Good way to convert (scan) 35mm slides onto disk or cloud

Don't get a dedicated slide scanner because when you finish your project you'll be left with a nice door stop.

Both Canon and Epson have flat top scanners that are capable of scanning transparencies and slides. They have holders that can hold up to 6 slides at a time for scanning. I would scan at 600 dpi so that I would have image large enough to print an 8 x 10 at 300 dpi.

The Canon scanner is the Canon CanoScan 9000F Mark II Film & Document Scanner. Epson has several models, Perfection V600, V800 and V850. They all scan both photos and transparencies/slides.

There are other manufacturers that offer transparency scanners but Canon and Epson are they only ones I'm familiar with.

I'd really go for more than 600 samples per inch for the scanner resolution. For prints it is fine, but I do not scan to create prints but to view the photos in a slideshow on a computer.

The scanned photos should be looking good in a slideshow on the display of your Mac you will be using ten years from now.

When I started scanning my slides twenty years ago, I thought a pixel size of 1200 pixels at the longest edge would suffice on any display. Now I have to scan most of the slides all over again, because the 1200 pixels barely suffice for the Retina display of my 15" MBPr with 2880 x1800 pixels. And on a large 27" display they are really a sad sight.

A quick calculation. A 35mm slide has a size of of 36mm x 24mm or 1.4173228 x 1 inch.

We have to scan a 35mm slide with a sample rate of 2042 samples per inch to get an image file that will look sharp fully enlarged on a 15" Retina display. And to get an image of the same quality as my iPhone 5s is taking (3264 x 2448 pixels) the scanner would need a sample of 2331 samples per inch. Flatbed photo scanners can do that: https://files.support.epson.com/htmldocs/prv30ph/prv30phug/specs_2.htm

The scanner above is also sampling the colors at a high resolution, so you can improve the colors using a photo editor .

In addition to getting a scanner you will probably want to get a large external drive to hold the originals of the scans you collect if you are scanning at al large sampling rate.

Slides are tiny. When you are scanning slides, you will need to buy a scanner with a very high optical resolution. it should be able to see all east 200 pixels per inch or your scanned photos will not show much detail. And try to go for a high intensity resolution, so you will be able to see details in the highlights and shadows.

This page lists a Canon Pixma 990 with these specifications:

https://www.usa.canon.com/internet/portal/us/home/support/details/printers/suppo rt-inkjet-printer/mp-series/pixma-mp990

Is that your scanner/printer? The resolution would be perfect for slides and it also lists film scan.

Scanner