Scan old 35 mm slides to digital using an iphone?

[TimRichards]

Having just run across a few old old slides and then been exposed to an ad for a slide scanner software, can anyone recommend software to scan slides with my iPhone XS? Any personal experiences or pros and cons would be helpful. Many thanks.

 

[chas_m]

Unless you are absolutely deadset against spending a few bucks, you will get way, way, WAY better results taking them to London Drugs (or similar) and let them do it on pro equipment. You certainly could make a crude "photo" of a slide if you have a lightbox and an iPhone with good macro focus, but while an iPhone can do a great job scanning documents, slides are pretty small and getting a really quality "scan" of it will be IMO more trouble than its worth.

 

[TimRichards]

Well thank you Chas. I never even thought of that. Now I'm motivated to open up that old attic door and dig out more slides - make the effort. Cheers. TR

 

[dfaulks]

Scanning slides is a troublesome job, as Chas has noted. Guess that's why, even with the equipment at hand, I've hardly touched the hundreds of slides that my wife and I would like to review.
However, if you are determined to take the trouble, and have a scanner, the VueScan software should be the one to use.
Go to https://www.hamrick.com - there, you can get a one-day watermark-free trial version.

 

[DaveWT]

When I started the task of scanning in boxes of old slides years ago, I found the Canon scanner I had at the time could hold 4 slides at a time. I set about scanning as many as I could stand over several evenings without looking at the results. Then I discovered all the work I had done was littered with dust spots (not even visible when examining the slides). So on to method two. I set a box of slides into my 35 mm projector, set up a good quality beaded screen in front and my Panasonic camera on a tripod as close beside the projector I could. Then I projected the first slide onto the screen and zoomed my camera in to frame the image as closely as possible. Then as fast as I could click the remote of the projector to advance a slide I also clicked the shutter of the camera. I could go through a box of slides in minutes and very many boxes each evening. The results, while not perfect, preserved the memory and the dusts spots were far less apparent if at all. The few slides that are truly significant can now be worked on with my photo editing software as needed, while the rest are at least preserved.

 

[chas_m]

Just as a side note, some scanning software includes dust removal as a feature. Pro-level scanners and software definitely have this built in, though I found that one still needed to do some touch up in photo editing software.

 

[TimRichards]

When I started the task of scanning in boxes of old slides years ago, I found the Canon scanner I had at the time could hold 4 slides at a time. I set about scanning as many as I could stand over several evenings without looking at the results. Then I discovered all the work I had done was littered with dust spots (not even visible when examining the slides). So on to method two. I set a box of slides into my 35 mm projector, set up a good quality beaded screen in front and my Panasonic camera on a tripod as close beside the projector I could. Then I projected the first slide onto the screen and zoomed my camera in to frame the image as closely as possible. Then as fast as I could click the remote of the projector to advance a slide I also clicked the shutter of the camera. I could go through a box of slides in minutes and very many boxes each evening. The results, while not perfect, preserved the memory and the dusts spots were far less apparent if at all. The few slides that are truly significant can now be worked on with my photo editing software as needed, while the rest are at least preserved.

This makes so much sense in terms of viewing batches and later judging which slides have value. Much appreciated.

 

[ve7dfi]

I have a canon V500 scanner and have scanned old and newer colour slides. It takes 4 at a time and is slow, but, it works well. Have taken some slides that were almost gone and brought out enough to see what was there. On good slides have made 8.5 x11 photos and can not tell difference between them and good digital source. If needed can lend this scanner to anyone who needs one for a while as I am not using it for now.
For the dust specks -buy a can of dry air and use it...CAREFULLY. Check with light source behind slide before scanning. My scanner does remove dust (among bunch of other things it does) but I have never needed to use it. Be careful and if you use soft cloth can wipe off fingerprints on the non emulsion side of slide. Might get off on other side if careful too.
In short, with care and good scanner (forget about kluging methods) it is amazing what scanning and then editing using Photos can rescue and be useful for a slide. A good slide still has more information than an average digital CMOS........
Rapple@telus.net

 

[DaveWT]

with care and good scanner (forget about kluging methods) it is amazing what scanning and then editing using Photos can rescue and be useful for a slide.

Yes, I am sure that is the best method if one is trying to preserve the "art" of the slide. i.e. if getting the best quality out of a slide to turn into an image where the quality is important. But for many of my slides, the value is as a record of something, and quality is secondary to preserving the information that the photo presents. In my case, converting a huge number of slides quickly was more important than overall quality as only a very few would need to be reworked later. The photographic method worked well in that case.

Dave