I recall a post on this forum not too long ago about converting slides to digital format. The discussion revolved around slide scanners and the success that some have had with certain models.

Since I have over 2,000 slides of vacation trips when my kids were young, I thought it would be nice to convert them to digital and give them each a copy of the pictures. However, when looking into the price of having them done at a photo processor, the cost would have been prohibitive (between $0.29 and $0.90 for each slide depending on the retailer). So, I thought perhaps I should buy a slide scanner and do it myself. However, after researching slide scanners, I found that the good ones are also expensive and apparently are quite slow.

I was somewhat frustrated with the situation until I found a "slide copier" on-line for less than $50.00 brand new. The slide copier is a simple device, about 5" long, that screws on the lens of my camera just like a filter. It has an optic which magnifies the slide and a slide holder. You just put the slide in the slot and take a picture with your camera. So far I have copied about 500 or so of my slides and it works great. I can do 100 slides in less than 30 minutes.

There must be others of you out there that would like to copy old slides to digital without a high cost. I am so pleased with this simple product that I thought I'd let you all know about it. I'd never heard of it before and I've never seen one in a camera store. Everyone I've mentioned it to hadn't heard of it either.

I got mine through Amazon.com from 47th St. Photo in New York. But I'm sure there are other sources. Just search for "slide copier" rather than "slide scanner". The one I bought is made by Opteka.

Larry

Larry, ...How "sharp" are the prints from this process? Do they look like regular prints or are they a little "grainy".

Bob

Assuming the slide was sharp, the prints are also sharp. The only problem I've noticed is that apparently my slides have quite a bit of dust from sitting in the slide carousels for all these years and the dust does show up on the prints in some cases.

The other thing is that my camera won't auto focus on the slides for some reason so I've had to manual focus it. As long as I have it correctly focused and don't change anything, the prints turn out great. Obviously, if I don't get the focus set right then the pictures are also slightly out of focus but this hasn't really been a problem.

Larry

Larry, that sounds like an interesting attachment to the camera. Never knew you could do that.

I had a slide scanner for my birthday. That was a "totally selfish present" my Mum said when she gave it to me.

Since then I have scanned several hundred slides for Mum And it does not seem to take long. I can do a box of 50 slides in about 15 Mins.

But I have realised that this is a very worthwhile task. Some of the slides are 30 years old and it is amazing how much they deteriorated. Some are utterly ruined.

I have spent a lot of time restoring the pictures. But some are beyond redemption. And not only the real old ones. I guess it depends on the quality of the films as well as the age, how well they will copy.

So I can only encourage everyone to get copying before the priceless mementoes are lost !!!

Larry - great idea. I bought an add on like that for a Nikon point and shoot and used it in the past. Kept that camera because I have a number of unique accessories for it like that.

The dust will show up no matter whether you scan or shoot the images, so invest in canned air and a good slide brush. Small cost compared with the improved results.

Those slides that have have color shifts (usually the reds fade out) can be renewed using a program like PhotoShop (the simplest $99 version will do this kind of improvement).

Finally, after scanning the slides, it would be a nice idea to store them in acid-free containers. No sense putting them back in trays - when was the last time you projected them?

All well and good - but unfortunately my oldest slides from 40-50 years ago were lost.