Forgot Password
Pentax Camera Forums Home
 

Reply
Show Printable Version Search this Thread
12-21-2008, 03:48 PM   #1
Senior Member




Join Date: Apr 2008
Location: UK
Posts: 167
Copying Slides

Hi.
My father has a big collection of slides. I remembered to check them out during these Christmas vacations and I noticed many are in very poor shape.
He has some slides that are more than 30 years old. But even many of the newer ones (15-20 y.o.) seem to be deteriorating, they are dusty and I see in many what seems to be fungus.
He has slides from his younger years, his time in Africa (Portuguese sailor during the independence war with the collonies), from his trips in NATO exercises and from mine and my sisters youth. As you can understand its quite a legacy.
I want to make a book to offer him for his next birthday (or sooner) with many of the more significant slides and maybe another one just with Navy stuff (he's now retired, but I know the Navy is his second family).

I know there are services I could use to make a digital copy of these slides and save them for posterity. But, seeing has many are in poor shape, even full of fungii, is it worth it to spend so much money? The quality of the image is not going to be great anyway... And I'm not rich...
I was thinking of using a cheaper alternative, like a slide copier to attach to my K10D, and copy at least some of them and see how decent the image comes out. If its ok for say A5 prints, perfect, this isn't fine art, its just important to see the image and have decent colors.

Can anyone recommend the best kit to do this? I've seen kits with bellows and others with just a tube that adapts to the camera.

BTW, its seems he used mostly AGFAchrome and then KODAKchrome in the more modern ones. He had a first camera which I dont remember the make and then a Program A (which he still owns together with a SMC-A 50mm F1.4). He doesnt use it anymore and now has a Digi P&S, but I still haven't been successfull in making him offer me that kit :P

12-21-2008, 04:35 PM   #2
Veteran Member
pasipasi's Avatar

Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: Oulu
Photos: Gallery
Posts: 532
Even the cheapest scanners today offer a film scanning option and many accept slides and bigger format film.

I have no experience with fungus on film, but I guess you could try a brush blower of some kind..
12-21-2008, 06:21 PM   #3
Veteran Member




Join Date: Apr 2007
Location: Melb. Aust
Posts: 840
Surprised that Kodacromes have deteriorated. I've got some from both my father and my father-in-law that are way older than 30 years and they are in good condition with good colour. Anything not Kodachome is a lot more likely to have lost colour. The fungus is most likely the storage conditions, maybe it's been in a humid enviroment at some stage.

I've scanned some slide on my flatbed (1600dpi) which gives a 2200 (approx) pixel wide file which can be printed to about 5x7" ok. Depends on what your starting with and your expectations. I'd suggest you don't need to worry too much about ultimate quality, your Dad will be thrilled with the book no matter how bad they reproduce! You can 'fix' the colour somewhat in Photoshop or whatever, just hitting the 'auto' button can do wonders.

Before scanning, I'd try to clean them the best I could. Blower to remove dust where possible but I'd research (try photo.net and apug) about possibly cleaning with film cleaner or something else. I clean my B&W negatives with some filmer cleaner (made for the task) occasionaly and it evaporates like alcohol. I seem to recall one is called PEC. Do some research on that stuff.

Buying a bellows with slide adaptor might be a dual purpose purchase.. you can use it latter to take super macro stuff.
12-22-2008, 04:01 AM   #4
Senior Member




Join Date: Apr 2008
Location: UK
Posts: 167
Original Poster
Yes, the bellows can be usefull later :P, so I am slightly partial to that idea.
I'm doing a PhD in Edinburgh (Scotland,UK), and I've been told by a fellow in the Uni's photography society that aparently they had a reasonable scanner with slide copying capabilities, but it doesnt work anymore.
The society has one of these tubes that adapts to Nikon, but he hasn't tested it yet (he's got loads of slide he shot).

I've searched and scanning can take a long time, so in terms of workflow I'd be better off with something straight into the camera, right?

12-22-2008, 05:43 AM   #5
Inactive Account




Join Date: Mar 2007
Photos: Gallery
Posts: 3,675
If money's tight I'd recommend the Epson V500 photo scanner. Although the productivity is significantly slower than a dedicated film scanner the results are surprisingly good. These scanners can be bought for about $150, or less if you check around. A decent scanning software would be 'Vuescan'. It works a lot better than that which came with the machine.

If fungus is gobbling up the surface of the slide I don't think there is any magic formula or process to halt or reverse the damage. You could scan the slides then manipulate them in PhotoShop or similar program, but this could be a tedious task to say the least.

Good luck.
12-22-2008, 06:38 AM   #6
Senior Member




Join Date: Apr 2008
Location: UK
Posts: 167
Original Poster
I'll try and repair damage only in those pictures that are really worth it. I wont be treating all of slides.
12-22-2008, 09:07 AM   #7
Veteran Member




Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Northamptonshire - England
Photos: Gallery
Posts: 496
I use the epson V350 scanner for film/slides (well used to before got a DSLR) and they are rather good, if you have such a large collection it could be a worthy investment and allow you to fine tune things to how you want.

12-22-2008, 09:51 AM   #8
Site Supporter
Site Supporter
ChipB's Avatar

Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: Eau Claire, WI
Photos: Gallery | Albums
Posts: 2,700
I used a bellows unit with a slide copier attachment and took a "photo" of each slide - used a hi-intensity light behind the unit and set the camera to "tungsten" lighting. Worked great and let me do so cropping if I desired on individual slides. I ended up copying about 250 slides - some several times - did 'em in 2 batches and it took me about 2 1/2 hours per batch.

I too had some slides (either Ektachrome or "other") that had some fungus - used some eye-glass lens cleaner and a soft cloth to clean 'em - worked pretty good.

I was amazed at how well the Kodachrome slides stood up - I can't remember now how old they were (since I had a pretty mixed lot) but they went back decades.
Reply

Bookmarks
  • Submit Thread to Facebook Facebook
  • Submit Thread to Twitter Twitter
  • Submit Thread to Digg Digg
Tags - Make this thread easier to find by adding keywords to it!
camera, copy, image, kit, navy, offer, photography, shape, slides
Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search


Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
Lighting for copying slides to K10D jonhock Digital Processing, Software, and Printing 7 10-06-2010 08:59 PM
Trouble copying pictures off memory card james_k_p Troubleshooting and Beginner Help 15 04-05-2010 11:43 AM
Slide copying... off screens Rick Digital Processing, Software, and Printing 2 08-28-2009 04:08 PM
copying photo's in lightroom 5teve Digital Processing, Software, and Printing 5 06-21-2009 08:02 PM
Slide Copying To Digital Mike Bokeh Pentax SLR Lens Discussion 19 02-29-2008 02:02 PM



All times are GMT -7. The time now is 03:17 AM. | See also: NikonForums.com, CanonForums.com part of our network of photo forums!
  • Red (Default)
  • Green
  • Gray
  • Dark
  • Dark Yellow
  • Dark Blue
  • Old Red
  • Old Green
  • Old Gray
  • Dial-Up Style
Hello! It's great to see you back on the forum! Have you considered joining the community?
register
Creating a FREE ACCOUNT takes under a minute, removes ads, and lets you post! [Dismiss]
Top