Scanning Large Quantities of 35mm Slides

[photolandscape]

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I have upwards of 5000 mounted 35mm transparencies I want to scan--many shots with my M6 as well as a range of other cameras over the years.

 

I am looking for the best way--both in terms of quality and efficiency--to scan them. I really don't have time to do them individually, and I am not inclined to send them off to a service to have them done either. Willing to do it myself. Has anyone on this Forum had experience with this, and if so, how did you do it? A Nikon 35mm scanner with a slide feeder, or perhaps some other brand with a slide feeder, seems most attractive as I could prep and feed transparencies to the scanner as I work on other things on my computer. What dpi would you recommend if you wanted to be able to do an enlargement up to 20x24"? What software would you suggest for eliminating as many spots as possible, and possibly also to do some initial color balancing? Would you include sharpening in the scanning workflow, or do that on a case by case basis later on?

 

Thanks in advance for your advice.

[earleygallery]

I recall seeing an advert recently for a scanner that looked like a Kodak Carousel projector, load it up with slides and press go. No idea what the specs were but you could search for it.

 

I'd ask yourself what are you going to do with those 5000 scanned images? Are you intending to make those prints from every one? Why not just scan the images you need?

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[erl]

faced with that scenario, as many of us are, regardless of whether we actually do it or not, I would consider using such as the Nikon Coolscan V and slide scanner in tandem with VueScan. Be aware that that represents a significant capital investment, especially the slide feeder. I would then set it up to "save from Preview" and that will rapidly (relatively speaking) create small files that can be assessed as a 'proofsheet'.

 

Then I would edit them for the keepers, printers, etc. and re-scan them, but this time adjusting colour balance, tonal range and any other changes you desire. There is no real shortcut to what you want, short of shopping the job out and paying for an unknown quality. My opinion - take control.

 

An after thought: If you are like most of us, ie. many pics, few keepers, you might consider editing your slides on a light table and only scanning those you edit 'in'. That way you can avoid the significant cost of the slide feeder. You will still retain your 'non-keepers' in slide form which is probably more durable than the digital version anyway, if that is important.

Edited October 4, 2010 by erl

[Tina Manley]

I've scanned several hundred thousand with a Nikon LS5000 and a bulk loader. I use Lasersoft software, scan at 4000 dpi as raw with their HDR option which gets every bit of information available in the slide. I only want to scan all of these slides one time so I want to do it right the first time. Silverfast's Lasersoft gives me more information than any other scanning program. It's expensive but .it's worth it if you want to get it right. Another option for quick scans is to do camera scans. Mount your DLSR on a slide duplicating machine like the Beseler Dual Mode slide duplicator and take digital photos of your slides. It works surprisingly well. I use this option when I need a scan in a hurry.

[pierovitch]

I've scanned several hundred thousand with a Nikon LS5000 and a bulk loader. I use Lasersoft software, scan at 4000 dpi as raw with their HDR option which gets every bit of information available in the slide. I only want to scan all of these slides one time so I want to do it right the first time. Silverfast's Lasersoft gives me more information than any other scanning program. It's expensive but .it's worth it if you want to get it right. Another option for quick scans is to do camera scans. Mount your DLSR on a slide duplicating machine like the Beseler Dual Mode slide duplicator and take digital photos of your slides. It works surprisingly well. I use this option when I need a scan in a hurry.

 

I agree with Tina. Have only scanned in the thousands but same methods. The early Nikon bulk loaders jammed easily. Have also used Epson 4870 but only for Powerpoint resolutions.

 

- Really nice work on Tina's site.

[wblynch]

Take a look at this: Pacific Image PowerSlide 3650, 3600dpi, Automated, PS3650 - B&H

[chrism]

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Take a look at this: Pacific Image PowerSlide 3650, 3600dpi, Automated, PS3650 - B&H

 

I have had two Pacific Image scanners before I moved up to the K-M 5400 and lately the Nikon 9000ED. They did a remarkably quick and decent job, especially considering their relative cheapness. Better with Vuescan than the included software on a Mac. Now both were their single slide or 35mm filmstrip models, but I imaging this will be as good or better. But I still have to agree that it is best to screen the slides on a light box to see which ones are worth scanning.

 

Chris

[earleygallery]

Take a look at this: Pacific Image PowerSlide 3650, 3600dpi, Automated, PS3650 - B&H

 

That's the one I've seen and referred to above, with the circular tray for 100 slides.

[photolandscape]

I recall seeing an advert recently for a scanner that looked like a Kodak Carousel projector, load it up with slides and press go. No idea what the specs were but you could search for it.

 

I'd ask yourself what are you going to do with those 5000 scanned images? Are you intending to make those prints from every one? Why not just scan the images you need?

 

Thanks James. I know what you mean. There is no way on earth I'd ever print more than 10% of the 5000 or images. I figure I could first go through the entire set over time, and winnow out a large % -- maybe half or more. Then scan the keepers, then print the best ones over time, and probably upload lots of others to a couple of different websites. I'll try to track down the device you are describing. Haven't come across it myself.

[photolandscape]

I've scanned several hundred thousand with a Nikon LS5000 and a bulk loader. I use Lasersoft software, scan at 4000 dpi as raw with their HDR option which gets every bit of information available in the slide. I only want to scan all of these slides one time so I want to do it right the first time. Silverfast's Lasersoft gives me more information than any other scanning program. It's expensive but .it's worth it if you want to get it right. Another option for quick scans is to do camera scans. Mount your DLSR on a slide duplicating machine like the Beseler Dual Mode slide duplicator and take digital photos of your slides. It works surprisingly well. I use this option when I need a scan in a hurry.

 

 

Thanks Tina. What sort of investment would I be looking at between the scanner, the bulk feeder, and Lasersoft?

[photolandscape]

Take a look at this: Pacific Image PowerSlide 3650, 3600dpi, Automated, PS3650 - B&H

 

Very tempting. Quality of the scans sounds quite good, but there are a lot of complaints about the interface, especially on a Mac. The price is right, and being able to do 50 slides at a time is mighty attractive. Thanks.

[Tina Manley]

Thanks Tina. What sort of investment would I be looking at between the scanner, the bulk feeder, and Lasersoft?

 

I'm not sure what you can get used on EBay these days but new, it would be about $3000 for all. Not a bad investment if you have a lot of slides or negatives that you only want to scan once. The bulk feeder does not jam if you mount everything in Gepe slide mounts, which I do. Having slide mounts all the same thickness that will hold the film flat makes for much better scans anyway. Good luck!

 

Tina

[wblynch]

...but there are a lot of complaints about the interface, especially on a Mac....

 

Some people love to complain

 

But what I got from the reviews was that after resolving the installation, most people were very happy with the scans they got.

 

I also noticed reports that the best success came when dedicating the whole machine to the task and not trying to multi-purpose while it was scanning.

 

There are precious few choices now for quality scanners at a reasonable price.

[wattsy]

I'm not sure what you can get used on EBay these days but new, it would be about $3000 for all. Not a bad investment if you have a lot of slides or negatives that you only want to scan once.

 

Don't forget that the resale value is very high at the moment so the cost of the hardware can be minimal. Even with a bulk feeder, the real investment will be your time.

 

Going slightly off-topic but a bird/landscape pro friend of mine recently scanned his archive of many thousands of transparencies using a 9000ED. Happy with the result, he then proceeded to throw all the scanned trannies in the dustbin.

[NZDavid]

The fast-loading carousel type is by Reflecta.

 

Magazine slide scanner Reflecta DigitDia 5000 with SilverFast Ai 6.6 and IT-8 calibration slide for batch scanning 35mm mounted slides in magazines - ScanDig

 

There is a very similar version by Braun.

 

Braun Multimag SlideScan 4000b slide scanner for mounted slides in magazine, LKM magazines, Paximat magazines, universal magazines, CS magazines - ScanDig

 

Flat bed scanners have supposedly become a lot better and have earned some good reviews. Typically you can do about eight at a time.

 

See Canon flat bed scanners with integrated transmission unit for digitising mounted slides and film strips, negatives - ScanDig

 

See also, Digital Scanner Reviews

[Per P.]

For large batches of one-off conversions I would also mention the US based ScanCafe (www.scancafe.com). I had my 5000+ old negatives scanned by them earlier this year and found them to be both reliable and competitively priced.

 

Unfortunately they were unable to handle international customers so I had to use a US friend as middle-man. This may have improved in the meantime.

[wblynch]

For large batches of one-off conversions I would also mention the US based ScanCafe (www.scancafe.com).

 

To be clear, ScanCafe sends all your materials to India for scanning. They don't do the work in the United States.