Viewing slides on a projector has long been the way of the past. These days, everything is about digital formats for family photographs, and presentations. The problem with that, is what to do with all the old slides that you have lying around. Slide reels can take up a lot of space, and over time picture quality degrades, making them a less than ideal way to store your photographs for later use. Instead, you might consider purchasing one of the various types of 35mm slide scanners that are available on the market.
There are a few options that you can choose from in order to convert your old film slides onto your computer. One of the most common methods is through a 35mm slide scanner. These are specifically made to handle slides as well as old film strips, and convert them into digital files that are readable by your computer. Plus you can upload all the files directly into a photo editing program, to immediately restore each image as you upload them. This way, by using 35mm slide scanners, you can easily put everything onto your computer.
The only downside of this process is that it’s expensive, and very time consuming. Each file will have to be restored as you go, to make sure they are of the perfect quality. This takes a long time, especially if you’re not an expert at using the software and hardware necessary. Plus editing software is very expensive, usually in the hundreds of dollars for a decent program. On top of that you’ll have to buy the 35mm slide scanner which will also cost into the hundreds. That means this is a great long term investment if you’ll slowly be converting your files to digital, but not so great if you’re looking short term.
To get a lot of slides scanned quickly, you’ll want to use a photo scanning company. That’s the only way to guarantee the work gets done fast, and at a degree of quality that you’ll appreciate. Typically a scanning service will have much better 35mm slide scanners that are well out of the average consumer’s price range. That means they can scan film quickly, and in a very high quality, so that you get better looking files on the cheap. The only downside is that you can’t oversee the process yourself, so you could be unhappy with the way that they restore your slides. Also handing over important items to a third party like a company carries with it the risk that your irreplaceable slides will be lost.
Typically 35mm slide scanners cost around $200 for a basic model. That will get most of your work done, and you won’t complain about the quality. The really high quality 35mm slide scanners can cost into the thousands depending upon the type that you buy. On average a service will only cost you 5 cents per slide, and usually offers deals when you’re having a massive amount of slides scanned at once.