DIY Slide Scanning?

[krazy_horse]

Hi folks,

My mum ordered some prints of some old slides from the 70s a few weeks ago at Boots but they all came back cropped and very dark. She complained but they said they couldn’t do anything else with them. I would imagine this would be a straight forward job, and simply increase the light/or exposure of the slide scanner ???

Anyway I was just wondering if anyone had tried to actually do a bit of DIY “scanning”, this is my attempt:

It was done with an SB800 and an off camera flash cable, even this is better quality than the ones Boots gave her. The grip pattern over the image is from the diffuser, I didn’t want to use to a harsh flash as I thought it might kill the camera’s sensor?

Would a dedicated macro lens work better? This was done with my 300mm F4 lens. We only have 3 slides to scan for a project, so buying a dedicated scanner is not needed.

Any advice would be much appreciated.

Cheers,

Jonathan

 

[CT]

You'd do better photographing the slide just lit by plain skylight from behind. It's slide copying you're doing rather than scanning. You can usually see cheap old slide copiers on ebay, although for just 3 slides you should be able to manage. A macro lens would be better, but at a pinch just fill the frame with whatever you have for the best result.

 

[classcams]

I do not think that I have seen worse prints than that. Macro does not come into this. Even the cheapest flatbed scanners are good compared to these. Positive slides were excellent. I have many taken in 1950`s and they are good. Do you know of anyone with a flatbed that has holders for slides.