Scanning Slides with a conventional scanner

50Twuncle

Does this work ?
I have a few dozen old photographic slides that I am trying to convert to JPG images and I don't really want the expense of a slide scanner - so will a normal scanner even work ?

AndyPix

Surely with your 25 years ..... Oh never mind


I guess you would get some kind of result with a conventional scanner
What kind of quality though who knows .. And I guess it would depend on the calibre of scanner used


Why dont you give it a go and see

Chrishazle

With a conventional scanner it won't work, as it scans "reflective" rather than through the item. My Epson Perfection 4490 Photo will scan negatives and slides, because it has a part of the lid that is a "receiver", and comes with holders for various sizes of negative and slides. To scan transparencies you remove a blanking plate from the lid, it's a bit slow though, can only do 4 x 35mm slides at a time.

50Twuncle

Chrishazle wrote: »

With a conventional scanner it won't work, as it scans "reflective" rather than through the item. My Epson Perfection 4490 Photo will scan negatives and slides, because it has a part of the lid that is a "receiver", and comes with holders for various sizes of negative and slides. To scan transparencies you remove a blanking plate from the lid, it's a bit slow though, can only do 4 x 35mm slides at a time.

it seems that a simple diffuser is needed
http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/easiest-inexpensive-scan-slides-flatbed-scanner/
I am assuming that this reflects light back down over the slide ?
Does this REALLY work ?

psychic_teabag

I was going to suggest just looking for someone who'd do it as a service, rather than buying your own scanner, but then when I did a quick search, I found this guide to using a standard scanner :
http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/easiest-inexpensive-scan-slides-flatbed-scanner/

Perhaps a digital camera would be better than a scanner (since it would be capturing transmitted light rather than reflected light) ?

wongataa

50Twuncle wrote: »

it seems that a simple diffuser is needed
http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/easiest-inexpensive-scan-slides-flatbed-scanner/
I am assuming that this reflects light back down over the slide ?
Does this REALLY work ?

Who knows. Try it and see. It definitely won't be as good as the proper light attachment that flatbed scanners designed for film scanning have..

Neil_Jones

For the slides you need the extra light otherwise they won't expose properly. You could always tape them to the window temporarily and take a photo of the main film area and then copy that off to the computer, process and print. Won't look pretty (and needs a decent day's light and a clear background plus a clean window) but it'll cost you nothing.

Jackmydad

The Aldi / Lidl slide scanners aren't bad if you can wait until they're in.

50Twuncle

What is Maplins one like @£39.99
https://www.maplin.co.uk/p/ion-slides-forever-film-and-slide-scanner-a76lb

Jackmydad

50Twuncle wrote: »

What is Maplins one like @£39.99
https://www.maplin.co.uk/p/ion-slides-forever-film-and-slide-scanner-a76lb

I don't know, but it looks similar and is a similar resolution to the Lidl one I have (not quite the same though), The slide feeder looks different.
Reviews look OK.
We bought ours (A Lidl one) to digitise a large number of slides taken by my late FIL.
I wasn't expecting too much TBH, but quality is almost indistinguishable from those digitised with a Pentax K5 DSLR and a dedicated macro lens.

Robisere

Not cheap, but if you have loads, as I did, then maybe worth it, then Gumtree or Ebay it. Which is what I did, and made 60% of the purchase price back.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Scanner-Photo-Negatives-Converter-megapixels-interpolated/dp/B01DKD2NO4/ref=sr_1_5?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1503510499&sr=1-5