scanning slides - which approach?

chrisjohnson

Finally got around to sorting through my 35mm slide collection and got down to 450 that I would like to digitize/archive - preferably in a one-time fashion that means I keep the original quality.

Seems I can either buy a scanner - the Canoscan 8800F is being recommended - or I can send my treasured memories off to a specialist (emotional ouch) who probably has better equipment but probably not able to distinguish between slides which are upside down or facing the wrong way in the tray.

What do people recommend? Are scanners like the Canon good enough to capture the original image quality. Are the professional services good enough/better? Which of the many resolutions on offer is appropriate to 35mm dias shot with decent glass on an SLR?

I don't think I have an artistic wonder hidden in the collection - otherwise I would have printed it long ago. Most are important memories; new babies, children growing up, etc. Still I would like to preserve as much quality as possible for anybody in the family who wants to do something with them in the maybe distant future.

Any advice gratefully received.

CatOne

Flatbed scanners don't do that good of a job. The Nikon slide scanners are way better. But it's tedious.

Sending them out is a lot less of a pain, and saves the investment in buying/renting a scanner. That said, I took the latter approach.

I scanned a bunch of stuff at 4000 DPI. If I did it again I might do 2000 DPI as let's be realistic... am I gonna print the stuff bigger than 11x17?

chrisjohnson

CatOne wrote:

Flatbed scanners don't do that good of a job. The Nikon slide scanners are way better. But it's tedious.

Sending them out is a lot less of a pain, and saves the investment in buying/renting a scanner. That said, I took the latter approach.

I scanned a bunch of stuff at 4000 DPI. If I did it again I might do 2000 DPI as let's be realistic... am I gonna print the stuff bigger than 11x17?

Thanks for the advice.

My wife took the decision into her hands and said "we need a scanner anyway".

I scanned everything at 2400 and can always revisit if necessary. The scanner has a lot more power than I used. It takes a lot of time but runs in the background on the computer so I just did it while doing my normal work.

The Canon gives very good results although you need to spend some time understanding the software. In retrospect I think it was a good decision - there are many issues in scanning lots of old slides - different cameras, different vintage, some the wrong way round, etc. I can't imagine a professional lab can afford to take the trouble.