A question about scanning negatives and slides

[kyrielle]

Has anyone out there done this? What equipment would you recommend?

Are there any businesses in the Portland or Salem areas that you know of, that will do this for you, and that you have either experienced or heard good things about? Any you know to avoid?

I have added a number of slides to the existing photos (which of course, all have negatives that will yield a better scan than what I'm getting from the photos). But I'm not made of free time here, either...paying someone to do it is easier, if they are trustworthy, if they will do a good job, and if I won't be paying an arm and a couple of legs. (It's fine if the prices start off high, if they scale down for large quantities, trust me....)

I'd rather do this myself, but if I take that approach, first I don't know what equipment to get, second that looks expensive too, and third (and most importantly) I don't know when I could possibly get it done. It would take forever! Okay, not literally, but a long time.

Comments

[cynnerth.livejournal.com]

We bought a scanner a few years ago that scans negatives and slides really well. It's a Canon CanoScan 5000F. I'm sure they make them even better these days.

[cynnerth.livejournal.com]

Looks like the Canon 8600F is the latest version:
http://www.pricegrabber.com/search_getprod.php?masterid=25336756&search=CanoScan%AE+8600F

[mandydax.livejournal.com]

The answer is probably a backlit top for your flatbed scanner. They usually hook into a port on the scanner and include software to co-operate them. Some scanners some with this feature, but iirc, you have a flatbed already. You just need to find an attachment that is compatable. A couple years ago, I got P a flatbed with attachment in one because she said she had a box of slides and negatives that she'd like to scan before they deteriorated any further. Hers is an off brand, but has worked pretty well.

[kyrielle]

I'd heard that the dedicated scanners were better, though, in terms of quality. Hrrm. :/

I really want a service, but only a few people from this area read my LJ, so luck to me for that one. I haven't got time to scan all of these, but somehow, I want them scanned. Paying for it seems a good idea.

[canyoncat.livejournal.com]

Before I was able to scan them myself I used to use the Kodak Photo CD service. You just take the slides to any camera place that offers Kodak processing and they make very high quality scans of the slides for you. The resulting images are very large and in the Kodak PCD files you get several different resolutions. I have not done this in probably 4-5 years now but it wasn't cheap. Don't confuse Photo CD with Picture CD... Photo CD is much higher qualiy.

[canyoncat.livejournal.com]

I have a special attachment for my Nikon Coolpix camera for scanning 35mm media. It works pretty well if the source material is bright enough. It's nice because the resulting images are 4MP. My Canon scanner also has an attachment for slides/negatives but the resolution is not nearly so good.

I've also had good luck with taking digital photos of projected slides.

[nt.livejournal.com]

The Minolta Dimage Scan Dual IV (or the earlier III model) is supposed to be very good and is reasonably priced. I'm not sure if they are still in production, but you can probably find one on eBay, and could sell it on eBay after you have finished your scanning.