Slide scanning service (35mm slides)

Does anyone know of any good slide scanning/digitizing services in the US?

I have about 7,000 slides to scan, and originally was going to get a scanner and do it myself, until I realized that 7000 is a lot and I don't have the time, or that it would literally take me almost a year+ to do them all (here and there on weekends).

sirhawkeye64 said:

Does anyone know of any good slide scanning/digitizing services in the US?

I have about 7,000 slides to scan, and originally was going to get a scanner and do it myself, until I realized that 7000 is a lot and I don't have the time, or that it would literally take me almost a year+ to do them all (here and there on weekends).

Click to expand...

Costco Photo offers this service. The cost is about $0.32 per slide so for 7000 slides you are looking at about $2,200.

https://www.costcodvd.com/services-and-pricing/photograph-slide-transfer

I was pleased with Scancafe. Have only had them do a few slides but did a lot of negatives, very happy with their work. 17 cents a slide.

sirhawkeye64 said:

Does anyone know of any good slide scanning/digitizing services in the US?

I have about 7,000 slides to scan, and originally was going to get a scanner and do it myself, until I realized that 7000 is a lot and I don't have the time, or that it would literally take me almost a year+ to do them all (here and there on weekends).

Click to expand...

True, takes time. I scanned just over 10 000 images, it took over one year.

But, it is quite rewarding, going through your negatives etc. There is an additional bonus, the ones you really would like to enlarge, could be rescanned carefully at the highest available resolution.

I am not sure what conditions your slides are in, it may or it may not be worth it to scan at high resolution.

I did mine on Epson 700. I also have Minolta Dimage Scan Dual III. Now, talk about slow process. It would take years to scan it with Minolta.

sirhawkeye64 said:

Does anyone know of any good slide scanning/digitizing services in the US?

I have about 7,000 slides to scan, and originally was going to get a scanner and do it myself, until I realized that 7000 is a lot and I don't have the time, or that it would literally take me almost a year+ to do them all (here and there on weekends).

Click to expand...

I’ve also used scancafe.com. However, with 7K slides it might run you $1,500 - $2,000 depending on service/option selected.

Marek M said:

sirhawkeye64 said:

Does anyone know of any good slide scanning/digitizing services in the US?

I have about 7,000 slides to scan, and originally was going to get a scanner and do it myself, until I realized that 7000 is a lot and I don't have the time, or that it would literally take me almost a year+ to do them all (here and there on weekends).

Click to expand...

True, takes time. I scanned just over 10 000 images, it took over one year.

But, it is quite rewarding, going through your negatives etc. There is an additional bonus, the ones you really would like to enlarge, could be rescanned carefully at the highest available resolution.

I am not sure what conditions your slides are in, it may or it may not be worth it to scan at high resolution.

I did mine on Epson 700. I also have Minolta Dimage Scan Dual III. Now, talk about slow process. It would take years to scan it with Minolta.

Click to expand...

You have some good points there. Most (probably 95% of them) have little to no issues and are pretty much the way they were when they were made (they've been stored carefully and at room temperature, away from moisture, and in closed slide cases designed for storing slides). There are a few, from the 50's, that are damaged but this happened shortly after they were taken/made (within about 10 years, those slides degraded) so at this point, I'm just trying to get them digitized so that at least there is a digital copy should they begin to degrade (most of them go back to between 1970 and 2000). There aren't really any newer than 2000 as they were form my parents, and they switched to a digital camera when they came out around 2002-2002.

I don't really know anything about the ones from the 50's but they have a red color cast to them, which I should be able to minimize or possibly correct in PS later on (luckily, there is maybe only about 100 or so of those).

Obviously if I did this, I'm going to have to get a tray-load / batch system of some sort where I can maybe feed in 25-50 at a time (scan a few, get the settings right, and then scan the batch for a particular event/date range, review and then repeat the process for the rest). It's going to have to be automated somewhat.

YetAnotherBlender said:

sirhawkeye64 said:

Does anyone know of any good slide scanning/digitizing services in the US?

I have about 7,000 slides to scan, and originally was going to get a scanner and do it myself, until I realized that 7000 is a lot and I don't have the time, or that it would literally take me almost a year+ to do them all (here and there on weekends).

Click to expand...

I’ve also used scancafe.com. However, with 7K slides it might run you $1,500 - $2,000 depending on service/option selected.

Click to expand...

Thanks. AT this point, it may cost me about that ($1500) to get a scanner that can do batch loading and scanning (which I'd have to have to speed up the process). So to me, either way I go, it's money that's being "invested" in getting them scanned.

The only plus side to the buying a scanner might be that I could maybe sell it later when I'm done, or do it as a side business for others that need slides scanned...

The cheapest and by far the fastest method is to get a Nikon macro lens such as the AF-S Micro NIKKOR 60mm and the Nikon ES-2 slide holder for your D750.

Use the camera's built in HDR feature to tame the high contrast of most slide films.

The D850 has a routine in firmware for reversing negatives to positives, but you don't need that for slides, and anyway it can be done in the computer. The D750 doesn't have that routine but will still do the job fine.

I should say that I digitized all my slides a few years ago using a Sony NEX-5N, with its HDR feature.

The best way to scan all the slides hire professional scanning service company which scan the all slides with quality. lot of professional company which provide the services like ScanCafe, Scanmyphotos etc.