[at-l] Digitizing Hiking Slides

[Jim Bullard]

I use an Epson Perfection 3200 which can be bought used on eBay for a
fraction of what I paid when it was new. It will do fairly high quality
transparency scanning up to 4"x5". Quality, like scanner prices, is
relative. Mine will scan at a quality high enough for most people. For those
who are very fussy (ad agencies, publishers, etc.) only a drum scan will
suffice at $15 or more per image. A color matching system to make your
monitor and scanner "see" the color according to a common standard will set
you back at least several hundred $$. The alternative to that is to manually
color correct the scan files post scan. Most will come out acceptable to the
average person anyway.

The bulk scanning places use a mass production automated process. As long as
the scans are correctly exposed and all in focus it can be a great deal for
those who are willing and have the software plus skill to do their own dust
& scratch removal. It saves you the tedious part of the process. Beware of
software that removes dust and scratches during scanning. Often it simply
'softens' the image to disguise the dust and scratches. You are better off
to get straight scans with all their warts and manually correct them using
clone or patch tools if you want them to be sharp.

If you are doing your own editing I recommend Paint Shop Pro for the less
serious user. It has a lot of the same features as Photoshop for about a 5th
of the price.

Final recommendation for all digital imagery, whether direct from your
digital camera or scan files: Never, never, never overwrite your originals
with edited copies. Instead use "Save As" to create a new edited copy.
Editing means removing, taking stuff out. As you gain skill you will be able
to make better edits but if you have overwritten the original it is
impossible to recover the lost data and make a better edit of that file.

Jim Bullard
http://jims-ramblings.blogspot.com/


2008/11/12 Navigator <ftcracker at aol.com>

> Actually, $99.95 is pretty cheap for a slide scanner. I'd question its
> quality. I second what Jim says about your need for quality. I've held off
> scanning any more of my 10,000+ slides, which include hiking images all over
> Florida, because the scanner I had (a high-q one bought used on eBay) got
> dustier and dustier and I couldn't get into it to clean the scanning
> surface. There are services that will do it for as low as $0.50 per slide in
> bulk for decent quality, but Jim's price for color-corrected print quality
> is more spot on. A good Nikon scanner runs $599+ ... and hasn't fit in my
> budget yet. So the slides sit and wait.
>
> Good luck!
> Navigator
> www.floridahikes.com
>
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