Converting slides to digital? (1 Viewer)

[Cuckoo-shrike]

I have a large batch of slides which I want to convert to digital images before the mould finally takes over. Unless anyone has any other ideas, it seems there are three ways of doing it:

- taking them to a shop and getting them out on a CD (at £1 a slide, prohibitive)

- buying a printer with slide-copying facility (again, costly as I already have a good printer)

- buying the Nikon ES-E28 slide copy adapter for my Coolpix 4500.

The latter option is clearly the most economical at £59.99. However, being the skinflint that I am, I'm a little reluctant to fork out sixty quid for a gadget which I'll never use again, before checking out any other options. So I'm wondering if there is anyone else out there in a similar position who may be willing to share the cost of buying one. Once I've used it for my slides, you can keep it.

Any takers?

Andy

 

[snowyowl]

My Canon D1250U2F scanner came with a device for scanning slides. It works well but is labour intensive. Scanners aren't all that expensive and, if you don't already have one, it might make a good investment.

 

[devon.birder]

Hi Aquila. I have the Nikon ES-E28 and I have this morning transferred a batch of bird slides to digital.
Why don't you buy the adapter, use it and then sell it again on Bird Forums. I am sure you would get at leaset half your money back.

 

[Adey Baker]

As the 4500 focusses very closely, why not use a light-box?

You should be able to get a 'Jessops' own brand with mains adaptor for less than half the price of the slide-copier.

Incidentally, the 'Extendaview' 2x LCD viewer or a reversed 50mm SLR lens both make good ad hoc loupes for viewing slides on a light-box.

 

[Cuckoo-shrike]

Many thanks for the tips guys. One BirdForum member has very generously lent me his ES-E28 in exchange for a small contribution to charity.
Andy

 

[njlarsen]

I am the owner of an ES-E28 slide copy adapter, which in my limited experiments have yielded results that was less than satisfactory. Which settings and which setup have all of you guys used with this thing?

thanks
Niels

 

[Jos Stratford]

I am the owner of an ES-E28 slide copy adapter, which in my limited experiments have yielded results that was less than satisfactory. Which settings and which setup have all of you guys used with this thing?

thanks
Niels

I also would be very interested if some debate opened up to how good the results are - I have 100s of slides, plus the Coolpix 4500, so if the converter is good, would like to know

 

[njlarsen]

I have now made a few experiments. The Image attached is a hawk-owl picture I took years ago with a Minolta camera and a low cost lens from Soligor on Ectachrome 200 slide film. I have now made a copy using the ES-E28 slide copy adapter on a CP4500, and the attachment is a central crop that have only seen levels in photoshop, but no other adjustments. I do not say that this is the final word on how it should be done, but this particular image was taken using an indoor lamp shining on a piece of white paper, onto which I had used white-balance preset. Other settings included Contrast = 0, normal saturation (+1 produced a very red image), sharpening = high, noice reduction = off (according to exiff, I thought I had used ON and the camera still reports that setting), zoom at 17.7 mm (yellow flower, almost full slide included). I did not tell the camera that the copying devise was on. Just like with all other pictures taken with this camera, I found that settings of -0.7 or -1.3 worked much better than 0.0.

Any comments?
Niels

PS: a web-sized version of this image can be seen in my gallery, http://www.birdforum.net/pp_gallery/showphoto.php/photo/32497/sort/1/cat/500/page/1

 

[Doug Greenberg]

I own and sometimes use the ES-E28 slide copy adapter. If used carefully it will produce acceptable results. However, if you compare digitized dupes done this way with ones for the same slides done with a "real" slide scanner, you will see just how much quality is being compromised. A slide that is scanned with the very best technology will reveal details in a transparency that you never knew was there--really!

So the choice involves some determination of how much quality you really want. Seems to me that for your most prized slides you should have them done professionally--you won't regret it. For people who routinely shoot slides and want some of them digitized, investment in a scanner that has a slide attachment is a good idea.

The ES-E28 is for "quick and dirty" only, in my opinion.