Slides from the 80s - help digitizing?

August 1, 2020 4:29 PM

A dear friend has a wonderful collection of slides from pictures she took with her camera on a trip long ago and I'd like to buy her a digitizer (is that the word?) and would like some help.

A friend has a birthday coming up. Recently she uncovered a collection of slides (35mm I believe) from pics she took on a trip to the USSR in the 1980s. She thought them lost so is very wary of sending them anywhere to be converted or digitized but the internet tells me little machines can be bought for this for home use. The object is to get them into a digital format.

Has anyone used any of these and/or have any recommendations on brands or models? Can a decent one be found for less than $200?

Thanks!

posted by pointystick to Technology (8 answers total)

Wirecutter recommends the Epson Perfection V550, which is a bit more than you want to spend ($529). Their budget pick is the Canon CanoScan Lide 300, which comes in at $89.
posted by NotMyselfRightNow at 5:21 PM on August 1, 2020

Keep an eye on shopgoodwill.com. I've snagged some quite nice machines there.

As for what you ideally want:

* 24-bit color
* Can create TIFFs (many only do JPEGs, which is suboptimal)
* Works with VueScan (which is most slide scanners, honestly)
* If you're on Windows, has drivers for your version (it's often possible to fake modern Windows into running older drivers, but it's not fun and it doesn't always work)

Personally I'm a fan of Plustek scanners. Compact and speedy.
posted by humbug at 6:07 PM on August 1, 2020

I’ll recommend Vuescan as well, it makes a huge difference to quality and automation options (consider the value of your own time!) and doesn’t bear comparison to usually terrible proprietary scanning tools.
posted by Fiasco da Gama at 6:13 PM on August 1, 2020

Thirding Vuescan - it has drivers for pretty much any scanner made over the last couple decades, so you don’t need to install anything else. Using the infrared channel in Vuescan (which is what filters out dust from the image) is at least as good as Silverfast or whatever comes packaged with the scanner. It also has a few different control interfaces to choose from depending on your level of experience and comfort.

I did a lot of slide scanning recently on a flatbed (an older Epson) during Covid lockdown. It can be a painstaking process. Your money (and time) may be better spent by sending the slides to one of the scanning services that does this for old slides, negs, and prints. I can’t give recommendations for any, but you can find a lot of reviews online (and maybe some reccs in askmefi). If you’re worried about shipping the slides into unknown hands, it’s also likely there’s somebody in your area that does this too.
posted by theory at 7:45 PM on August 1, 2020

I have a PlusTek 8100 slide scanner. Works nicely, though I find that almost every slide need color adjustment (which you can do with the software as you scan).

It was about $300. I had a $100 scanner before that was awful. So don't underspend on this one.
posted by zompist at 9:54 PM on August 1, 2020

I have an Epson Perfection V550, slightly different model than mentioned above, which I got after researching reasonably priced, good quality slide scanners. I've been very very happy with it. Had it for about 5 years now.
posted by molasses at 5:48 AM on August 2, 2020

There may be a local (driveable) service that can do this for her, rather than having to mail them in. If you are only scanning say 50 slides, you could do this in a weekend. It is tedious. The commercial outfits will have much more robust scanners, probably with a magazine to automate the scanning process, and more importantly will be trained in the proper handling of your delicate material. Focus on indie shops, not corporate houses. The indie shops live or die by their local reputation, and often have incredibly skilled and knowledgable people at the helm.

If the plan is to convert hundreds of slides, bear in mind that even with mid-range slide scanners, there will be many, many hours of manually loading and replacing slides and color correction ahead.
posted by xedrik at 9:09 AM on August 2, 2020 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Thank you to everyone! All of you have given me some good info. I didn't even think of Wirecutter, and the personal experiences have been great too. Appreciate y'all!
posted by pointystick at 4:04 PM on August 2, 2020