Scanning old 35mm slides and negatives

[Blackbird]

There was a bit of interest in a post I made recently about researching scanners for digitising the zillions of 35mm slides and negatives that we have at home. Prices for different types of scanner vary enormously depending on specifications and to cut a long story short, we finally decided on an Epson V600 flatbed scanner, priced at $598 from Photo Warehouse. I haven’t done a lot of experimenting yet but in full auto mode, the results have been remarkable – better than we’d hoped for. The photo shows the scanner with the attachment for 35 mm slides and negatives.

Most of the scans are at 800 dpi although I’ve done a few at 1200 dpi. Scanning time varies depending on resolution. Typically, at 300 dpi, each slide takes 45 seconds. At 800 dpi, 1 minute 45 seconds. The quality from negatives is better than for slides in terms of blemishes because they’ve been better protected in plastic sleeves over time (right back to the 1960’s). Some of the slides have scratches or dirt/mould. In many cases, I can clean the slides up a bit with a slightly damp cloth, cotton buds or a soft brush. I also use aftermarket software on some of them for blemish removal (still have Picasa!). I’ve only used it once for actual old photos as the Canon printer/scanner we already own is pretty good for photo scanning. That photo scan is of my drag bike Icarus taken in 1969 at 800 dpi.

Just for reference, the other examples are.

Tudor Rose dragster – 1970 1200 dpi

Rocket 3 production racer – 1971 800 dpi (cropped)

My yacht capsize – 1979 800 dpi

My wife on our honeymoon - 1972 800 dpi (cropped)

Hope that’s of interest to anyone else who has old slides and negatives. Also, thanks again to all the KB'ers who offered their own experiences with scanners.

Cheers,

Geoff

[HenryDorsetCase]

Those results are very good! I love that dragster pic.

[Blackbird]

Those results are very good! I love that dragster pic.

Thanks HDC! I think it was money well spent considering just how many slides and negatives we have. That dragster, Tudor Rose, was arguably the first UK slingshot rail that would give the Americans a run for their money. When the U.S team came over on their occasional visits, Tudor Rose was really competitive and running together on the same surface was a good leveller as the UK strips at that time were basically old airfield runways.

Here's a couple more scans. The orange Escort was our first car in NZ in '75. I still have to clean up a few blemishes in the sky. They only show at large magnifications. The other is the grid at Brands Hatch. Pretty sure that it was 1971, the year before we got married. My wife's folks lived a short drive from the circuit so it was the ideal place to stay over. My idea of a hot date to get her interested in bikes

[pritch]

Thanks, that's all good info.

[Blackbird]

Thanks, that's all good info.

You're welcome Ron! I did look at this one too: https://plustek.com/oeu/products/fil...pticfilm-8100/ . However, by the time I imported one, it would be around $1000 all up and didn't really want to pay that much.

Incidentally, the only (slight) downside of the Epson is that the software can occasionally cause a freeze. I'd actually read about this when doing research. It's not a big deal at all and KB's Viking01 was kind enough to suggest a quick work-around which completely solved the problem.

[Naki Rat]

I picked up a second hand Epson scanner from a photo lab (in Whangarei from memory) a few years back. I had a swag of old photos, negs and slides which I worked my way through and 'digitised'. From my experience if the original neg or slide was taken on high ASA film (e.g. 400) which a few of mine were then the only advantage in increasing the DPI of the scan was to make visible the inherent graininess of the film used.

Nice pic's by the way

[Blackbird]

I picked up a second hand Epson scanner from a photo lab (in Whangarei from memory) a few years back. I had a swag of old photos, negs and slides which I worked my way through and 'digitised'. From my experience if the original neg or slide was taken on high ASA film (e.g. 400) which a few of mine were then the only advantage in increasing the DPI of the scan was to make visible the inherent graininess of the film used.

Nice pic's by the way

Thanks for the tip, NR! The slides I've scanned so far are all common or garden Kodachrome, plus a few Agfa (which incidentally, have deteriorated more than the Kodak ones). However, the ones I haven't found yet of the Isle of Man TT and the Transatlantic Match Races were all shot on Ektachrome High Speed which I think was 400 ASA. When they turn up, I'll have an experiment with them so thanks again for that.

Glad you liked the photos. Have attached attached another which was taken at Mallory Park. I only scanned it at 300 dpi as it was one of the first I played with. The bikes are both factory Tridents, either 1970 or 71. No 7 is chief tester Percy Tait and I'm pretty sure that No 9 is Paul Smart.

[HenryDorsetCase]

Thanks HDC! I think it was money well spent considering just how many slides and negatives we have. That dragster, Tudor Rose, was arguably the first UK slingshot rail that would give the Americans a run for their money. When the U.S team came over on their occasional visits, Tudor Rose was really competitive and running together on the same surface was a good leveller as the UK strips at that time were basically old airfield runways.

Here's a couple more scans. The orange Escort was our first car in NZ in '75. I still have to clean up a few blemishes in the sky. They only show at large magnifications. The other is the grid at Brands Hatch. Pretty sure that it was 1971, the year before we got married. My wife's folks lived a short drive from the circuit so it was the ideal place to stay over. My idea of a hot date to get her interested in bikes

While they are a lot faster now and still an incredible spectacle, putting the motors behind the drivers (and going to 1000 ft) they aren't quite the macho hairy chested thing they were. Probably just as well as some of the quickest drivers are women!

Its why i love Funny Cars. When it goes wrong all that stuff is sitting in your lap!

An orange 2 door Mk 1 Escort - now it would be an expensive base for your seam welded "Mexico" project rally car.....

[Blackbird]

While they are a lot faster now and still an incredible spectacle, putting the motors behind the drivers (and going to 1000 ft) they aren't quite the macho hairy chested thing they were. Probably just as well as some of the quickest drivers are women!

Its why i love Funny Cars. When it goes wrong all that stuff is sitting in your lap!

An orange 2 door Mk 1 Escort - now it would be an expensive base for your seam welded "Mexico" project rally car.....

I love funny cars too, especially when there are blower explosions 😁. It's still a spectacle but agree that it's not so raw these days. There isn't the level of innovation that there used to be. Much more formulaic now for both bikes and cars.

Haha - I've got some nice photos of twin cam Mk1 Escorts competing in the RAC rally. They sounded great. One of my mates who helped prepare my drag bike had a Ford Anglia with a Lotus twin cam in it. What made it very special was that he was an engineer with Cosworths so had access to a lot of goodies. That car was a real sleeper. He ended up as technical director of their Indy car programme.

[SaferRides]

Thanks Blackbird. I have many years of slides and photos, plus my father's to go through one day, probably when I retire!

[Blackbird]

Thanks Blackbird. I have many years of slides and photos, plus my father's to go through one day, probably when I retire!

You're welcome SR! I retired at 60 so it's a good fill-in when I can't go riding or fishing. I've got a lot of inherited photos from parents and grandparents too and have no idea when I'm going to tackle them properly! I have scanned a small number of their original prints going back to the 1800's using our Canon printer/scanner and they've come out remarkably well. My personal favourite is attached. It's my maternal grandfather who went by the wonderful name of Wilfred Hyde Worsley Odell. It was taken in 1913, mounted on his regimental horse. He passed away aged 96 so I knew him all the time I was growing up. A remarkably clear photo and quite moving, knowing all he'd been through and survived.

[merv]

Hi Geoff great photos. However I'm a bit baffled about the fact you say you are scanning slides or negatives at 300 - 1200 dpi.

I had a look at the Mallory Park photo details and it says the pixel sizes are 3458 x 2197 as downloaded by me from KB and it says 96 dpi, but that 96 is probably the display resolution on KB.

The 35mm slides I did myself as an example a typical one might be 3201 x 2121 as I trimmed the edges a bit and the properties say, as I did, which was scan at 2400 dpi. Lately I've gone up to 3200 dpi as computer power and storage have improved.

The full 35mm is 1.378 inches which times 2400 dpi is 3,307.

So I'm trying to figure out how your scanner is producing a high pixel count at those resolutions, as that is more like what you would get if you scanned from photo prints?

[Blackbird]

Hi Merv, in short, don't know as I select the dpi from the drop down menu. Whether full auto mode then over-rides it, I don't know. I'll experiment in the next couple of days or so using full manual control on the same slide at various dpi's. They certainly turn out better than expected.

[merv]

Yeah be interesting to understand that. I've used the Professional Mode from the start but never used less than 2400 dpi on slides and more recently 3200 dpi when I did negatives.

If you right click on a file and then click Properties then Details it shows the pixel size and the dpi resolution scanned at in the Image block of information.

[Naki Rat]

You're welcome SR! I retired at 60 so it's a good fill-in when I can't go riding or fishing. I've got a lot of inherited photos from parents and grandparents too and have no idea when I'm going to tackle them properly! I have scanned a small number of their original prints going back to the 1800's using our Canon printer/scanner and they've come out remarkably well. My personal favourite is attached. It's my maternal grandfather who went by the wonderful name of Wilfred Hyde Worsley Odell. It was taken in 1913, mounted on his regimental horse. He passed away aged 96 so I knew him all the time I was growing up. A remarkably clear photo and quite moving, knowing all he'd been through and survived.

Quite a few of the photos I scanned were B&W from my late father's stash. Many were pre-WW2 and some substantially older. Among them pictorial proof of a Canadian soldier that hid out in Dad's family's barn in war time Holland (complete with pitchfork injury which he suffered in silence and remained hidden), and a long ago prized bike. I found that even just darkening them and/or increasing contrast improved them heaps.