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Help please - scanning of old 35mm slides

18 years ago

Hi, as I mentioned in another thread, I found some great old family photographs. They are slides going back to 1958.

Some of them look to have something that looks like very fine black spider webs on them, except that it is right on the slide. My parents lived in Florida since the early 70's, so perhaps it is some sort of mold or mildew.

If it is mold or something like that, does anyone have any idea on what I could use to try to remove it without destroying the transparency? I have some extra slides that I can experiment on.

If you don't know the answer, can you provide any other sites that I could check?

Also, for the slides that are not damaged, do you know of a good mail-order service that I could use to convert the slides to a digital image?

Thanks very much,

Lynne

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Comments (6)

minrose
18 years ago
Sorry I don't know of any mail-order service that would do this. Do you have quality film lab near by like a Filmdrop, Photoworks? They would probably do it.
Have you tried to doing a search on the internet for some of your questions?
netla
18 years ago
I suggest speaking to a conservator who specializes in photographs. They may be able to recommend a method or product to fix the slides. If the slides can not be fixed, you can scan them and then fix the scans with photo editing software. I know it will not save the slides, but at least you will have the photos. And whatever you do, get them scanned before you or anyone else starts trying to clean them.
Which brings me to the scanning: If you have a lot of photos that need to be scanned, it may be more cost effective for you to buy a scanner and do it yourself. You can get a very good scanner relatively cheaply and they are easy to use. You can get free photo editing software (Gimp) that has all the necessary features you need in order to fix the inevitable colour shifts and scratches in the photos, or if money is not an issue, you can get Photoshop or similar software.
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I would have a hard time tossing the scanned slides also - but understand your space limitations. I have an Epson flatbed V200 scanner that I scan slides with. LOVE IT! Love it even more with my new computer that runs so much faster (didn't have any trouble with it working on the new Windows 7 OS either) My Epson is no longer available, but the V500 is pretty much the same unit. I looked up both the Epson and the Cano Scan on Amazon. Looks like both will scan 4 slides at once. I have done large batches (hundreds - not thousands though). It take a while, but if you leave a stack, and just swap them out while you are on the computer, you can get a lot done! I like reading the reviews on Amazon - gives great reviews from people that have actually used the unit. Both the Epson and the Canon have lots of reviews. Price is very similar. I like the Epson flat bed personally. You can scan documents or photos. I find it super handy just to copy a paper when needed. It is NOT an all in one. Just a flat bed scanner. But if I need a copy of a paper, I can just hit "copy" and it will scan and send it to my printer. I scan at 600dpi - which is plenty. Unless you are going to print somthing wall size, you don't need to use the super high settings. It will just make a huge file and take a long time to scan. Make sure you have a couple back up sources for you scans if you are going to dispose of the slides. DVD's can go bad - hard drive fail... I would use at least 2 different backup methods. Here is a scan from a slide from the late 40's or early '50's. Slide had dust and a few scratches.....
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lynne_melb
Original Author
18 years ago
Hi Minirose and Netla. Thanks very much for your replies.
I've done some searching on the internet, but haven't found anything yet.

Netla, I think you are the first person I've met who is from Iceland. I have a slide scanner, but I'm worried that the mold would get into the scanner and damage it. I used to live near Chicago, and a lot of amateur photographers would donate images to them. I'll try to contact them.

Thanks for the help.

Thanks
Lynne
punamytsike
18 years ago
Not really answer to your question, but some other people might find this post searching scanning slides and it might help them -
I just found and bought a neat gadget - digital duplicator, that you screw onto your camera like a lens and take a picture of the slide. This far the results are very nice :)
joyce_6333
18 years ago
I've had an HP Photo Smart scanner for almost 10 years and it does a wonderful job of scanning old slides. It scans negatives, slides, and photos up to 5 X 7 size. It was pricey at the time (close to $600 at the time), but I'd bet they have come way down in price, and probably do an even better job.
lynne_melb
Original Author
18 years ago
Thanks Punamytsike and Joyce

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