OT: 35mm Slide Scanners??

[mwynne]

Depending on what's currently open in your area, reach out to libraries - public and academic. Many have exactly the equipment needed.

[PSJoyce]

I'll second VueScan regardless of scanner. It has powerful tools for cleaning and restoration. I've got a Nikon LS50 -- takes a long time, but great results.

[retrofit]

A third vote for VueScan; been using the Mac version since 2003 to scan documents to PDFs, B&W negatives, color negatives, and color slides. It is updated frequently and works with a wide range of scanners.

For negatives and slides I use an older Epson Perfection 1660 scanner with a built-in adapter with out any issues.

As others have said, a time intensive process.

[weisan]

I would start with the end in mind asking myself these questions:

What's the purpose of me doing this?

What end result am I shooting for?

What's the final desired outcome?

Realistically speaking, in terms of time, level of effort and money, this is what is feasible and attainable goal?

If I accomplish X, this will make me happy or satisfied even though i can't convert all of them.

Many of us, including myself, have been sitting on truckloads after truckloads of old photography work filed away in mental and physical warehouses thinking that one day we will get to them.

We won't.

At least not all of them.

Even if we start now, chances of us ever "finishing" is slim.

So we have to ask ourselves so very very hard questions at the beginning in order to break the initial resistance and procrastination and ensuring a certain degree of success and final compromise that we can accept.

You might have to spend some time going through and pick out the ones you really want to preserve. Quality vs quantity. You can set up intermediate goals....I want to get to these first and when I am finish, I will do the next batch...and the next batch and....You get the idea.

We don't live forever.

Our time is limited.

We don't want to start on something we can't finish.

We don't want to take on more than we can chew.

It's a loss to not able to preserve everything but.... sometimes, we must be prepared to let them go and just allow them to live and store in our memory vaults. If it's a life well-lived, then there's no regrets.