35mm Color Slides Scanning - Boomer Version

There have got to be millions of us boomers who have boxes and boxes
of 35mm color slides, but don't ever want to break out the projector
and screen again (or try to replace the burnt-out lamp). We used SLRs
back then to get reasonably clean pictures, but let's face it, most of
the slides are not worth spending any money on. We just want to
compose a couple of CDs or DVDs with image qualities good enough for
acceptable widescreen television display (we'll send the really good
ones to the lab if necessary). The disks will also serve as off-site
backups. And we need a better full-page scanner for our computers
anyway.

I was about to scan my collection of over 2000 slides using a $120
Epson Perfection 1660, and 1600 dpi and 50% JPEG compression seemed
about right for eventual HDTV display. The latest (and probably final)
Epson Twain driver for this scanner under XP is a piece of garbage, so
I returned the unit to CostCo before I got any more brain damage.
Incidentally, make sure your unit is validate by Microsoft XP - the
Epsons aren't and it shows.

Any recommendations? Is 1200 dpi "good enough" for television and
computer monitor display, given the probably less than stellar quality
of the source and a little sharpening of the digital image? Obviously,
the smaller the file size the better. Seems like the smallest file
size possible - yet you could gracefully accept the loss of your slide
collection in a fire - would be the right goal.

Does anyone know the average turnaround time per slide for the various
$200 scanners out there?

Bill

In article ,
says...

Any recommendations? Is 1200 dpi "good enough" for television and
computer monitor display, given the probably less than stellar quality
of the source and a little sharpening of the digital image? Obviously,
the smaller the file size the better. Seems like the smallest file
size possible - yet you could gracefully accept the loss of your slide
collection in a fire - would be the right goal.


Scan resolution simply determines image size, in pixels. For example, 35
mm film is 36x24 mm, or about 1.4 x 0.92 inches. If you scan 35 mm film
at 1200 dpi, you will get an image size of about
(1.4 inches x 1200 dpi) x (0.92 inches x 1200 dpi) = 1700x1100 pixels.

This is larger than most video screens, so yes, it should be plenty for
that use, but would not be enough for printing 8x10 inch prints.

Image size in bytes is 3 bytes per pixel if color, or 1700x1100x3 = 5.6
million bytes, but file compression can store it smaller (with quality
losses however if a JPG file).

600 dpi would give half those image dimensions, and 1/4 those bytes, and
would be more appropriate size for video and TV.

Resolution is about image size. Quality is about other factors than
resolution or size, for example like sharpness, contrast, color accuracy,
low noise, etc.

--
Wayne
http://www.scantips.com "A few scanning tips"

You are expecting miracles from a low-end flat-bed scanner. Image quality is
awful even for TV viewing. You would be better off getting a low end
dedicated film scanner.

"bmoag" wrote in message ...
You are expecting miracles from a low-end flat-bed scanner. Image quality is
awful even for TV viewing. You would be better off getting a low end
dedicated film scanner.

Thanks for responding, but both of you are completely missing the
point. The desired end result is simple viewing on a TV screen. Not
enlargements, not award submittals. They're just vacation or family
photos. The Epson scans I made at 1200dpi were completely acceptable,
actually pretty darn good. Do you really recommend that every owner of
old slides buy a dedicated scanner so it can fester in his closet
after a brief use period?

I'm still looking for practical recommendations from those who have
actually done this. Between 1200 and 2400 dpi, and between 25 and 75
percent compression would seem to be the reasonable range, am still
leaning toward 1600/50.

(billzzzz) wrote in
om:
... but let's face it, most of
the slides are not worth spending any money on. We just want to
compose a couple of CDs or DVDs with image qualities good enough for
acceptable widescreen television display ...

Check out the results I got with my Nikon Coolpix 5000 (great macro
capability here which is required for this) and an old-fashioned slide
viewer:
http://www.mindspring.com/~skinsman/...otographed.htm
l

If you have a digicam with good macro ability, you won't find any quicker,
cheaper way to copy slides than this, and I think the results are quite
good - IMO, better than you'd need for TV viewing.

You can also get a slide duplicating adapter for the Coolpix 5000 that
would facilitate a large number of copies like you want. I think they cost
about $100.

Also, I recently got some scans done he http://www.digitalley.com

You can find some of my results from digitalley.com he
http://www.mindspring.com/~dreamflie...s-Coolpix.html

I'm very happy with my scans from digitalley.com. And their cost was a
fraction of what I could find locally. They have a variety of offers with
price depending on the resolution you want, number of CDs you'll need, etc.
I got 25 slides and negatives scanned at maximum resolution (4000 dpi) and
burned as ~64 megabyte .tif files to 3 CDs for $44.00. Of course, this is
not the package you'd want for TV viewing.




--
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