Slide Scanning: Part 1—The Scanning Device
After years of thinking about it and looking at the various methods of doing it, I have finally actually started to work on scanning my hundreds of boxes of 35mm slides that I took before I ‘went digital’.
The title picture shows just one of three containers of slides that I have from my pre-digital days.
Being a bit of a perfectionist, I particularly wanted to do a good job of digitising my slides. I only want to do this once and I want a good first-time result. Once I have scanned the selected slides I want them to be of sufficient resolution and quality that I could make a good 16 x 20” print enlargement as a minumum—should I decide to do that some time in the future.
Because of this requirement it eliminates the sub-$300 general consumer level 35mm slide scanning options. Typically, the highest optical resolution of these sub-$300 units is 600 dpi. They may talk about 1,200 dpi and even 2,400 dpi resolutions, but you can be sure that anything above 600 dpi is interpolated resolution.
This means the scan is done optically at 300 or 600 dpi and then a program within the scanner, or that has been installed on your computer, then ‘invents’ the additional image dots to fake the 1,200 or 2,400 dpi resolution.
If you are looking for a good first-time result then you do not want an invented or interpolated resolution.
Over the years I have done hundreds of hours of research into the three main methods of doing high quality scans of 35mm slides. These are:
Using a purpose-built quality slide scanning device such as the Plustek Opticfilm or Nikon Coolscan units.
Using a 1:1 macro lens on a relatively high MP digital camera (at least 24MP) to take digital photos of the slides.
Using a high-end flatbed scanner that has film/slide scanning capabilities.
In the end I have gone with option 3.
I am using an Epson Perfection V600 Photo scanner. This scanner can scan film or slides at up to 6,400 dpi optical resolution and can scan four 35mm slides at a time.
It is not fast. Scanning four 35mm slides at the maximum 6,400 resolution takes about 15 minutes if you turn on Digital ICE dust removal. Enabling the Digital ICE dust removal technology causes the scanner to have to do two passes of each slide. The second pass is used by the Digital ICE technology to help identify dust on the slide.
So, now I have decided which method I am going to use and I have set up my V600 scanner on my workbench ready to do some test scans.