PRINTS FROM SLIDES: Making prints from slides can be done in one of two ways. First is a direct print "Type C" (used to be called that anyway) which uses a paper that makes positive negatives directly from the slides. The other is to make an 'internegative' then make prints from the internegative. An Internegative might be the same size as the slide (35mm) or made larger - such as a 4x5". The resulting negative is used to make a regular color print. Generally this internegative and subsequent print resulted in a better quality image.

Slides, like prints are subject to color change over time. Some kinds of print paper will hold their colors much longer. I'm years away from doing this stuff, but the kind of Type C print that had long-lasting color was Cybachrome.

PRESERVING SLIDES: Preserving color slides from fading or color-shifting used to mean having a color separation made of the slide. Three separate black and white 'negatives' - one each for Yellow, Black, Cyan and Magenta. You could always create a new color image from these four color separations.

Now with the advent of digital images, you no longer need to worry about color fading or shifting IF you preserve copies of the slides or printings as digital images.

If you are taking digital images, save them to your hard drive, then write them to a CDROM and store that in some safe place.

If you have slides, you can take then to a professional lab and have them 'print' them to CD. Usually they will make a high quality print and a lower resolution print on the same CD. Once you have the CD and assuming you have a CD drive capable of writing to blank CDs, you can make as many copies as you want.

You could rent a slide scanner from a professional photo place and scan your slides, again, writing them to CD. Locally, you can rent a slide-scanner for about $50 a day. Since the local place is closed on Sunday, you can pick it up on Friday evening and return it Monday morning and still pay $50.

Gary can probably tell you want a good quality slide scanner costs new.

If you have a Nikon Coolpix camera, Nikon makes an attachment that allows you to copy slides or negatives through your digital camera. That costs about $90.