Is it possible to scan slides by photographing them?

[baloghmatt]

Hi,

This might be a wacky idea, but I was looking for a low cost slide scanner, and they seem to fall into 2 camps, Nikons high-end ones, or flat beds, which are a bulky. Does anyone have suggestions for ways to capture 35mm slides with a Digital camera such as the D70?

Back in the dark ages there used to be boxes that screwed onto the filter attachment. Is there anything like that?

Cheers

Matt

[Alpha_7]

I've seen adapters so you can photograph you slides, so yes they do exist. I haven't used one so I don't know what the quality is like. but I'm sure you'll get some replies that are more helpful soon.

[baloghmatt]

Thanks Craig,

I can't even think how to seach for them, because I don't know what they would be called. A slide photographing thingy-adapter?

Matt

[Alpha_7]

Slider duplicator works for me.

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/MARUMI-ZOOM-SLID ... dZViewItem

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/Zoom-Slide-Dupli ... dZViewItem

[Matt. K]

If you have a macro lens then yes...it is possible. I have made good A3 prints from photographing negatives on a light box. You have to take care with the process though. No room for sloppy work and use a tripod.

[TonyH]

The problem with the slide duplicators is that they are made primarily for film

I have one but it is useless in most cases as the crop factor of digital means that you only copy the middle 70% of the image.

If you had a Canon 5D full frame camera then you'd have no worries.

The slides that I have duplicated on the D70 have turned out really well, but with the crop factor I've had to be careful which slides can be duplicated.


Regards

Tony

[Marvin]

I used the extremely low tech way of projecting them onto a screen and then photographing the screen. They actually came up quite well and I was amazed at how much detail I could pull from some very badly underexposed shots.

[Ivanerrol]

Depending on how many slides you want to scan. It is quite reasonable to have them scanned at your local good quality film processing shop. Some of these shops have very good $ 250.000 machines that will give excellent results.
At my preferred Fuji shop, the owner had an assignment from a client to scan a large wheelie bin full of slides to digital. - It took over three months on his high speed machine. - It also cost the client Thousands $$$$.

If you want reasonable quality you do really need a reasonable flatbed. There are good models to be had for $ 300.00 new. ( Microtek)You could find a reasonable used Epson flatbed like a Epson 2400 on Ebay for less than a couple of hundred. You might just have to bite the bullet for desk real estate.

I have copied slides with a Film Pentax slide copier bellows unit years ago. The results were not as good as what I can get on a flatbed.
There are Nikon slide copiers on Ebay - obviously designed for film slr's, however as posted above results using a digital slr may not be satisfying.

[baloghmatt]

Thanks, that's really helpful, I was thinking that using a slide duplicator would not be as good as a flatbed scanner.

I have a lot of slides to scan, and I can get them done professionally, but the hassle is that I want to hand pick them from thousands, and just getting it organised and getting the slides back where they belong is a daunting task.

Thank you to everyone for all your great advice!

[Sandy Feet]

I have a slide duplicater for my cooolpix 4300 and I found you need a really clean light source for it to work, I have since progressed to an epson 4870 Photo and found it excellent.
Set up properly it will scan 8 images with a pass and send them to individual files

Hope this helps
Cheers
Rod

[Greg B]

I have the Epson 3170 Photo scanner (presumably a cheaper model than Rod's 4870) and have had success with scanning slides and negs. You don't have cropping issues with a scanner. Not really the low cost option you are wanting however.