# 35 mm Slide Scanning/Digitizing Questions



## RhoXS (Sep 17, 2011)

I have a few thousand 35 mm slides and negatives from the 70's and 80's. I want to digitize most of them as there is a treasure trove of memories contained in the images. It appears my only real affordable option is to buy a Plustek 7600Ai slide scanner for almost $500. From the reviews, this scanner appears to do a decent job but it is manually fed and it is extremely slow. This leads me to my questions:

1 - What scan resolution is equivalent to the quality of the 12 megapixel images my Nikon D90 is capable of? It does make sense to scan the slides and negatives at a greater resolution as I am completely satisfied with the pictures I take with the D90.

2 - Why are slide scanners so incredibly slow when a good digital SLR can take a picture in the mid teen megapixels instantly?

3 - Is there a well designed system with calibrated light source for using a digital SLR, such as the D90, to digitize slides?


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## FlyingScot (Sep 17, 2011)

he he join the clan

http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/...ill-i-live-long-enough-help-b-w-scanning.html

re #3 you should be able to coble up something without too much difficulty

alternatively try here 

Photosolve Home > Products > Xtend-a-Slide


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## Cheikhndao (Sep 17, 2011)

I have scanned hundreds of slides with the Nikon Coolscan V.  I think this scanner is no longer on the market.  You may be able to find it on eBay.  At any rate, it is slow, the software is user friendly and the results are often better than the original slide image.  I especially like the ability to increase detail in shadow areas without affecting other areas of the image.  I also use Vue-Scan software with the scanner.  I have a an Epson V300 scanner which does an acceptable job.  I got it in order to scan B&W negatives since the Nikon would only scan one at a time and I was interested in something like contact prints and the Epson could scan 5 at once--4 slides at once.  If the Plusteck is anything like the Nikon, it is worth every penny.


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## mdruziak (Oct 25, 2011)

First a disclaimer.... I work for Plustek.

1. Most of our customers scan at 3600 dpi or below and are satisfied with the image quality.  The last time I scanned at 7200 dpi I got about a 25MB image file.
2. That is a good question.  My guess is that it has something to do with cost.  I'm guessing you would need a full frame sensor and appropriate optics.  Scanners only scan one line of pixels at at time so it takes a lot of time to move the imager past the film.  The higher the resolution, the smaller the movement between each "exposure" and a longer scanning time.
3. It all depends on what you want to do.  If you are just looking to post photos on the web, then a digital camera or one of the scanners built around a digital camera will be fine.  If you want enlarge/print, the best way to go is with a dedicated film scanner.


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