Scanner For 35mm slides?

[Beowulff]

Hey guys...

I'm considering buying a scanner for digitising around 2000+ mounted 35mm slides. I got a local quote for 70¢ per slide, copied to DVD, plus $2 per disc for as many as are req.

I'm sure not gonna spend $1600 doing this, so I thought it'd make sense to buy my own scanner.

This baby seems to fit the bill:

Canon 5600F Canoscan (http://www.canon.com.au/products/scanners/scanners_low_medium_volume/cs5600f.aspx)

Any opinions one way or the other? Is this unit good, bad, indifferent? Is 4 slides per scan OK or too tedious?

Or should I buy a dedicated slide/negative scanner? The 5600F is around $220 here in Aus.

TIA for any thoughts. :)

[kgosden]

Well, first off that is a horrible price. The best deal, and quite well reviewed from everyone, is www.scancafe.com. They are as low as $0.29 per slide. They are based in India and seem to be highly reliable.

Scanning them your self sure sounds good. However, it will take you up to 6 months to do 2000 slides including cleaning them up. Of course, if you have no other job or life you might get done in a few months. A few years ago I did several hundred using my Minolta scanner. It was a 3 month process. Four at a time is only part of the problem. That many slides meant a lot of different emulsions and color shifts over time to correct. I think the actual scanning time, including dusting, mounting, setting exposure profiles, final scan and removal from the carrier ran about 15-20 minutes for each group of 4. I would not figure on more than 20 per hour.

[Anthony]

As Kgosden says it is a very long process - cleaning and loading the sides doing a prescan then a scan. I have a minolta scan dual II or something. I only did half a dozen and gave up!

I also saved at a high resolution which takes up a lot of disc space.

But then saying that would you be happy posting your slides away somewhere; I would be happy driving them some where but not posting them half way around the world.

One thing to think about if doing them yourself is the slide mounts. I have my fathers old slides and the ones in the cardboard mounts fit the slide holder but the ones in the plastic mounts do not.

[Beowulff]

Thanks guys...

Unfortunately, Scancafe won't take on work outside continental USA, so I'm stuck with 70¢ per slide downunder if I wanna get somebody else do do it.

I've been having second thoughts about the Canon scanner, and I'm now checking out the Epson V500.

Time-wise, I'm retired, so I've got all the time in the world... well, you know what I mean hehe.

Cheers :)

[Dread Pirate Roberts]

I scan slides for a business and live in Aus. I don't charge much less than that.

It works out to about $20 AUD per hour even with a professional scenner. Their quoted price isn't a get rich scheme in case you were worried. Of course at 70c each I'm doing basic colour correction and individually cleaning each slide. Not just scanning your slides on auto in your carousel like some companies do.

I think it'd be against forum rules to link to my business site so I wont'. If you're retired do it yourself, if time is money pay me:D

[Beowulff]

.....I think it'd be against forum rules to link to my business site so I won't. If you're retired do it yourself, if time is money pay me :D

Thanks DPR...

Without getting all sentimental [;)] about it I checked out your site, but as you suggest, as I've got nothing better to do with my time it doesn't concern me how long it takes me to scan my slides. Six months or a year... it's all the same.

Cheers :)



PS: Excellent pricing for slide scanning - cheaper than anybody else I could find!

[Dread Pirate Roberts]

At the time I set up my business I was caring for my 2 disabled boys and so stuck home with plenty of time (between nappy changes, feeds and doctors appoints) and low income. So the price reflects that I was part time doing it more for spending cash and ego needs rather than a straight out profit motive. As you know colour correction and stuff involves staring at the screen a bit and so whilst you try and respect peoples privacy you do need to look at the photos. It was a bit of living vicariously too, interesting to see foreign holidays and the like from the 1950's to today.

Oh if you email me I'll send you a link to a reasonable site with instructions (in case it didn't come up on your google). I can't pm you as you've got it turned off on this site.

[Dark Cobra]

Hey again Beowulff!

I too am retired and like so many others have thousands of 35mm slides that I'm converting over to digital format. The price of professional services also turned me off as well and would NEVER mail off a lifetime collection of images anywhere. No way. I got the Canon 8800F which is just a step up from the 5600F you were originally considering. I can tell you that it works quite well and I'm more than pleased with the results.

However, as others have remarked this is going to take time but as a retired person I've got more time than money!!! (LOL), so doing it myself at my own pace and tweaking the results as "I" would like the final image to be is the best way to go IMHO. I'm doing about 25 a day and at that pace this gets me 750 per month. I figure a total of 3 to 4 months at this comfortable pace will pretty much get the job done for me.

This is also an incredibly good scanner for a lot of other projects as well. Good luck in whatever option you select and do let us all know what you decided!

[Dark Cobra]

Also, Amazon.com has the Canon 5600F for $129 USD which is about $179 AUD . . . and the 8800F for $179 USD which is about $248 AUD.

[Beowulff]

Thanks so much for that info Dark Cobra... particularly your per day timing figures. I'll check out the 8800F as well. Like you, I don't mind if it takes months to finish. Keeps me off the streets LOL. Will let you know what I decide upon. Cheers :)

[Dread Pirate Roberts]

And thats one nice thing about photography as a hobby. It chews up time, doesn't have an ongoing cost after the initial investment (well it doesn't have to) and it gets the brain going. Don't forget to have fun this is supposed to be a hobby not a chore. Enjoy re-living the momories.

[Dark Cobra]

Well said Dead Pirate Roberts and Beuwolff you are very welcome for that information. Enjoy the project as Dead Pirate Roberts says!

[Beowulff]

.....Enjoy re-living the memories.

Thanks Dread...

Some of my 35mm slides are around 40+ years old, and many more in the 20+ age group, so will be interesting to see how the scans turn out.

Most of 'em were shot on Anscochrome and Agfachrome. Kodachrome was always too slow? (as I recall).

Cheers :)

[Dread Pirate Roberts]

I hate to bear bad news but a lot of the agfa I scan is really degraded. Even 10 yo stuff. Most of the Kodachrome has survived pretty well as a rule of thumb.

Don't let me concern you too much, I'm sure you'll get lots of great memories out of it and even recover a lot from the damaged stuff.

Because of the degradation, you may find you do better than a professional service. You'll put more time into the personalised tweaking of each shot (that will be required) because you're not concerned about a profit motive.

[Csae]

Not to mention photoshop can fix degraded photos nowadays. Granted its more time, but im really just trying to keep as many of you old retired guys off the street as possible.

:)

Well, aslong as you aren't taking 2 lanes, and doing 20under the limit, i guess i wont mind. But most retirees around here do either or both :(

[Dread Pirate Roberts]

Here's an example of old Agfa, basically straight out of scanner. Thats my dad and elder brother btw. As you can see some curves will improve it but you can't replace missing data.

[Beowulff]

Roughly how old is that Agfa scan Dread?


Also, I'm led to believe that Digital ICE doesn't work with Kodachrome slides, because its silver halide component (allegedly) upsets the IR scan which "sees" the dust etc — but which can't see through the silver halide? Apparently Kodak slides are the only brand thus affected?

Cheers :)

[Dread Pirate Roberts]

That ones 40 yo. As I said though I've done a bunch of 10yo (or younger) Agfa that had orrible colour shifts, their processing was really variable - like bad chemical quality control or really poor washing.

With a cheap scanner (sub $1000) don't expect digital ice to be practical. It really slows the process down.

You're better blowing/brushing the slides clean then scanning with no computerised dust reduction, just do a manual clone in photochop or the corel equivalent afterwards to remove the worst dust.

The cheap dust reduction methods stuff up fine detail like eyes. And you don't discover the problem till you've scanned heaps then you've got to find the affected slide, rescan etc. Easier to do it manually and keep control.

[Dread Pirate Roberts]

Heres some 47 yo kodachrome by comparison. Admittedly this is a good sample and the Agfa was a poor sample but I've never seen Agfa survive like this and I often get Kodachrome similar to this.

Edit. Hey in trawling through my parents old slides to find this photo I got hooked and had to keep view a few more. Scanning your old shots really is well worth doing and you should have heaps of fun doing it. They're so much more accessible you'll look at them more often. You can tweak your exposures to improve the shots which is something you couldn't have easily done in the pre digital days.

[Csae]

http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/scanrex.htm

I found this for you old geezers.

I always take his advice with a grain of salt though. Iunno might be a useful read for some.

[Dread Pirate Roberts]

Whilst I make it a general rule to want to disagree with KR...

His basic premise is correct except I think he's unduely pessimistic.

I did smile when he said scanner manufacturers lie. He got that bit dead on at least.

[Beowulff]

Hey Dread...

Love the 48-215 Holden. Ahhh, those were the days LOL.



Have read Mr. Rockwell's thoughts on scanning. I also think he's a bit cynical about the whole thing too. And I think he brushes off too easily the cost factor in getting someone else to do it (present company excepted ;) ).

He says he's happy to pay someone else 65¢ per slide, but with his theoretical collection of 3000 slides that works out to nearly two grand's worth! Which — quite frankly — I don't have.

Cheers :)

[Dread Pirate Roberts]

Scanning them can honestly be fun anyway.

I only suggest my service to those with limited time, excessive quantities of money or technophobes. When people don't fit at least 1 of those 3 criteria then they're not potential customers.

[Beowulff]

.....I only suggest my service to those with limited time, excessive quantities of money or technophobes.



And that sure ain't me LOL.

Cheers :)

[Karolinar]

Dread Pirate Roberts - How can we get in touch with you in Adelaide - I have some slides that need to be scanned - I actually live in the US but my brother is in Adelaide and he has all the slides. I can't find another service on-line!

[Dread Pirate Roberts]

I've sent my details to your private mail.

In case you're not familiar with this site then you can find your private messages link near the top right corner of the webpage.

Hey Beowulff, how is the scanning going? How well did the slides survive the riggors of time?