> 
> On Apr 11, 2024, at 8:08 AM, Maria Aghazarian <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> 
> Hi list,
> 
> My dad has a bunch of 35mm film slides/negatives. Does anyone know of a
> good way to digitize these? He's been looking at some at-home scanning
> options but I told him I would check in with some professionals :)

There are two at-home device types that I’m familiar with, but it’s been long enough that I can’t recommend any specific brands or models.

The first are flat-bed scanners that have a lid with a light source.  You load the negatives or slides into a carrier to keep things aligned, then it scans like usual.  They tend to be high quality (within the limits of the scanner relative to the size), but quality takes time, and it is slow per batch.  And if you’ve got stuff other than 35mm, look at the full specs — some of the ‘negative scanners’ can only handle up to 120 film … the lid only has a light that’s a couple inches wide, so can only do strips.  If you have large format stuff such as 4x5 or larger, you’ll want to make sure it has a lid light that’s wide enough.

There are also devices that are effectively a camera with a light.  You load your stuff into a carrier, and then slide it into the thing and take a picture of each slide / negative.  They’re inexpensive and fast, but not of the highest quality.  And when I was in the market for one, they could only do 35mm.  But if your plan is to put them into a digital picture frame or something else that’s not very high resolution, it’s probably fine.  The workflow is also nice, as it’s just an file per image as if it came off any camera, and then you can load it onto any photo processing software.

But look for reviews online for these devices… some will overscan, so you might need to crop them, and some will underscan, so you end up losing the stuff near the edge of each picture.  (I accidentally bought one when they were new, probably 10-15 years ago and it underscanned, so I decided to redo the whole thing)

I’ve also been known to set up a projector and a camera on a tripod, and just take a picture for each slide.  If you still have a projector and a good screen, this is probably as fast and as good of quality as the camera / light things.

For professional services, there are companies that will basically let you fill up a box and set it to them, and they digitize it for a flat fee, but I’ve never used any of them.  If you have negatives that are NOT 35mm, it might be best to go this route**

And if you’re trying to restore images (because they’re damaged in some way), there are folks that will do that, too.  Although there are groups that advertise online that you can send away to, I would recommend checking if you have any photography/camera stores nearby, as there might be someone local.

**when I worked at NASA, I ended up saving a light box with an arm to suspend a camera above it, that they had used for digitizing old glass plates.  So I know stuff like this exists.  (I gave it to the graphics folks when our group had to move buildings into a smaller space… but that was ~15 years ago, so I have no idea if they even still have it)

-Joe
(Currently unaffiliated)