[MacDV] Re: Film Scanners

Mon Dec 30 18:38:57 PST 2002

It really just depends on what your time is worth.  Oh yeah the Nikon stuff 
says 40 some seconds to scan but do hi res and or ice and you get to 4 
minutes or real life according to the salesman.  I figured I coudld go 
through each film strip and only scan the good ones but that means a lot of 
prepping.  This way they scan everything I pick from the cds which ones to 
download to iphoto and voila done.
I used to think like you with the saving money by doing it myself, but 
still got the rug cleaner in the box in the garage on the way to the 
Goodwill.;-]
Brian

At 06:20 PM 12/30/2002 -0500, you wrote:
>I also have a few thousand slides I'd like to digitize and catalog. I
>was thinking of the Nikon S4000 with the automatic feeder. I know that
>costs about $2000. However, if I send two thousand slides to a store
>and they cost even $.50 each (I cant find the cents key), that would be
>$1000, and additional slides would cost even more. Perhaps if I bought
>this equipment, I could offer a service for friends to cover my costs.
>
>David
>
>
>On Monday, December 30, 2002, at 05:23 PM, Brian Sledz wrote:
>
>>AMEN.  I just inventoried 3000 negs to scan.  I called a big photo
>>store in my area and first they said $1.19 for photocd.  Then the lady
>>asked if I was in a hurry, if not I could have them for $.50 each.  I
>>dropped my shopping for the scanner and decided to get a Nikon d100
>>instead.
>>IF you only require web res there are places that would do it for a
>>good price.  Maybe send some out and do some?
>>Brian
>>At 01:17 AM 12/30/2002 -0800, you wrote:
>>>on 12/28/02 2:19 PM, Randy Wilson at wilsonr at fonix.com wrote:
>>>
>>> > The problem is that while the Epson 2450 is the fastest flatbed
>>>scanner I've
>>> > heard of (17 seconds for a 6x4" print at 600dpi, for example), it
>>>is still
>>> > painfully slow on transparent scans (3-7 minutes per slide).  The
>>>Super
>>> > Coolscan slide scanner is suppsed to be "fast", but still takes
>>>about a minute
>>> > per slide (at full resolution, but without any of the additional
>>>processing
>>> > that can make it take 10 times that).
>>> >
>>> > I think I have mentioned here before that I have about 10,000+
>>>slides to scan,
>>> > and I've been trying to figure out if there is any possible way to
>>>do this in
>>> > a reasonable amount of time.  I don't necessarily need absolutely
>>>optimal
>>> > quality and resolution--just scans that look good on a computer
>>>screen (e.g.,
>>> > a screensaver that zooms in on part of the picture), TV screen
>>>(e.g., slide
>>> > show video with appropriate music and/or narration), and perhaps a
>>>print of up
>>> > to 8x10 inches.  A 4 megapixel image would be sufficient.
>>>
>>> >
>>> > To scan a large collection of slides, there seem to be a few
>>>alternatives:
>>> > 1. Use a flatbed scanner.  This is slow (3-8 minutes per slide),
>>>and the
>>> > quality may not be as good as a slide scanner.  However, for me it
>>>would be
>>> > "free", since I already have the scanner.
>>> >
>>> > 2. Use a slide scanner.  This is only slightly less slow (1 minute
>>>per slide
>>> > with a $1200 firewire scanner; slower on a cheaper or USB scanner).
>>>  This
>>> > would probably yield the best quality, if an expensive (>$1000)
>>>scanner is
>>> > used.
>>> >
>>> > 3. Use a miniDV camcorder: Blast through the slides, filming off of
>>>a screen
>>> > or transfer box, and extract images from the video.  This would
>>>also be "free"
>>> > for me, since I have a camcorder, and would be much faster than the
>>>other
>>> > ways: about 2 seconds per slide to shoot the video, and another few
>>>seconds
>>> > per slide to save each slide from the video stream (or perhaps done
>>> > automatically).  But the quality would be nasty: 640x480 and highly
>>> > compressed.
>>> >
>>> > 4. Use a digital camera: Project each slide onto a movie screen or
>>>transfer
>>> > box, and use a 4 megapixel digital camera to snap off each picture.
>>>  This
>>> > would probably take 3-5 seconds per picture (assuming the digital
>>>camera could
>>> > store things off that quickly), and would be high enough resolution
>>>for most
>>> > things.  I need to experiment to see how the quality compares with
>>>a slide
>>> > scanner.
>>>
>>> > Is there such a thing anywhere (even for $100,000) as a scanner
>>>that will do
>>> > fast high-quality scans of slides?
>>>
>>>What your time is worth? A few years ago I spent $600 (CND) on an HP
>>>Photosmart S20 scanner for my Dad with the intent of archiving
>>>thousands of
>>>family slides/negs. By the time all was said and done, we were lucky
>>>to come
>>>out with maybe 25 scans in a hour (and of course that doesn't include
>>>time
>>>to catalog, backup data, etc.). It was totally discouraging, and to be
>>>honest, the quality wasn't that great.
>>>
>>>Previously we had sent several hundred slides in to a Kodak Photo CD
>>>shop;
>>>awesome quality, no muss, no fuss, and they had 300 slides done in
>>>less than
>>>a week. It seemed a little pricey at the time (about $1/slide) which
>>>is why
>>>I went the scanner route, but in retrospect I should have saved my
>>>money on
>>>the scanner, and countless hours of time, and just had them all done
>>>to
>>>Photo CD.
>>>
>>>My advice - take them to a service bureau that does Kodak Photo
>>>CD/Picture
>>>CDs and spend your time/money on the creative side of things.
>>>
>>>http://www.kodak.com/global/en/professional/products/storage/ 
>>>pcdMaster/about
>>>PCD.jhtml?id=0.3.6.30.17&lc=en
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>--
>>>Gregg
>>>
>>>
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