Digitizing Slides with a Kodak Slide Projector

[goddi]

Greetings All,
I have, probably, 8000+ slides from many past vacations. Most are in Kodak carousels. I have wanted to digitize them for many years to use in PTE shows but too expensive to send them out and too difficult to organize them before sending them out. After much research, I have cobbled together a very rough setup. If anyone is thinking along these lines, it is not too expensive, except for the Sigma 105 Macro lens, and I already had my slide projector. I also have a Kodak Stack Loader for those slides in boxes or sheets.

The hard part is to get the projector and the camera in parallel, lined up, and no linear distortion. I've temporarily stacked up some boards under the projector to get close to the height of the lens. Then trying to aim the macro lens into the projector in a perfect line is really tough. The adjustable Decade Tripod Base is working out. I am going to get a level cube to sit on the camera's hot shoe. That should help.

Also, below, here are a couple images that show what I have done so far. I need now come up with a more permanent and less shaky setup. I'll screw the stack of boards (making it neater) under the projector. And, screw down the Decade Tripod Base under the rail. I can make minor adjustments with the rail, up, down, left, right. But I have to start out pretty close.

It will keep me busy for a while as I try to figure this out!




 

I removed the 300 watt bulb and replace it with an LED bulb and put a small section of Rosco White Diffusion paper over the projector's lens.

Here, also are a couple test images. Not lined up perfectly yet, but close. You'll see some black border edges. Not great quality but will be useful to make my digital slideshows. All the images come out upside-down and I have to rotate the portrait slide to landscape. Maybe, I'll just rotate all of them before I digitize them. Lots of attention is needed. No way can this process be automated because each slide needs attention. Not to mention the ones that get stuck. The triggers to take the shot and to advance the carousel really helps and reduce shake.

Image of slide, unprocessed (not bad, but needs some Photoshoping):



Then, a little Photoshoping (a bit better?):



Image of slide, unprocessed (not bad, but needs some Photoshoping):



Then, a little Photoshoping (a bit better?):


 

Hope this gives anyone with bunches of slides a way of digitizing them. I really don't know the best answers to all of this. I am learning as I go along.

Gary

[rosy]

Hi Gary

In the past I digitised 3 or 4 thousand slides using a Canon 9000F slide scanner. You could do 6 or 9 slides I think it was in one pass. Eventually, the software went out of date, so it became redundant. At present I have a Canon Lide scanner which I paid around £50 for but only tried it for documents. Whilst I admire your ingenuity I think if I had 8000 slides to scan & post process, I'd find an easier solution. I had a quick look at what's on the market & came up with this Veho Smartfix Portable Stand Alone 14 Megapixel Negative Film & Slide Scanner with 2.4” Digital Screen and 135 Slider Tray for 135/110/126 Negatives Compatible with Mac/PC – Black (VFS-014-SF): Amazon.co.uk: Computers & Accessories The feedback on it is up & down, but at £75 from Amazon it's worth a try & you can always return it if it doesn't perform.

Rosy.

https___veho-world.com_wp-content_uploads_2017_11_VFS-014-SF.pdf

[goddi]

Greetings Rosy,

You have a point. But my attempts to digitize my slides have been a long and torturous route. Scanning lots of positive and negatives is not a walk in the park.

Years ago, my first attempt was to use a Nikon Coolscan III. Its slide holder would allow 3 at a time. Painful. Then Nikon did not update its firmware with a new version of Window so it turned into a brick.

Then I bought an Epson flatbed scanner. What pain to have to take out each slide from the Kodak carousels, mount them (correctly), scan them and put them back or somewhere. I think the slide holder allowed more than 3, but not enough.

Then, I obtained another flatbed scanner. The slide holder was limited to 3, again. Took just too long, again, to mount in slide holder, digitize, remove/replace...repeat. Each digitizing session took minutes.

Here is what I am trying to replicate, but it cost $3495, plus buying a macro lens, so lets say over $4000.

Being in the carousels, I save bunches of time. Plus, I can preview them in the Live Mode of my Nikon D7100 camera. So I can skip over any obvious throwaways. Yes, my cobbled unit has its issues. And lining up the projector and camera is a difficult process. But I am working on that. So far, my project has cost about $780, including the 105mm macro lens I had to buy. I would never have the patience to use a flatbed or a device that only did 3 at a time. Since most of mine are already in carousels, why not? And for the one in boxes or sleeves, I've got the Stack Loader.

The SlideScan Pro is really impressive and it is automated so, you just press a button and it automatically rotates the carousel and takes the picture, one after the other. But from what I have experienced, each slide needs to be handled and evaluated. Some stick, some need a better focus, some you just don't want to bother with. If I had the money, I might get one...I was about to. But, what the heck. Why not make one myself? I have a trigger to rotate the carousel and one to take to take the picture. Sort of automated but give me full control. Once I get the project and lens registered correctly, It should go pretty fast.

Your suggestion makes sense if I had few hundred images to scan. But I could not stand the tedium of flatbed or similar device.

Gary

 

 

[macian]

For old scanners which are no longer supported, try Hamrick's VueScan, it works with a great number of scanners. You can run a trial version to see if it works for you.

 

https://www.hamrick.com

[macian]

Here's my "One click in Photoshop" colour correction.

I will delete it if you don't approve.

[goddi]

Greetings Macian,

Yes, I know about Hamrick.com. My primary point is I don't want use a flatbed scanner or one that does only 1 or 3 at a time. I want to digitize all these slides just to make PTE shows for my personal enjoyment. The flatbeds might make a better image but just too much work. I would have tried getting my old Nikon Coolscan III to work for special images with Hamrick's firmware but the Coolscan uses some old type of connection, don't think I have it anymore....way before USBs became the norm. Your color correction is a bit cooler than mine. I haven't really got into how I want to 'Photoshop' these digitized slide image. It will take many trials to get it right. Then make an Action, maybe. I set my camera to match the LED bulb at 3000K. Before that, they were way too warm. Maybe I can try different such settings. Easier to fix it in the digitizing than latter in Photoshop, for all these slides.

Thanks...

Gary

[macian]

https://www.diyphotography.net/how-to-build-a-diy-35mm-slides-and-negatives-copying-machine/

[rosy]

Hi Again Gary

Your copying subject tweaked my memory of when I had a bit of a business going copying slides. I charged an hourly rate of around £7.50 which was the minimum wage at the time. I checked again what was available in the Canon range & found this one Canoscan on Ebay's Japanese site. It's more or less the same as the one I had which I paid around £350 at the time. This one says it does 12 x 35mm slides at a time, which looking back around 15 years could have been what mine did. Snag with this one it's from Japan & its £650 plus carriage. If you read the blurb at the bottom of the add it intimates it will work with up to date OS's. Working on the principle of 12 scans of 12 slides per hour, @£7.50 per hour would come to £5000.00 minus the cost of the scanner say £750.00 = £4250.00. At that rate you'd be saving a fortune..

Happy Christmas

Rosy.

PS just remembered I had copies of around a thousand I copied for a friend. They were from the 1940's negatives.

 

[goddi]

56 minutes ago, macian said:

https://www.diyphotography.net/how-to-build-a-diy-35mm-slides-and-negatives-copying-machine/

Greetings Macian, Interesting way of making the slide holder. It does negatives, too. I will have to figure how to do them later.

Thanks... Gary

[goddi]

Greetings,

I finally finished putting together the setup for digitizing my slides. Not the most elegant setup but it is functional and inexpensive (except for the Sigma 105mm macro lens). Takes about 6 or so seconds per slide to manually take the image and rotate the carousel, both using wired triggers to avoid vibrations. At this point, I've process 9 carousels, with at least 40 more to go, plus hundreds of yellow boxes and slide sleeves.

Gary

 

[tom95521]

I like the XY tripod base and external monitor. Much faster to transfer slides to digital than a flatbed. I also remember installing SCSI I/O cards for scanners and external DVD drives a long time ago. USB is so much easier now.

Kodak Slide Projectors reminds me of my first job at our local University in early 80s. The Media Services department had hundreds of slide projectors for faculty to use in the classroom. My job was repairing VCRs, CRT type TVs, and servicing slide projectors. A projector has a cam stack with many levers. Timing and lever travel was critical in order to avoid stuck slides. Cams would wear out and need replacing, greasing, etc. Eventually Windows PCs with MS PowePoint replaced most of the projectors and I am glad those days are long gone.

Tom

[macian]

I'm glad it all works.