I've shown these before, and the top one is severely cropped, but they were from a few very dirty negs that had been kicking around all my life. I'd never seen them as positives until getting a scanner.
They were taken by a concertina Kodak, I'm sure, bottom of the range. You can see on the second one, some flowers on my mum's frock that are in focus. The further out, the worst distortion. But, it does show the ability to search back into the past without masses of expensive kit.
What I have noticed, and it's obvious really, is that the photos taken with my Aunt's camera, a scaled up model of my mother's, are markedly better.
I try to find the negs to check the surface area ratio - but it's not doubled by any means.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v7...MSBWRBcrop.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v7...rphotocopy.jpg
Again, getting back to scanning
thousands of slides. That's a daunting task, and I would do the masses by sitting with the camera remote in one hand, the carousel control in the other. Odds are I could control the camera with the same hand I was holding my wineglass in.
When the bulk was safely away, I would then use the the T/V to view and pick out the ones worthy of a proper scan.
The screens I have are not up to perfect copies, but they really do bring to life the overall benefits of slides. I don't know if new reflective screens are still available. Maybe, a projector tele screen might give good quality.