35mm slide transfer

Hello, and welcome to the Apple Discussion forums!

_Exactly what make/model scanner do you have?_ Most scanners should work fine with Macs, even if the software that came with yours is pc only.

Have you tried connecting the scanner to your Mac? Can your Mac 'see' it?
(Go to  +> About this Mac > More Info > Hardware > USB.+ ) Is your scanner listed there? (Assuming it's connected via USB). If your Mac can see the scanner, try opening Image Capture. Is your scanner listed there?

As far as I know, you can't scan directly into iPhoto. Use software such as Ed Hamrick's excellent ViewScan to do your scanning; then import the images into iPhoto. ViewScan is excellent and will work with just about any scanner.

I'll tell you how I did it. Had about 300-400 slides from the 60's and 70's I took at various places, plus some black and white photos that dated from the 50's. I found at a photo shop, (may be hard today) a reasonably priced 8" back lighted viewer for the slides at $30. I set my digital camera up with a tripod in front of the viewer and shot each slide photo. I then down loaded to my Mac and into iPhoto. Worked pretty good.

The black and white photos I just laid out on a well lighted table and shot them with the tripod mounted camera. They too came out as well as could be expected.

However, if you can find a place to scan those slides for .29 cents a piece, I would be well worth it.

virg

I would recommend using a scanning service to get the best results. I tried scanning 35mm slides at home on an expensive Epson scanner and the results were not good. Then I did some research and found that you really can't get good results unless you spend a lot of money on a dedicated slide scanner. You need at least 2000 dpi, preferably 3000 dpi to get a good scan from a slide! Seriously. Macworld has an article here:
http://www.macworld.com/article/143504/2009/10/outsourcescanning.html
The cost is very reasonable for these services, and the quality will beat anything you try at home.

_Exactly what model is it?_ (I asked before.) And does it have a negative or slide carrier, or is it just a plain flatbed scanner (intended to scan paper documents)?

In addition, not knowing how many slides you need to scan, you should consider the relative cost of DIY vs. having it done by a scanning service. ScanCafe does 3000dpi scans of 35mm slides @ 0.29 each (0.22 in quantity). Hard to beat that. It would take over 5000 slides to equal the cost of a good film scanner - and that doesn't count all the time it would take to scan all those slides!

I have a Nikon film scanner and can tell you from hard experience that getting scans right takes _a lot of time_ & patience, not to mention the initial cost of the scanner.