Response interleaved. =====Andrew On Fri, 2006-01-20 at 12:39 +1300, Nick Rout wrote: > My father has something like 2000 slides taken when I was a young'un. > Some of them have great sentimental value and I want to preserve them > digitally (probably not all of them you understand! I will need to look > at most of them though!) > > So, some of what i need to know is possibly OT, and some linux specific. > > What tricks are there to this? I don't want to unmount the slides - too > fiddly and those kodak slide mounts look glued tight.
Try to avoid "tricks" and do NOT unmount the slides. > > I have seen some sites suggest making a light box and doing it on an > ordinary flat scanner, but I have also heard of specialised slide and > negative scanners. I have a HP PSC-2210 multifunction with incorporated > flatbed scenner - would this be suitable for the lightbox method? Specialised slide and negative scanners tend to be fiercely expensive, but become obsolete just as do consumer-grade scanners. You might find a good used unit at one of the professional photo dealers (e.g. Photo & Video International in Christchurch, Wellington Photographic Supplies, Pro Gear in Auckland and Auckland Camera Centre). (I see Pro Gear has a couple but their Web site is tricky to navigate.) > > If I'd be better with a specialised slide scanner, what is a good one > that works with linux AND is free with next month's weetbix special > offer? An Epson Perfection 3490 is $337.37 at Ascent (Wellington). This comes with a slide holder. I myself use its distant predecessor Epson Perfection 2450 Photo (now long discontinued) which came with a 4-slide holder and negative strip holders for both 35 mm and 120. Epson seems to support Linux reasonably well, although my 2450 doesn't work nearly so reliably in Ubuntu as it used to in RedHat 7.3. A Microtek Scanmaker 5800 is $187.51 from the same shop. This supposedly (per LinuxQuestions.org) works in Linux, but I've no experience with the brand. Those are not the only brands/scanners worth considering - just what I found doing a quick search. Do they fit into the budget for the project? > > One site even suggested projecting onto a good quality screen and then > taking a digital photo - which seems a little like the way they make > those early pirated copies of blockbuster movies! Agreed, not worth considering. > > So, anything from sage tips to the complete idiot's guide are welcomed. I'd also rule out fitting a macro lens to your digital camera unless your digital SLR is compatible with a slide copying unit that you manage to find on sale used and cheap. A decent macro lens for a digital SLR will cost far more than a decent scanner. (Sorry for the roundabout first sentence - what I mean is, if you have for example a Nikon dSLR, and you see an old Nikon slide copying unit on sale cheaply, go for it, but otherwise this will not be a fruitful line of enquiry.) Results from a cheap macro lens won't be worth the price of the electricity to store the images, let alone the price of the lens. Check with the photography community both for advice and to see what's being traded in. It's unlikely you'll find too many Linux-using photographers but it'll be easier to Google for Linux compatibility for a few scanners than for the entire market. HTH ===AMP
