not cheap but flawless in operation.

mathias

I have this and it does a great job of scanning slides , it has all the correct adaptors required in the box.

http://www.epson.com/cgi-bin/Store/consumer/consDetail.jsp?oid=49164280

Scanning mounted slides can be problematic due to the height of the slide from the platten , so it has to be set up correctly for them.
This scanner did the job perfectly out of the box.

Its not cheap though.

Samson

I have a CanoScan FS4000US and the results are pretty damn good.
Good rundown here:
http://photo.net/equipment/canon/fs4000us/

I have don't have personal experience of any of the Nikon film scanners, but I have never heard a bad word said about them.
http://photo.net/equipment/nikon/scanner/ls-1000/

I don't think you could go wrong with either Canon or Nikon to be honest. Look into renting one for a while, that should solve your problem.

FarSide

Pick up a bellows and slide copier from ebay - a fraction of the cost of a slide scanner and you'll easily get your money back when you've finished with it. Resolution is limited purely by your camera then.

magicbastarder

i'm posting this more out of amusement over the warning in the text than a recommendation:

http://www.guardianoffers.co.uk/mall/productpage.cfm/GuardianOffers/_TRUFS00VSTA/%2D/Summit%20Photofix%20Scanner%20%2D%20%20Slides%20to%20Digital

Kilree

I would agree with farsides recommendation of a bellows and slide copier attachment. Extension tubes would be also useful instead of the bellows but would require more adjustments for focus. I have scanned on a flatbed which produced large files depending on the resolution. Before I purchased my current scanner I used the setup as seen in the attached photos since the scanner I had was not capable of scanning negs or slides. Basically it is a p&s Nikon 880 with an additional wide angle/macro convertor and a modified old slide copier I had from my 35mm days. The convertor lens was cr*p as a wide angle but gave decent macro shots. I just took the whole lot into the garden on a bright sunny day, poined the camera at a white wall and was able to copy the slides as quickly as I could put them into the holder.