getting 35mm slides into Macs

[thelightman]

What is the best way to get a 35mm slide into a Mac?

[Steven.Bentley]

You can get a slide scanner, they're not that expensive, well not as expensive as I'd imagined, I've seen an entry level one at about £150.

You can also get a tranny hood for a flatbed scanner, the quality of these isn't as good as on a dedicated slide scanner but may be acceptable.

Third option, a film processing lab might be able to do it for you, or if you're really stuck project the slide onto a screen and take a digital piccy of that.

[Buzz]

Originally posted by Steven.Bentley:
You can also get a tranny hood for a flatbed scanner, the quality of these isn't as good as on a dedicated slide scanner but may be acceptable.

Third option, a film processing lab might be able to do it for you, or if you're really stuck project the slide onto a screen and take a digital piccy of that.


Well..... I would avoid those two if you want good images.

The slide scanner is an excellent idea. if you can afford it I'd go that route.

The problems with the transparency hoods on most user level scanners is that there is not enough of a density range to truely do a good job at capturing the images. if you want to purchase a high end scanner ($1000+ US) with a hood then you will get much better results. But in general those USB scanners you get at the local office supply store wo't do a good enough job.

The film houses (unless they are geared toward professional photographers) make a great deal of automatic decisions about your images. They don't capture raw data which is best. They tend to sharpen images arbitrarily and often over-sharpen which can ruin an image.

If it were me and I couldn't afford a slide scanner I would call the local print shops and ask about scannng slides. Most better print shops will have either a film/slide scanner r a drum scanner. I would ask what they use to scan slides, if they say a flatbed scanner pass and call another printer. A drum scan will give you truely excellent results.

So my 2 choices would be a slide scanner or a print shop with a drum scanner.

[thelightman]

Thanks everyone for the input, I will try your suggestions.

[thelightman]

Thanks everyone for the input, I will try your suggestions.

[thelightman]

I wanted to tell everyone that I bought an Epson Perfection 1650 scanner. It does a very good job on the slides and photos.
Thanks for all the help.

[Buzz]

Cool. Congrats Lightman!