Has Anyone Used One Of These

Ron61 · #1 (**permalink**) 01-14-2009, 03:34 AM

I have bought a couple of slide to digital converters in the past few years and neither were worth a darn. I have a lot of slides from Korea and places that I would like to convert to digital pictures and I just found another converter that is supposed to convert slides and 35mm negatives to digital, but they can't seem to tell me much about it. I have looked at about a dozen web sites that list it and there is no name for it just a number. Short description. It plugs into a USB port for power and picture transfer. Holds 3 slides or negatives. Scans images up to 1830 dpi. using 3 white LEDs as a back light. Has a 5 Mp CMOS sensor that provides 10 bits per color channel for data conversion and automatic exposure control and color balance. Price $100.
Has anyone ever used one of these or do you have any suggestion about a good one that I could look at?

Thanks,

Ron

427 S/O · #2 (**permalink**) 01-14-2009, 06:41 AM

Camp Casey in Tongduchon, ah! yes, remember it well. Over a hundred in the summer and -30 that winter.

VRM · #3 (**permalink**) 01-14-2009, 06:59 AM

I had a Nikon one that I was happy with that ran about $150 when I bought it new. It was designed to work specifically with an older Nikon digital camera. I sold it (and the camera) when I upgraded to a digital SLR.

You could also have prints made from the slides (there are places that will do it) and then scan them. There are also a few places that will convert them from slide to digital for you, but the price per slide is usually a couple of dollars. Might be worth it if you only have 50 or so slides to do - cheaper than buying a new scanner.

Personally, I would love to see those old shots!

Hope that helps...
Steve

Ron61 · #4 (**permalink**) 01-14-2009, 08:44 AM

Steve,

I have over 700 slides but don't want to convert them all. The scanner that I am looking at is a small one that only scans 35mm slides or negatives and is supposed to put them right into the computer. I had a flatbed scanner once that had a slide attachment but it never worked worth a darn. It plugs into a USB port and gets its power from that plus is supposed to scan the slides into the computer when you press the scan button. I have looked at a lot of sites for converters and this one shows up on all of them, but I was just wondering if it worked well. And this is a small unit that is only for scanning slides or negatives so it might work well. It costs $100 and I called and they are going to have one of their tech people call me back and tell me the specifics on it as none of the sites shows anything about what it scans them in as or how large they may be.

Ron

1ntCobra · #5 (**permalink**) 01-14-2009, 11:06 AM

I have heard that the Nikon dedicated slide and film scanners are nice. They are a bit expensive though. Just for the heck of it, I googled renting one and found a place that will rent a Nikon Coolscan 5000 for a week for $180.

http://www.lookingglassphoto.com/rentals.html

Ron61 · #6 (**permalink**) 02-15-2009, 08:22 AM

Well after looking at a huge amount of very expensive film and slide converters, I went ahead and bought this one. So far it has worked very well on slides. I don't have any 35mm film to try it with, but as I learn more about it, the slides are coming out pretty well.
Now all I have to do is look through 8 trays of 100 slides each and see which ones I want to convert to pictures.

Ron

WildBill1965 · #7 (**permalink**) 02-16-2009, 08:40 PM

What time frame were you there? I was there in 64-65.

Aussie Mike · #8 (**permalink**) 02-16-2009, 10:41 PM

My Mum has a ton of 35mm slides from back in the 60's as well as a big collection of my Grand Mothers slides. She has been steadily scanning them onto her PC with a flat bed scanner. She had some sort of template piece that aligned them and let her do a few at a time. The results were pretty good.

I'll ask her what she does to scan them in.

Cheers

Ron61 · #9 (**permalink**) 02-17-2009, 02:06 AM

Bill,

I arrived there on December 23, 1960, my birthday and I will never forget my feelings as I stood in that darn landing craft at Inchon. Then when my tour was within 20 days of being over they extended me for another 90days.

Mike,

I had a flatbed scanner once with that attachment but it would never scan the slides in very well. Now they are so old that the sky and light portions of them look like there is dust and small tree limbs blowing around in it. I have tried to clean a couple of them and not had much success, but otherwise the scanner works great.

Ron

fastraxsg · #10 (**permalink**) 02-17-2009, 09:53 PM

I have a Canon 9950F which was the top of the line when I bought it a few years ago. I did a bunch of slides to digital format (slides of old Singapore and Malaysia from the 70's) and they came out pretty good. It has dedicated holders for various types of slides and film. It was also bundled with FARE level 3 for retouching. I looked at the Nikon dedicated slide reader at about ($750) but once I was done with the slides, I wouldn't use it any more so didn't go that route. However, one of my friends had one and the quality of the reproductions was hard to beat.
Which model did you buy and what resolution will it give you?
Ken

Ron61 · #11 (**permalink**) 02-18-2009, 02:39 AM

I bought a cheapie at $100. It is a VuPoint and only does slides and film. It is a 5 MP and has 1800 dpi resolution that can be enhanced to 3600. For what I want to do this is plenty. I had a high priced HP Scanner a few years ago with a slide tray and I could never get anything out of it that looked very well. And these slides I am doing were taken in Korea in late 61 and early 62 and have a lot of scratches and such on them.

Ron

fastraxsg · #12 (**permalink**) 02-18-2009, 08:10 AM

On the Canon scanner, it had scratch and dust remover attributes, while it didn't take it all out, it sure made a difference without a lot of loss of clarity or resolution. Not sure if the FARE Level 3 was a built in part of a software program. a hundred bucks looks a lot more attractive if it does a reasonable job. My biggest problem was discoloration with Agfa slides turning purple and fuji slides getting all green. And here in the tropics, even in dry cabinets, we have lovely mould of various hues and densities. Glad you got something that will work.

Ron61 · #13 (**permalink**) 02-18-2009, 08:39 AM

I scan the slides into my Laptop and then transfer them to my Desktop that has the photo program. I don't have an expensive photo program as I use Paint Shop Pro and it is no where near what Adobe Photo Shop is. Also doesn't cost nearly as much. I have managed to get most of the worst stuff out of the pictures. Also I find that using canned air and blowing the slides before scanning helps, but they are 47 years old and just not as good as they were new.

Ron

fastraxsg · #14 (**permalink**) 02-18-2009, 08:49 AM

I've been using ArcSoft Photo Studio 5.5 and on occasion PhotoShop but mine's a couple of years old. I still ended up with a bit of purple in spots on some of the slides. I put a couple in my gallery. Me thinks my photos are about as good as I am these days.

Ron61 · #15 (**permalink**) 02-18-2009, 08:56 AM

I just looked at the first picture in your gallery and it seems pretty good to me. The purple as you called it could probably be taken out mostly with some work. But the quality of the picture is good.

Ron

Ron61 · #16 (**permalink**) 02-19-2009, 02:23 PM

Here are a couple of pictures that I scanned from some old slides. One is my 1965 Galaxie 500XL and the other is the Batleship Missouri at Bremerton.

Ron

fastraxsg · #17 (**permalink**) 02-18-2009, 09:03 AM

Those are after several hours for fooling around with colors and blending and just plain cleaning up. We had a 50th anniversary celebration at our school in Singapore and we did a static display of photos of the city during the years of the school's life. I had hoped for better but they came out ok for what we needed them for. In all I did about 50 prints in about 3 months...my eyes were bushed when done, but the exhibit was well recieved.

fastraxsg · #18 (**permalink**) 02-20-2009, 07:01 AM

Other than a color shift they are pretty clear and crisp. I was on one of those battleships but can't remember if it was the IOWA or the Missouri just before it was decommisioned. they came and ported in Singapore and we got to sign up for a tour via the embassy. Unbelievable from end to end, massive and its like you could feel the whole might of the US navy being on it. Also got to tour the Nimitz one time. Even got to tour a sub one time. One of the neat things about living in Singapore was signing up to host some of the sailors for a home cooked meal while they were in port. Good fun with a great bunch of guys keeping us all safe. Have you got photos in an online photo bank or such? Would like to see some more.

Ron61 · #19 (**permalink**) 02-20-2009, 08:07 AM

The car was not the deep red that we are used to today. It had a sort of almost orange shade in it when it was out in the sun. And yes, being on the Missouri was a very impressive thing. It was like my first trip through one of the Air force C-5A Galaxies. Those things are so huge it is hard to imagine them flying, let alone hauling the amount of cargo they do.
It had been raining just before I took the picture of the Missouri. It rains every day in Washington. I had to spend my last 9 months in the service there after getting back from Korea, and I don't think there was over 4 days the whole time that it never showered at least once a day. But there is some beautiful country up there and I did get to go to the World Fair they had in Seattle as it was very close. Also spent a day or so in the Olympic Rain Forrest.

Ron