[Chris Huxham]

Hi John (and all)

I hope this is still useful on top of all the other replies. I actually wrote it before most of them came in but had a problem sending it.

I have scanned every 35mm slide in the house. Finishing this task was a lockdown project. It’s a great relief, if a bit nerve-racking, to have put the originals in the bin.

I used an ION Slides Forever 35mm Slide and negative scanner with rapid slide feeder currently selling on Amazon for £45.99 (https://smile.amazon.co.uk/Resolution-Scanner-converts-Negative-Supports/dp/B07GB43Q79/ref=sr_1_4?crid=1GH0UQKCCTX7W&dchild=1&keywords=ion+slides+forever+film+and+slide+scanner&qid=1593770125&quartzVehicle=88-1161&replacementKeywords=slides+forever+film+and+slide+scanner&sprefix=ion+slides+f%2Caps%2C172&sr=8-4)

It’s easy to use in principle and reasonably fast but the effectiveness of the feeder depends on the type of slide mount. The cardboard ones from Kodak tended to be the most uncooperative and often had to be fed in individually. Most of the plastic ones went through in batches of 12 very smoothly.

The main problems I encountered were (1) despite having been kept either in double layer cardboard-covered cassettes or their original boxes they were mostly very dirty and (2) many of them had faded. I am not sure if (1) is a common problem or just a function of where mine had been stored, but I understand that (2) is a function of the grade of film used. My brother remembers that our father’s early slides (from the 1960s) were detectably fading within a few years.

I am keeping most of them as reminders of past experiences so this doesn’t really matter. I managed to clean up the few that I really wanted to have in good condition by a combination of cleaning the original as best I could and then enhancing digitally.

Hope this helps. Good luck

Chris

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