Digitizing Slides at Costco

[JerryBob]

I have 193 35mm slides from my military days in the 70's that I can get digitized via Costco. They say that they will return them on a DVD, and I can play the DVD.

That's fine, but has anyone done this? What I really want are 193 individual jpegs, some of which I can send to some old buddies, not some silly slide show.

Anyone have any experience with this? They'll do it for .29/slide. Cheaper than Walmart. It looks like WM does the same DVD thing.

http://www.costcodvd.com/

 

[eljefino]

I googled b/c I'm kinda interested too and it looks like "the serious types" prefer http://www.scancafe.com/pricing . They at least list what DPI you'll get back.

 

[JerryBob]

Originally Posted By: eljefino
I googled b/c I'm kinda interested too and it looks like "the serious types" prefer http://www.scancafe.com/pricing . They at least list what DPI you'll get back.


Looks interesting. I guess I am a bit too lazy to package them up and take them to the Post Office. I need to go to Costco today anyway

 

[Al]

They should be jpeg format. You can copy them off the CD
I took mine to a local photo shop. It cost me $1 each but the quality was great and I didn't want to take the chance of sending them

 

[razel]

No experience with digitizing slides, but years ago we did digitize our family's 8mm films. Our primary concern was that with most 1 hr photo places, including Costco, they ship your precious memories to another facility. We tried our best to find a cheapest local shop here that does it in-house.

The end result was ok. There were video scan lines here and there. I know their equipment was not the best. The colors and resolution were fine and we at least we had a half decent digital copy of those memories.

Last year, I finally found a professional in-house scan were they scan the film directly, just like big budget films. Pricier, but the most film you give them the less it costs per minute. It wasn't too hard to find since Hollywood is 20 mins away, but I'm sure others aren't as lucky. Good news though, many do receive orders over the Internet.

So, yes, if it's cheap enough, get it done locally where the machine is in shop. Then get it done at a better place (even one where you don't mind shipping) after you have that preliminary digital backup in case it get's "lost" during shipment.

 

[punisher]

Its tough to get good quality scans from slides. I got done with close to 600 using an Epson V600 and all I can say is I am lucky to have free time to work on them during the day. Sort of a hurry up and wait situation. No matter how good the slides look, old slides get dirty, they get scratches and the color changes a lot depending on storage. If your slides are Ekatachrome you are guaranteed a color shift/color loss on stock that old. If you can find a company to do the scan, remove dust/hair/scratches, and restore the color for a reasonable cost, you will be ahead of the game. Uncorrected slides, old ones, can look awful.