60 mm slides to digital?

<p>Hi everyone a bit new to the forum, as of 10 minutes ago, but I have a baffling question<br>

that might be considered a bit of a newbie question but here goes. <br>

I'm trying to digitize 60mm slides that will be of good reprintable quality. I've investigated<br>

the possibility of using my canon 1000d however I feel the resolution will not be great. <br>

Many slide scanners I've seen have stated specifically for use in 35mm only, so I'm <br>

wondering what my options are in this respect? </p>

<p>Thanks for your help! (:</p>

<p>60mm slides? Are we talk ing 120/620 format film here big square ones? If so believe it or not a cheap Epson Flatbed V500 or V600 will work fine in the right hands. Are they already mounted or are they in strips?</p>

<p>Also, various Canoscan alteratives will do medium format at high res.</p>

<p>So many options JDM. :-)<br>

I have seen setup for Digital cameras and many scanners... The OP did not ask for a price range in Hardware and Software. :-)</p>

<p>Depends on how big they need to be printed, and how much quality. Epson V750 would do for modest magnification. Much better is a Nikon Coolscan 8000 or 9000, but they are only available used for rather astronomical prices (higher than they were new). More expensive yet would be an Imacon scanner, at least they are available new.<br>

Most practical is probably paying a pro lab to scan them if you need something better than the Epson flatbed.</p>

 

<p>Also depends on the original slides. :-) I get pretty good prints from 6x6 scanned on my V700 up to 30x30.</p>

<p>Thanks for the great responses! These slides have been mounted, but I have about 3,000 initially that I would like to digitize, but I still have alot more which is why I thought that getting a scanner may be a better idea. I think they are the 6x6 film rolls. I think I will try the V700 and see how far I get! Thanks again for everyone's help (: Also Larry, do you use the same software supplied by the manufacturer or is there another setup that you use for your slides? </p>

 

<p>I scan with Epson scan that comes with it and I use Photo Shop elements 5 for post processing.</p>

<p>Great thanks for your help Larry (:</p>

<p>I got the Epson V750 because I'd used the copy of SilverFast LE that came with the preceeding Epson 2450, and liked it very much. The difference of the V750 is that it comes bundled with the full SilverFast Ai version. I think the V700 comes with SilverFast LE.<br>

I've had no joy with Epson scan.</p>

<p>I agree with Larry. The Epson flatbed V700 works very well after you work with it a bit. I PP with Photoshop CS 6.</p>

<p>-O</p>

<p>Why scan so many?</p>

<p>Hi Tiffany, first of all welcome.</p>

<p>I faced almost the same problem - they were negatives mostly instead of slides - and I solved using a digital camera but in a unusual way. In practice you have to re-photograph each slide in 3-6 pieces, and then stitch them in a panoramic software (Photoshop, PhotoStitch, Panorama Maker, Hugin etc.).</p>

<p>If you want a more detailed explanation check the following link on my blog:</p>

<p><a href="http://www.addicted2light.com/2012/11/29/how-to-scan-films-using-a-digital-camera/">http://www.addicted2light.com/2012/11/29/how-to-scan-films-using-a-digital-camera/</a></p>

<p>And if you want to see the quality level you can reach you can see the examples at the following two links:</p>

<p><a href="http://www.addicted2light.com/2012/11/23/best-film-scanner-canon-5d-mark-ii-vs-drum-scanner-vs-epson-v700/">http://www.addicted2light.com/2012/11/23/best-film-scanner-canon-5d-mark-ii-vs-drum-scanner-vs-epson-v700/</a><br>

<a href="../digital-darkroom-forum/00b7Fk">http://www.photo.net/digital-darkroom-forum/00b7Fk</a></p>

<p>You'll need 10-15 seconds to re-photograph the slide and from 30 seconds to 2 minutes (depending by the power of your computer, of course) to stitch the files together. This way I was able to "scan" 300 medium and large format negatives in less than a week. Compare this times to the 15-30 minutes that a typical flatbed scanner takes for each picture...<br>

Hope this helps.</p>

<p>Well, never put it past me to find a way to justify acquiring a new tool. I have an Epson V700, and it will do an adequate job of scanning your negatives or slides.</p>

<p>Here is the problem. It will take you forever to scan 3000 slides! I faced that with a much smaller number of slides and old prints. Weeks, full time. I have a day job too. So, it would be months, many, for me.</p>

<p>I finally decided that it was worth it to ship my slides off to a commercial scanning service. I figure if a few of the slides are real heroes of wonderful photography, then I can re-scan those few to my own taste with the Epson. With 3,000 slides, you ought to be able to get a volume discount.</p>

<p>Ask yourself what your time is worth. Of course i am glad I have the scanner, but it is limited to very small jobs. I learned, at least for myself, a lesson. YMMV.</p>

<p>You need to ask yourself why you want the scans.</p>

<p>If it's for archival purposes, it's pointless as the negatives will most likely be o.k long after the files have become corrupt or un-readable.</p>

<p>If it's for printing, just scan them or have them scanned as and when you need them. I'm sure you're not going to print all 3,000 at the same time.</p>

<p>It's just taking up alot of drawer space and I don't want to lose the pictures if something happens to them when I move them into the attic. I will still be keeping them too but having a digital copy reassures me a little bit. <br>

Owen what modifications have you done to the Epson V700 for your use? And what were the scans used for? <br>

I'm thinking I will send a majority off to get done professionally but in case I'd like to have one at home too (:<br>

Thanks for your suggestions everyone its very helpful and gives me a lot to think about, because in the first instance I have 3000 slides but in totality there are over 30,000... So it's a pretty big job! </p>

<p>If it's 30,000 - Work out how long yopu will take for each scan then work out how much of your free time you can spend scanning. With that information you can work out the likelihood of finishing the task within your lifetime.</p>

<p>As a rough guide, if we say five minutes per scan, that's 150,000 minutes or 2,500 hours.<br>

If you can spare two hours a day, five days a week, thats 10 hours per week making this a 250 week job i.e. just under five years.<br>

I expect the reality is that each scan will take longer and that you cannot devote ten hours per week to it.</p>

<p>I would guess that it is at least a ten year task.</p>

<p>I hae thousands of images from the 1960s and 1970s, many of which were taken on 120 film. B&w and color slides plus a few color negatives. I have been using an Epson V500 Photo scanner which will take 35mm and 120-size originals to scan. It is a flatbed scanner and you can also scan 4x5 negatives/slides or tiny Minox negatives or slides.<br>

I am exhibiting some of these old photos in an art gallery, blown up to 11x14. The gal who made canvas ink jet prints from my scans said I could have the images blown up three or four times as big as 11x14's. There's a tough learning curve while attempting to make really good scans, though.<br>

I have to wonder if making scans for a backup is wise. Progress marches on and while your original slides will last a long, long time if taken care of well, who knows if --say -- 25 years from now anyone will have a computer that reads your scans? I have info on old 5.25 inch floppy disks that are pretty hopeless as far as being able to retreive the info on them. And they are only 30 years old.<br>

Good luck.</p>

<blockquote>

<p> I have info on old 5.25 inch floppy disks that are pretty hopeless as far as being able to retreive the info on them.</p>

<p><strong>I was already very happy I could retrieve some old data from a 1,44M 3,5" floppy disk. :)</strong></p>

</blockquote>

<p>Try 8" floppy disks in either a CP/M format or in IBM Displaywriter format.</p>

<p>If that's too easy, I have some IBM punch cards around the place somewhere....</p>

<p>In my practical year in 1986 for the MTS (technical education) I had to align the read/write head of these 8" floppy drives with scope and calibration disk. 2x 360KB later 720kB memory disks. Also in that period Commodore 64 home computers or even before ZX-81 with Zilog processor programming in hex code.<br>

Time is changing fast. Fortunately tommorrow the world will be ended (according the Maya's) so I think I will work in my darkroom tomorrow, just in case .............</p>

<p> </p>