Getting good prints from 35mm slides

GREETINGS. I WANT TO PICK YOUR BRAINS, ON THE SUBJECT OF SLIDES. I HAVE A RATHER LARGE COLLECTION OF 35MM SLIDES, KODAK PROCESSED, FROM THE MID 70'S. ALL COLOR, MOSTLY "ROSTER" SHOTS. WHAT WOULD YOU RECOMMEND, AS YOUR FAVORITE SET-UP, FOR CONVERTING THE SLIDES, TO 5X7, OR 8X10 PRINTS. HAVING A VERY GOOD COMPUTER, AND ACCESS TO QUALITY PHOTO/PRINT PAPER, ANY RECOMMENDATIONS ON A SLIDE SCANNER/PRINTER COMBO ? "MIDDLE OF THE RANGE" PRICING IS WHAT I WOULD REALISTICALLY END UP WITH, UNLESS SOMEONE KNOWS OF A "KILLER", LOW-BUCK SET-UP. THANKS FOR ANY INPUT, REGARDING THE SCANNER/PRINTER ARRANGEMENT. (YES, I KNOW I AM STUCK IN CAPS-LOCK, NO NEED TO COMMENT ON THAT )

GOLDEN-ARM wrote:(YES, I KNOW I AM STUCK IN CAPS-LOCK, NO NEED TO COMMENT ON THAT )

AT LEAST YOU KNOW YOU'RE IRRITATING EVERYONE WHO READS YOUR POSTS. ...

I would say unless you have an enormous slide collection, you might try to find somewhere in your area that has a Fuji Frontier minilab machine with the ability to print directly from slides. Many one-hour photo places and drugstores (Walgreens comes to mind) have Frontier machines, but not all of them can take slides. The quality is very good, the prints are real "wet" photographs (unlike homemade inkjet prints) and the price is usually about 30 cents for a 4x6.

I'm not up-to-date on slide scanners and inkjet printers, so I'm afraid I can't be much help with those.

To begin with, you will need a scanner that is capable of scanning slides such as the Epson 1650 ( or newer)= $ 150.00 You should get Adobe Photoshop Elements which comes with some scanners. (it came with my Epson 1650)

I too have thousands of slides which I scan often to post on web sites and sometimes print.

Thanks for the replies. (I was not aware that english language was "annoying" ) there are no 1 hour photo guys, near me, with slide capabilities. My all-in-one produces pix that look like crayon pix, from a kids coloring book. Used Roxio Photosuite 5, the print shop, Photosuit 4, and U-Lead Photo Express (all of which came loaded in my system), but with very sad results. I scanned a photo at 300 dpi, and printed it on Fujifilm glossy paper, but it looks like @#&%. There is a photo printer in my Walgreens, that takes a digital media (disc or card ?) And creates prints, although i don't know if they are inkjet, or "wet" prints. Is there a scanner/program for scanning slides into an electronic type media, for transfer to a photo printer, and if so, how difficult is that ? I am looking to transfer that collection to print, and offer some copies to some folks i know, for their collections. Thanks for your input....

Do you have a Wal-Mart nearby? Their photo lab can do it. It's cheap, fast, and the quality is quite good.

Otherwise, pretty much any photo lab can provide that service to you -- if they can't do it onsite, they'll send it out to a contract lab that can do it.

I found this site a few years ago, but I have not tried this method.
looks easy and real cheap.
http://www.abstractconcreteworks.com/es ... ghter.html

I found a photo lab that will scan slides onto digital media, and they can print them also.

Enjoy!!

Hi Golden-Arm,

I just noticed that you mentioned Walgreens in your previous post. Next time you go there, ask them if they have a Fuji Frontier system. Most (if not all) Walgreens have upgraded to the Frontier over the past year or so. If they have one, they can make prints from your slides. Usually it is the same price as having reprints made from negatives. The Frontier scans the slide, then prints it on real photographic paper, just like a print from a negative. The quality is very good. I do this at Wal-Mart all the time. 24 cents for a 4x6 print from a slide. They can also put the scans of your slides onto a CD, which you can take home and e-mail to friends or post online. Wal-Mart gets $3.88 for the CD, which can contain up to 40 or so images. I'm sure Walgreens offers a similar service, probably at a similar price.

Good luck!

I will have to see, what they have. I currently am sitting in Connecticut, so I won't be able to do anything about it until I get home, anyways. Looking to convert the slides to pix, so I can swap photos, with other guys, with like interests. Not looking for commercial outlet for my stuff, just going to share my collection, within the LV and ARHS community. I will check them out, when I get home. Regards, and thanks again. (just dropped off the first "test-roll", from the new N-75, so I will let you know, what I think, later today.)

If you are only looking to print a few slides, then look for a good photo lab in your area. Ask if they have a Frontier system as described above. A good 8x10 print from a Frontier machine should cost you about $7.00 each, with the price going down as you buy multiples. And yes, also look into your local drugstore or Walgreens, they may do enlargements in house for cheaper than that- generally $3 per 8x10 print.

Unless you are a professional photo retoucher and have experience with slide scanners and professional image handling software (like Photoshop), and you want to invest hundreds (thousands) of dollars into a professional inkject printer, paper supplies, and inks... don't bother. I am a graphics professional, and *I* don't want to deal with this stuff either (even though I have to at work every day)! If you want professional quality prints, go to a lab.

Even if you just want to make prints to play around with, you still need to inest a few hundred dollars in a slide scanner, photo software, an inkjet printer, paper, and inks.

-otto-

Otto Vondrak wrote:If you are only looking to print a few slides, then look for a good photo lab in your area. Ask if they have a Frontier system as described above. A good 8x10 print from a Frontier machine should cost you about $7.00 each, with the price going down as you buy multiples. And yes, also look into your local drugstore or Walgreens, they may do enlargements in house for cheaper than that- generally $3 per 8x10 print.

Unless you are a professional photo retoucher and have experience with slide scanners and professional image handling software (like Photoshop), and you want to invest hundreds (thousands) of dollars into a professional inkject printer, paper supplies, and inks... don't bother. I am a graphics professional, and *I* don't want to deal with this stuff either (even though I have to at work every day)! If you want professional quality prints, go to a lab.

Even if you just want to make prints to play around with, you still need to inest a few hundred dollars in a slide scanner, photo software, an inkjet printer, paper, and inks.

-otto-

If you are at all serious about giving prints to people, then I would make the investment ($300) in a basic scanner that scans slides and a decent printer. I found with experience that you can produce better quality prints than some labs do. In the long term, it will be less expensive than sending slides to a lab if you do alot of prints. You will save gas too by not having to run to a store.
As you gain experience with this equipment, you will find even more uses for it as I have. You can use a scanner as a copier, resize images for use on the web via a photo program, make greeting cards, and with practice, do things like improve a poor image,color correction, special effects,etc. I use mine to publish a small newsletter with photos.
You don't need to invest alot of money. The only time you want to get into high end equipment is when you get into publishing such as magazine and book printing. Then you are looking at equiopment to do such things as color seperations,making special color combonations,etc.

Alcoman

The most cost-effective way to handle this would be to scan the images yourself and have them printed digitally by a local lab. My local Wal-Mart will print a 4x6 or an 8x10 for about half the price from digital media than from a strip of film.

If you don't have a lot of money or you do have a lot of free time then you can get by with a cheaper film scanner, like a Minolta Dimage Dual IV. I have one and it works very well, but be prepared to do a good bit of photo retouching yourself.

If you have a ton of money or your time is more valuable to you then any of the Nikon CoolScan models will lessen the time in front of the screen with their faster scan times and better automation software.

I have about 45 car from yesteryear, both 80 and 140. I have had good luck screening 'em and photographing them with the digital camera.. But as time marches on, tho some of them are priceless, most shrink in value down to "ho hum". The priceless ones I (someday[maybe]) will send away to be printed.. Ed K2LCK

Hey, RailOhio, just curious, what would you consider "a ton of money"? I have somewhere in the neighborhood of 400-500 slides, I want printed. I could probably whittle that down to 300, or so, but that's still a sizeable amount, in my mind. I have a lexmark printer currently, but have been less than happy, with the results, while using the best photopaper I could find. Too "pixelly", for my taste, and not looking at all, like a real photo. (yes, the pixel count was set at maximum, per inch, as per lexmark instructions). Still looking for the best way to make REAL photo quality re-pops of these slides. Thanks for your continued input, everyone

I have a CanoScan FS4000US scanner, which I purchased from B&H Photo about 3 years ago. I paid about $950 for it at that time.

It's not a flatbed scanner -- you feed the slides in with a special tray. It takes 35mm slides or negatives only. I get excellent results with it. I've been making 8x10 b&w or color prints from my slides using PhotoShop versions 3 & 5. I use an HP Photosmart 1000 printer and JetPrint professional quality photo paper (brilliant gloss). I've been selling these prints for the last several years. IMO, they are equal to or better than darkroom prints.

I will have to check that one out, Harry, to see what it does. Sounds interesting, even though I am not looking to sell my prints, only swap them with other LV collectors, so we can all enjoy the benefits of a "pooled" sharing of photos. Regards