Hi I have thousands of slide photos that I have long wanted to convert to digital. Just wondering whether Bali would be an economical place to have this done (as compared to Aus).
thanks, Phil
thanks, Phil
To "have it done" requires access to a scanner and the correct paraphernalia to go with it.
Surprisingly the scanning of old photos is a wonderful surprise as the quality of old (sometimes gone red) photos is very restorative, in that missing colors are brought back to life and you can get rid of old scratches and tears too.
Whether this kind of service is available on Bali I doubt. So just bring a cheap scanner with you (most people are throwing theirs out) and if you take a couple of hours to show a friend here how its done you could probably leave them to it and have the finished result when you get back.
You might be responsible for a whole new cottage industry?
Surprisingly the scanning of old photos is a wonderful surprise as the quality of old (sometimes gone red) photos is very restorative, in that missing colors are brought back to life and you can get rid of old scratches and tears too.
Whether this kind of service is available on Bali I doubt. So just bring a cheap scanner with you (most people are throwing theirs out) and if you take a couple of hours to show a friend here how its done you could probably leave them to it and have the finished result when you get back.
You might be responsible for a whole new cottage industry?
Long time scanning expertise
I'm in Perth and moving to Bali to live "soon". This is my area of expertise as I've been doing it for 15 years, both as a technician at a TV station and for myself. I've scanned many thousands of slides and negs. I have a Nikon LS4000ED and an Epson 4990 flatbed. I'm bringing the Nikon to Bali but I'll buy a new flatbed there.
The main factors are the time it takes per slide and the degree of colour balancing needed, which greatly affects the time taken.
If you want high quality 4000dpi scans (if you're serious and want frameable prints, you do), it takes about 5-6 mins per slide at best on the Nikon. There's no viable way to automate the process with the Nikon. The auto slide feeder is virually unobtainable (I've tried) and hugely expensive and prone to jamming.
The Epson flatbed can do eight slides at a time (sequentially) but each one has to be balanced first in preview mode. The scan then takes about 70 minutes (yes!) for the eight at max res of 4800dpi with dust removal switched on (much less if you don't need dust and scratch removal).
So the cost is in the time of the operator. For a person in Australia, it's a significant cost! Commercial firms here can do automated scans at about a couple of dollars per slide, but only in quantities of hundreds or thousands, so it's a significant outlay. You also take what you get. They may be good scans, they may not. You'll probably have to go through and tweak them yourself afterwards, adding more time.
I have great respect for the skills of Indonesians, however, having worked in Jakarta, and it may well be that you could get a good operator to drive your equipment and give you great results at a low(er) cost. There is probably good scanning available in Bali, I don't know yet. (If there is, I'll use it myself!)
But you have to be prepared to use good equipment, as above. Cheap gear will give cheap results. You only want to do it once! Having to re-scan due to poor work is bad news. Are you prepared to spend the money?
I like scanning. Each image is like revealing a new scene. I've done it for people. But on a retirement visa, I would be prohibited from earning money in Bali. Catch 22.
There's another aspect: every time there's a house fire or bushfire, people cry for the loss of all their photos. These are the one thing that can never be replaced! Not for any amount of money. Therefore, you must scan them and store copies off-site. I've often thought of offering this service, but everyone would baulk at the cost, which would be in the thousands. What's it to be then?... Lose your memories?
Pete
I'm in Perth and moving to Bali to live "soon". This is my area of expertise as I've been doing it for 15 years, both as a technician at a TV station and for myself. I've scanned many thousands of slides and negs. I have a Nikon LS4000ED and an Epson 4990 flatbed. I'm bringing the Nikon to Bali but I'll buy a new flatbed there.
The main factors are the time it takes per slide and the degree of colour balancing needed, which greatly affects the time taken.
If you want high quality 4000dpi scans (if you're serious and want frameable prints, you do), it takes about 5-6 mins per slide at best on the Nikon. There's no viable way to automate the process with the Nikon. The auto slide feeder is virually unobtainable (I've tried) and hugely expensive and prone to jamming.
The Epson flatbed can do eight slides at a time (sequentially) but each one has to be balanced first in preview mode. The scan then takes about 70 minutes (yes!) for the eight at max res of 4800dpi with dust removal switched on (much less if you don't need dust and scratch removal).
So the cost is in the time of the operator. For a person in Australia, it's a significant cost! Commercial firms here can do automated scans at about a couple of dollars per slide, but only in quantities of hundreds or thousands, so it's a significant outlay. You also take what you get. They may be good scans, they may not. You'll probably have to go through and tweak them yourself afterwards, adding more time.
I have great respect for the skills of Indonesians, however, having worked in Jakarta, and it may well be that you could get a good operator to drive your equipment and give you great results at a low(er) cost. There is probably good scanning available in Bali, I don't know yet. (If there is, I'll use it myself!)
But you have to be prepared to use good equipment, as above. Cheap gear will give cheap results. You only want to do it once! Having to re-scan due to poor work is bad news. Are you prepared to spend the money?
I like scanning. Each image is like revealing a new scene. I've done it for people. But on a retirement visa, I would be prohibited from earning money in Bali. Catch 22.
There's another aspect: every time there's a house fire or bushfire, people cry for the loss of all their photos. These are the one thing that can never be replaced! Not for any amount of money. Therefore, you must scan them and store copies off-site. I've often thought of offering this service, but everyone would baulk at the cost, which would be in the thousands. What's it to be then?... Lose your memories?
Pete
I'm having an educated guess here but I'm sure you could buy a very decent scanner in Bali (with a slide-copying facility), for around $300-400.
Some years ago, I wanted to scan hundreds of old photos and baulked at the boredom of it all. (I don't like scanning hundreds of photos.) Like Markit suggested, I "trained" a guy how to scan images and let him go for it. And paid him, of course. He was happy (it took him several weeks), but he also learned more about computers/scanning, etc. I was happy, too, because I didn't have to sit around for hours on end doing boring repetetive tasks. Don't forget that most people in Bali are lucky if they earn Rp 1 million/month.
I've taken Crofty's suggestions onboard and agree that crappy equipment will result in crappy scans. Unless scanning slides is radically different from scanning prints, (I'm no expert), I personally would not use any inbuilt scanner software to manipulate the images (colour balancing, dust/scratch removal, etc). I think dedicated image software, like Photoshop/Light Room, will always produce better results.
A year ago I had to visit Australia for a short trip. I picked up 1,000 old colour photos I'd had stored there. When I returned to Bali, my wife offered to scan them all for me. She is very computer literate so I didn't even have to "train" her first. It took her about three/four days.
I haven't seen any places here offering quality slide scanning, but then again, I haven't been looking for them. I'd be very surprised if there aren't any.
:icon_e_ugeek:
Some years ago, I wanted to scan hundreds of old photos and baulked at the boredom of it all. (I don't like scanning hundreds of photos.) Like Markit suggested, I "trained" a guy how to scan images and let him go for it. And paid him, of course. He was happy (it took him several weeks), but he also learned more about computers/scanning, etc. I was happy, too, because I didn't have to sit around for hours on end doing boring repetetive tasks. Don't forget that most people in Bali are lucky if they earn Rp 1 million/month.
I've taken Crofty's suggestions onboard and agree that crappy equipment will result in crappy scans. Unless scanning slides is radically different from scanning prints, (I'm no expert), I personally would not use any inbuilt scanner software to manipulate the images (colour balancing, dust/scratch removal, etc). I think dedicated image software, like Photoshop/Light Room, will always produce better results.
A year ago I had to visit Australia for a short trip. I picked up 1,000 old colour photos I'd had stored there. When I returned to Bali, my wife offered to scan them all for me. She is very computer literate so I didn't even have to "train" her first. It took her about three/four days.
I haven't seen any places here offering quality slide scanning, but then again, I haven't been looking for them. I'd be very surprised if there aren't any.
:icon_e_ugeek:
Yes, I mostly agree, but scanning slides IS different to scanning prints. I wouldn't use the word "radically", but you'd be surprised at how much effort and experience it takes to get a good result. I started scanning my slides back in the 90s using an LS3000 and I've redone a lot of them because I've learned how to do a better job in the last decade. Photoshop and Lightroom are not scanning software programs. They'll do a good job afterwards, but you need to learn to use the software that drives the scanner.
One of the best is Ed Hamrick's Vuescan VueScan 9 Scanning Software for Windows 7, Mac OS X (Snow Leopard) and Linux
For what it does and the quality it produces, this is magic and a genuine good deal. I highly recommend it. But it has a beginner's mode and an expert mode, and you'll discover after a while that the expert mode produces better results. But it takes time to learn this.
Dust and scratch removal works very, very well if you use it correctly (no Kodachrome, no black and white negs) and will save you many hours of manual spotting.
I agree - if you can find a smart young guy to do it in Bali, it would work very well and he gains a valuable skill in the process.
Not surprised at all about that. I have yet to scan any slides these days. In fact, I've still got thousands of old slides stored back in Australia. (I'm glad I didn't bring them back.)
Back in the late 1980s, (maybe late 1970s, I forget) I used a slide camera attachment on my Nikon to re-photograph the slide images and scanned those! Pretty primitive, I'm sure you'll agree. The "results" were bloody awful. Then again, my computer was either some pissy 486 thing or maybe a Pentium 1. Imagine that!
I know the difference between scanning and image editing software and about some of the intricacies involved in both.
Right now I have a dilemma. I've got nearly a thousand recently scanned photos from my past, many of which need extensive doctoring (for dust spots, scratches and rat shit stains). Lots of work there! On the other hand, we were robbed a few days ago and I don't have a camera anymore. Ironically, the day before the robbery I was just about ready to buy a new camera. Good thing I didn't - it would have been stolen as well. Worst of all was that two of my backup external HDDs went as well (thousands of images, movies, music, etc).
In another way, that may have been for the better. Now I have to start all over again (?), but with a clean slate.
Thanks everyone for your extensive responses.
I think I will take your advice, bring a scanner (probably Epson Perfection e300) and all my slides to Bali when we move in July and find somebody who wants some work.
I'm not looking for professional quality scans. I just want to prove to my kids that their dad did once have hair.
thanks, again
Phil
I think I will take your advice, bring a scanner (probably Epson Perfection e300) and all my slides to Bali when we move in July and find somebody who wants some work.
I'm not looking for professional quality scans. I just want to prove to my kids that their dad did once have hair.
thanks, again
Phil
Yowww!! It bears out what I was saying - if you really value your images, (most people do) you must make two copies and store them separately. I've started using Verbatim Archival Gold DVDs which are rated at 100 years against deterioration. About $8 for a box of 5, but it's cheap insurance. Remember, two copies!
Many times I've wondered why someone can't produce a full frame slide "scanner" using a camera CCD sensor, but there doesn't seem to be any such animal. To be able to reproduce a slide or neg in one instant, instead of waiting 5 mins for a line sequential scan, would be great, but I guess it's that there'd be such a limited market for the product. No demand = high price = even less demand.
I use to be scanner operator for a printing company more than 12 years ago. At the time we had the latest Linotype hell topaz flatbed scanner, with software, monitor x 2 and dongle it was valued at around $250,000 NZ. If you want to get the best results you need a decent scanner. I would suggest emailing a few printing companies here. My friend Willie who I play basketball with owns a printing company in Denpasar called Daito
.::daito printing::.
might want to give him an email to see what he's got, I only ever saw his press's
.::daito printing::.
might want to give him an email to see what he's got, I only ever saw his press's
Yes - it hurt.
I do have some multiple backups to Verbatim DVDs (at least the robbers didn't grab them). The excess I spread over some portable HDDs (to burn to disks when I got around to it), and they were stolen.
Not only should we burn two copies of our stuff, we should probably store the copies in two different physical locations.
You wish for a "full frame slide "scanner" using a camera CCD sensor". Sounds great to me. But, it seems there is little/no demand for something like that so it ain't gonna happen anytime soon.
:icon_biggrin:
Phil, there is no quality scanning facility in Bali. I would't be suprised if this was the case for the whole country. I normally use (Churchill colour Labs) in Perth West Aust, for a 50bit Imacon/Hasselblad scan is $12.00. This is a quality scan. The cheapest decent option is to buy a Epson V700 or V750 for about $700 Australian. I am about to buy one myself if I cannot get a Nikon. The earlier Epsons are ok for what yo want also. The Epson is a (Flat Bed scanner). The quality scanners are the (Drum Scanners). I am looking into a good place in Singapore. I love film over digital.
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