I’ve got a stack of family slides I’d like to copy digitally. No high art here, just the usual family stuff!

Results using the flatbed scanner I already own and some sort of reflective/ gloss white background seem mixed at best.

There are standalone jobs likethis.

And attachments to SLR like this

I can’t justify spending much more than that but has anyone used something similar and if so were the results any good?

Many thanks.

Mrs NBT spent q lot of time scanning several hundred slides using a USB scanner we picked up from Aldi for about £30. She’s first to admit that computers aren’t her forté but she did an excellent job that was really appreciated by family members who got a copy of her work, and which means we now have easier access to hose slides on the computer

Our scanner has a negatives section coupled with a light in the lid, which had reasonable results for me:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mark_farrell/collections/72157623116238041/

These were scanned using a macro lens and DIY slide holder:

Larger originals here

How many have you got to do?

I would use the usb copier over the lens attachment slide duplicator version* you linked to.

*I have tried slide duplicator version in the past and found getting a even soft lighting tricky.

I use a Epson V700, with slide holder, if you have loads to do, it might be worth considering getting them done professionally.

Give Ted off here a shout, as he can scan them professionally at a reasonable price.

http://www.targetmedia.net/?page_id=65

I bought an ION one from Maplin and scanned for about 30 mins most evenings when plonked in front of the TV. I scanned all of our old slides, 35mm and 110mm negatives onto the PC with very passable results.

What resolution would you recommend for old 35mm negatives?

Was thinking about buying one of these, scanning all my negs and then reselling it on Ebay….

I guess it depends what you want to do with the scanned images. I just wanted a digital copy and I think I scanned at about 600dpi and the images looked fine on screen.

My scanner only coast about £50 (and I went halves with my old man so he is in the process of converting his).

You can scan as high as you want, but I found that roughly equivalent to 6 mpx was optimal. Any more, and I was just very finely resolving film grain.

You can scan as high as you want, but I found that roughly equivalent to 6 mpx was optimal. Any more, and I was just very finely resolving film grain.

Most of the cheaper ones seem about 3-5 Mpx which would tally with that…..

Our scanner has a negatives section coupled with a light in the lid, which had reasonable results for me:

This ^

Results using the flatbed scanner I already own and some sort of reflective/ gloss white background seem mixed at best.

Not this ^
Trannies (snigger), need to be back illuminated, trying what you did means they’re front lit, casting shadows onto the opaque background.
Around 600dpi ought to be fine, for repro I used to scan a 35mm tran at 300 dpi to around A4, 210x297mm, which generally gave a 40-50Mb file.
Any quality printer/scanner should scan up to 1200, possibly 1500dpi, so you could scan A5 @ 1200dpi, which would give you a file that would probably go up to A2, A3 easily.

I’ve got one of these:-

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Veho-VFS-008-Smartfix-Negative-Scanner/dp/B00365E1NS/ref=pd_cp_ph_0
The resuts are good enough for what we want, its easy to use (even the wife can use it) and the price wasn’t too bad

Just come back to this after waking up pre coffee early morning commuter hazy head..

Thought it said ‘anyone scammed old ladies’

My answer no to both questions