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Converting Film-Slides to Digital (no physics needed)

I have hundreds of old medium format slides from the early 1960's, that I shot using my Rolleiflex camera. Many are very precious, & in some cases, historical, as to locations, etc. I ended up building the stage set-up shown, & along with my current digital camera, a Sony DSC H-7, was able to copy the original slides, using a tripod, & the camera set in macro mode. Fortunately I am able to edit every slide on my "Mac" computer, without using photoshop. I am extremely satisfied with this procedure, as many of the color slides were rapidly deteriorating. I don't know how other computers compare as far as iphoto editing goes, but I'm so very happy with the results.
Hope my diagram is pretty much self-explanatory to all.

11 comments

Feb 3, 2012. 9:15 AMbarista says:

I too have load of slides and have tried digitising them with my scanner, but was never that fond of the result. I got the photography bug from my dad and I remember him making a Heath Robinson style contraption to photograph slides to film to produce print (pre-digital!) Your instructable has inspired me to make a new version of this with the addition of a slide feeder mechanism.

Jan 6, 2012. 8:18 AMArkusM says:

Love your illustration, reminds me of the "how-to" books my grandfather has/had.

Aug 13, 2011. 9:42 AM

foothillfrontier says:

I also enjoy the way you presented this Instructable. Nice!

Jul 23, 2011. 10:19 PM

mikeasaurus says:

do you have photos of the results?

Jul 26, 2011. 11:31 AMpenelope nicholls (author) says:

Many beautiful shots. You can view my photos on facebook. I try to upload some here, but not sure that I know how. These were originally taken in 1962. New Mexico.

Jul 26, 2011. 9:32 PM

mikeasaurus says:

awesome, thanks for sharing!
you should add some photos into the body of this Instructable!

Jul 25, 2011. 5:06 AM

RaisedByRobots says:

beautiful drawing!

Jul 26, 2011. 11:04 AMpenelope nicholls (author) says:

Thank you... I tried to photograph my set up, but I could not convey my message that way. As a result, I resorted to my best way of communication...... draw it. I think an artist's illustration, can sometimes replace a thousand words.

Jul 23, 2011. 2:39 PMhkass says:

Looks like a nice, simple approach. What is the process for changing slides? How long does it take?

Jul 26, 2011. 10:59 AMpenelope nicholls (author) says:

This is done manually..... Yes, it is very time consuming. but the results are well worth it, since you are in control.