Scanning Slides Q&T Article

**C* B* <c*@gardengate.net>**

Ignore if you don't have old slides left to scan.

For those of you who still have a large quantity of 35 mm slides  
waiting in line to be scanned.

Q&T had an article about using slide scanners use to scan your 35 mm  
slides and this is the standard method for doing this process on your  
own. The other option mentioned is sending them to a service provider.  
I've tried that several times and have not gotten acceptable results.  
So I bought a Nikon scanner. As mentioned in the article the Nikon  
jams a LOT and the Nikon software is buggy (and that's being kind) and  
will drive you to drink real fast faster.

I found a faster, far better, and less expensive alternative by  
picking the brain of a friend who has been in the photography world  
all his life in various positions. He started doing lab work way back  
in the good old analog days. He recommended a Beseler Dual Mode Slide  
Duplicator. I found one on Craig's List for $50 in perfect working  
order and the package included a 80 mm enlarger lens. So with another  
$50 for shipping plus a few dollars for a T mount (allows you to mount  
your camera on the enlarger lens) I was in business.

So the Nikon D200 camera does the capture. All the grunt work is in  
sorting and choosing and cleaning your slides. Mount the camera, set  
camera in RAW capture mode, adjust the height on the vertical bar  
(just like an enlarger) and focus. Pop in a slide, turn on the  
duplicator light, manually adjust the exposure (easy once you see how  
the camera meter is reacting) with the lens set at f8 or f11 and fire  
away. I can do an average of 5 captures per minute!!! versus 1 every 3  
minutes with the Nikon scanner ... plus deal with the jamming and the  
computer crashes. Pull the CF card, load the image into your computer,  
rename the files in Bridge, add metadata and I'm done until I'm ready  
to use the image. And I have a RAW file with tons of latitude versus a  
scanned file that you need to nail the exposure or you are in for a  
redo. Once ready to use I convert the file to an appropriate size and  
file format for the current usage.

Charlie

Be glad to answer any question or email you a photo of the set up off  
list for anyone with an interest.

Charles Bowers
charlie@gardengate.net
www.gardengate.net

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