BetterPhoto Q&A
Category: Scanning Photos and the Digital Darkroom

Photography Question 

Geroge Kovach
 

Scanning 35mm Slides


I have been using my Sony 4meg digital camera to photograph my art. I have been enlarging the images and printing on an Epson 2200 with good results. The more I do, the more detail I would like to see. I recently got out my old 35mm camera and bought some slide film. When they come in I will be looking for someone to scan them to a CD. I use Adobe Photo Shop 7 and enlarge up to 12X24. The question is: Should I invest in a slide scanner? Or would I be better off sending them out? Thanks.


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August 22, 2004

 

doug Nelson
  Film scanners that will do slides are down to about $500, for 4000 ppi. Nikon especially has a good one.

Budget for Ed Hamrick's scanning software is $50-80, depending on which version. I have used Nikon, HP and Canon scanning drivers. All are OK with negatives, but the hamrick.com product wrings the shadow detail from slides, and gives nearly any scanner an overscanning capability it would not otherwise have.

You can pay to have your slides scanned, but you may find that you will spend enough to buy a scanner after about 100 slides.


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August 23, 2004

 
- Shirley D. Cross-Taylor

BetterPhoto Member
Contact Shirley D. Cross-Taylor
Shirley D. Cross-Taylor's Gallery
  I started out with a Nikon LS-2000, which was their best four years ago, and it did a great job. However, Nikon is a bit high priced, so my new scanner is the Minolta Dimage Scan Elite 5400, which scans at the highest resolution (5400) for a very reasonable price. It is not as fast, but does a noticeably excellent job, which is the most important to me, since I sell my prints in galleries. It also gives the option of scanning at various resolutions, so you do not always have to scan at the highest resolution, if you don't need to. It also has an 'easy scan' setting for those just starting out, where it does most of the adjustments for you.


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August 24, 2004

 
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