slide scanning

nateyates

My boss has 500 some 35mm slides he wants scanned. Primarily for PowerPoint presentations, but also some from which he may want prints made. I've contacted local professional labs and there's one that can do 4 base (I'm not really sure what that means) 1024x1536 scans for less than a buck/slide w/ ~5 meg files. They can also do 16 base scans to ~18 meg files for way more. I know very little about digital imaging, so if anyone can let me know if the quality needed if I want to take a slide up to say 8"x11".

I'm also curious if it would be better to just get a slide scanner. I've seen the Minolta Scan Dual III for around $300 and wonder if anyone has experience w/ this model or would recommend something else.
Thanks,
Nathan

pathfinder

nateyates wrote:

My boss has 500 some 35mm slides he wants scanned. Primarily for PowerPoint presentations, but also some from which he may want prints made. I've contacted local professional labs and there's one that can do 4 base (I'm not really sure what that means) 1024x1536 scans for less than a buck/slide w/ ~5 meg files. They can also do 16 base scans to ~18 meg files for way more. I know very little about digital imaging, so if anyone can let me know if the quality needed if I want to take a slide up to say 8"x11".

I'm also curious if it would be better to just get a slide scanner. I've seen the Minolta Scan Dual III for around $300 and wonder if anyone has experience w/ this model or would recommend something else.
Thanks,
Nathan

How well do you get along with your boss? If it is just for PowerPoint slides, send them off for a buck a piece and be done with it. If you have never had experience with color correction and slide scanning, you will spend a conservative 10-15 minutes per slide - DO the math.....
12 minutes is 1/5 of an hour 500 * 15th of an hour = ~100 hours - I suspect this is a very conservative estimate if you have never done this kind of thing before. Is this what you want to volunteer for? That is assuming you get the scanner set up without software glitches.

I have scanned hundreds of family slides from the 40s and 50s with a Nikon CoolScan IV and I have enjoyed the experience, but it costs much more than the cost of the scanner in learning curve, computer upgrades, etc. I began five years ago and am still learning how to do it better.

But if you really are interested and learn how to do it well, you can probably do it much better than the ones you pay for. I just had slides scanned locally to a PhotoCD and will never do it again, because the quality was way inferior to what I can do myself. So... the answer really depends on your level of committment and interest.

nateyates

pathfinder wrote:

How well do you get along with your boss? If it is just for PowerPoint slides, send them off for a buck a piece and be done with it. If you have never had experience with color correction and slide scanning, you will spend a conservative 10-15 minutes per slide - DO the math.....
12 minutes is 1/5 of an hour 500 * 15th of an hour = ~100 hours - I suspect this is a very conservative estimate if you have never done this kind of thing before. Is this what you want to volunteer for? That is assuming you get the scanner set up without software glitches.

I have scanned hundreds of family slides from the 40s and 50s with a Nikon CoolScan IV and I have enjoyed the experience, but it costs much more than the cost of the scanner in learning curve, computer upgrades, etc. I began five years ago and am still learning how to do it better.

But if you really are interested and learn how to do it well, you can probably do it much better than the ones you pay for. I just had slides scanned locally to a PhotoCD and will never do it again, because the quality was way inferior to what I can do myself. So... the answer really depends on your level of committment and interest.

Thanks for the advice! Depending on which way we chose to go, I may be back looking for more.

gecko

there are several flatbed scanners that come with slide adaptors

and they are usually much cheaper than the nikons

John

Slides
Here is an interesting article on the topic.

John

http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/3000slides.htm

pathfinder

gecko wrote:

there are several flatbed scanners that come with slide adaptors

and they are usually much cheaper than the nikons

My wife uses an Epson flat bed scanner for her family slides, and gets fair results. But in my opinion, it does not come close to the results that are possible with a good film scanner - Nikon, Canon or Minolta - But it is cheaper and faster to use a flat bed scanner. Depends on how high a priority quality of scan is to you ........

Sounds like Ken Rockwell agrees with my first statement above pretty closely.......