digitizing old slides

G

Guidofisherman

New member
I need help/advice on how to digitize my 40 year old wedding slides that have just been found and returned to me. There are about 150 of these slides that I need to digitize as a Christmas present for my wife who has never seen these as they were lost. (We only had one wedding photo all these years.) I also have several thousand other slides to do eventually. I want to copy them myself and process using Aperture and Photoshop. I am looking at buying an "Opteka HD Slide Copier" from Amazon to use with my Nikon D40. I have a Nikon AF-S 35mm 1.8 DX prime and a Nikon 18-200 zoom. My question is: Will the prime focus or do I need something like a 2x ring? Is the better choice to use the 18-200 and buy a reducer ring to get to the 52mm? How do I set it up to get things to work?


Amazon.com: Opteka HD Slide Copier for Nikon D5000, D3100, D3000, D700, D300, D200, D100, D90, D80, D70, D60, D50, D40, D40x, D2HS, D2XS, D3 Digital SLR Cameras: Camera & Photo
 
W

WayneF

Senior Member
Guidofisherman said:
I need help/advice on how to digitize my 40 year old wedding slides that have just been found and returned to me. There are about 150 of these slides that I need to digitize as a Christmas present for my wife who has never seen these as they were lost. (We only had one wedding photo all these years.) I also have several thousand other slides to do eventually. I want to copy them myself and process using Aperture and Photoshop. I am looking at buying an "Opteka HD Slide Copier" from Amazon to use with my Nikon D40. I have a Nikon AF-S 35mm 1.8 DX prime and a Nikon 18-200 zoom. My question is: Will the prime focus or do I need something like a 2x ring? Is the better choice to use the 18-200 and buy a reducer ring to get to the 52mm? How do I set it up to get things to work?
Click to expand...


I have not used this adapter, but it would seem to me the best user comments to read would be those on the Amazon page... they have actually seen and used it. Others like me are just guessing.

A prime lens may not work with this, you probably will need the variable zoom to change image size and frame the image of the slide. I'm thinking you do not need anything else, except maybe the filter adapter to mount it.

Optically, this is an extremely inexpensive solution. Basically, it is an inexpensive 10X magnifying glass (an extreme close up filter) in front of the zoom lens (and a slide holder). A GOOD 10x filter alone might cost twice that much. So not optically great, and it can't match what a $500 macro lens can do, nor can the 18-200, but still, it will allow you to see these old slides, it may be sufficient. An inexpensive try. Be sure to stop down well, like to f/11, to maximize quality of its soft corners. (in this case, f/11 is NOT for depth of field, it is to restrict using anything but the center of the lens and the magnifier).

Other solutions, costing more for 150 slides, would be to take the slides to the photo printing department at places like Costco, who can scan them and put them on CD for you. Call around to find out who can do this. Be sure to also ask what size images they will provide (pixel dimensions of the image). Some only do smallish, more like 1800 pixels, or 4x6 inch print size... which might be sufficient.
 
Last edited:
Top