Anyone know of a not too expensive way of doing this without resort to a specialist scanner.

Ta :confused:

Suggest that if there are not too many, you may find someone who knows someone who may do it for the pleasure of it - ie for nowt. The resulting large files will need a Zip drive or similar to get them home to the PC you are going to work on. I would write the files to a CD ROM; that's an easier and cheaper way of transporting them.

There are companies that do this kind of work but you will buy an operator's time and that could be expensive.

I have a high resolution transparency adapter suitable for radiology work for my scanner. My son-in-law is the radiologist and put me up to it. It's not that expensive once you've got it (ie no running costs) and I find it worthwhile to have. But, like the main scanner, it does spend long periods just sitting there not being used...

If you're going to scan 35mm slides you've got to use a very high resolution transparency adapter to get the number of pixels you need to enlarge the image enough to make a decent print. Work round solutions such as projection, photocopy to plain paper first and then scanning normally etc are not likely to give you that.

Oh, an afterthought. I think one of the photocopy shops (Copyman) in my high street has a machine into which you can put 35mm slides and get a colour print out of it. It's a self-serve machine so no operator's costs. Why not go down to the High Street and ask about?

[ 20 October 2001: Message edited by: fobotcso ]

There are a number of cheap (ie. non-specialist) flatbed scanners which include a slide adapter. The low-end Plustek and HP models come to mind, both of which are under $300CA here. I'm sure there are lots more if you do a search. The quality of the scans is not 'professional' by any stretch, but still probably better than your local Kinko's.
Doesn't help if you already have a scanner of course - I don't know of any retrofit products, but I may be wrong as I haven't looked recently.

Could you not attach white paper to the back of the transparency and then scan?

B

Another option is to get an adaptor that fits on the front of a camera that allows you to take photo's of transparencies, either a 35mm or digital camera. :)

Arkroyal is busy in the Mil Forum so why not here..?

He's either forgotten that he posted his question or he doesn't think it's necessary to show any appreciation for the help he's getting.

I don't know, the young people of today...

I blame the parents, you know! :D

Sorry, fobo, been busy with the day job away from home this week. (And attendant worries as to whether I'll have a day job soon!)

Thanks for the suggestions everyone.

Ta for calling me a youth, too :D :D

Ark, you're welcome and thanks for joining in the joke. It's always nice to know what folks ended up doing about their query (if anything). It can be of help to others.

The white paper idea sounded intresting and I intend to try it with some OHP transparencies when I can remember where they are safely stored. :D

Costco (UK) are selling the HP4470 for about £85 this week (inc a £15 discount). I haven't tried it out yet but it does have a slide copier included with it that has background lighting.

Fobo, what's etc. sky9 and all,

Thanks again. That HP for 99 squid sounds good. Saw it in PC world for a lot more. Why don't HP sell the slide thingy separately, I wonder.

Tried the white paper idea some time back, but the slides do need backlighting, otherwise the result is very dark. The HP jobby holds the slide, and lights it from above.

Still well chuffed at bein confused wiv a yoof!! :D :D :p

Another suggestion if you don't want to splash out on a full-blown film scanner:
there's a firm called Black Widow (www.blackwidow.co.uk) which advertises a film scanner attachment for a flat bed scanner - the FilmScan35. It's been advertised in Micro Mart and consists of a triangular block which contains an optical-grade mirror and, presumably, works by reflecting light from the scanner back down through the transparency to give you the backlighting. Costs £39+VAT. They also do a stand-alone 35mm film scanner with 1800dpi optical resolution for £119+VAT.

I don't know how significant this might be but, using your standard 1200 dpi scanner may limit the size to which you can enlarge your pictures taken on 35mm purely because of the small image size. But then again, most "professional" film scanners are about 2800dpi. I'd be interested to hear any comments on the Filmscan 35.

Now, how about one to deal with my 6cm x 9cm slides on 120 roll film?!

Thanks, Gripper :)

It depends on the total number of transparency,s you have.
I have thousands to transfer to CD.
I purchased the HP Photo Smart S20 for £300
and have been very satisfied.
So far I have scanned in Just under 1000
units at a rate of one every 2 minutes
I then put them on CD and print off thumbnails to make up an album.My duughter
Thinks it is a great way of presenting all the old photo's.
P.S. I have been taking Transparency's since 1962
regards

sTEAMHEAD,

yES THERE ARE HUNDREDS, WHICH i WOULD JUST LIKE TO SEE AT A NORMAL SIZE.

i'VE SENT FOR THE ITEM MENTIONED BY GRIPPER AT £39 + vat. I'll post as to it's worth soon.

Thanks everyone.

Oh shyte, just looked up and seen the error of hitting Caps lock instead of shift key. Can't be bothered to correct it. I'm not shouting, honest :D

well, I bought the Blackwidow Filmscan35. Tried all manner of tweaking, but the results are very disappointing.

I would definitely NOT recommend this device, especially as it is very over priced at over fifty quid by the time its in yer mitts. A plastic moulding with two mirrors!

Now trying for a refund, so next report will be on Blackwidow's customer service!

So, its time to buy a proper scanner with slide reader.

ArkRoyal, thanks for the update; I await your final feedback about after sales Customer Service although I won't need it since I won't be buying the product!

You have to ask whether a £50 item could match the performance of a proper scanner and transparency adapter. If it could they wouldn't be charging £50 for it.

Sorry to hear that suggestion of mine didn't work out, Arkroyal. As you say, seems like you've got to pay the full price to get acceptable quality. Oh well, back to saving up for the real thing!

No problem Gg. It would have been a win if it had worked well, but as you say,fobo, you get what you pay for. Trouble is I'm fifty quid short saving for the proper jod now! :p

I agree with Arkroyal......that FilmScan 35 is a right load of crap.
I too tried everything, but it's just a wast of time and space.

We've been had

TD :mad:

What about the Kodak Photo CD set up?
Check with a "Real" Camera store that is a Kodak outlet. It WAS expensive but gives great results. I believe there is now a cheaper option.
I'll check with Kodak.

Arkroyal
Can't suggest any cheapo methods to do what you want but, if the experience is of any use, I have both an Epson 1220(?) scanner (which comes with transparency adaptor as standard) and a Minolta Dimage Dual Scan dedicated transparency scanner. Unsurprisingly, the results reflect the respective prices. The Epson does an adequate job for providing standard postcard-ish sized prints - probably equivalent to a 1Mpixel digi camera. I have just used the Minolta for the first time on some Canon 35mm SLR negs and the results are stunning (as are the file sizes - typically 14-18 Mbs!!) The amount of detail recoverable, given the size of the source, is quite remarkable.

I have a large collection of medium format 6X4.5 slides which I would like to scan.
In the computer mags I have seen nothing advertised to cope with them.
Anyone got a suggestion?

The Minolta Scan Multi II will handle all kinds of slides/film with appropriate accessories. Be sure to be sitting down when pricing it out :) http://www2.minolta.com/dp/multi2/overview/index.html

Mallard
The Epson (Perfection 1200)would almost certainly do the job, albeit not at the highest resolutions - from memory, something like 1200 dpi (the handbook, like most of them nowadays is on one of the several hundred cds in the confuser room!! :) )That would probably exceed most home printer resolutions anyway.

Filmscan35 back in post to manufacturer today. They seem OK with the refund, Iguess they're used to it!

Let you know if I get the loot back.

Thanks for the other suggestions. rather fancy the HP one I checked out in PC world.

Got the HP5370C last week. Very very nice. Not as good as a dedicated film scanner but much cheaper. 16 slides down, about 8000 to go.....

Good OCR software by IRIS (much more accurate than the sw that came with the HP4200C)

I tried one of HPs box-with-mirrors slide adapters on the 4200 - that didn't work either. Hope you get your refund!

Full marks to Blackwidow customer services. Full refund, no quibble. Shame about the item.

Mac, how much and where from?

Can anyone suggest I good home scanner that is quite fast for documents, and gives you other goodies as well. I have reams and reams of stuff, actually two lever arch files I want to store to disk. What do you guys reccommend. I have been looking at all sorts of scanners, but they all seem rather slow.

Any suggestions. Makes and models.

Thanks in advance.

Arkroyal - Incredible Connection, Cape Town and some R1300 reduced from R1600 - that was 3 weeks ago. Dunno what the incredible shrinking rand has done to the price or whether they still have any left.

Bob Hawke, HP do a document sheet feeder attachment for the HP5370C - I don't know how it performs or how much it costs, but it sure looks neat As for speed, I'd venture that most SOHO scanners are likely to be slowish - the 10x speed of professional business scanners comes with a 10x pricetag. As I said, I'm quite impressed with the OCR software bundled with the HP5370C.

Mac, thanks for the tip, will look at that one.

I've just discovered this thread and having experimented with various methods of scanning slides I have concluded that there is no substitute for a dedicated slide scanner. Although I am still saving for one, I do have an obliging friend with one and I'm not too proud to avail myself of his generosity. For anyone interested in getting more out of their scanner I can recommend Wayne Fulton's site. It will tell you what your scanner manual doesn't.

Scantips (http://www.scantips.com/)