Scanners to copy slides the best way?

Has anyone copied 35mm slides with a scanner? I've been working with a friend and helping her to use a MicroTek i800 Scanner to copy 35mm slides.
I found the scanner method is VERY, VERY S L O W!
It took forever to do a tray of 12 slides. Once we learned the entire process it did speed us up a bit, but still way too long. The scanner programs are really difficult to get through the whole process, at least it was for me.

The scanner is apparently a slightly older model and she got it for 1/4 the price for a brand new scanner. I can understand her reluctance to buy something else, but perhaps that could be the only solution. We agreed to do some searching.


There has to be another way without sending them somewhere..yes?

She literally has thousands of slides. All very important work of many years of photographing in jungles and other places using film.

Any help is appreciated, as always, if anyone has another solution or ideas.
Thanks,
Lynn

vitor wrote: I would say that for speed and convenience the Epson V700/750 are the best compromise. If I'm not wrong, they allow you to do a one pass scan of a bunch of slides.

I'll take a look at that one.
Thanks

All consumer slide scanners are slow, making bulk scanning of thousands of slides a daunting task. The list, moving from slow to fast, includes...

1. Slot-load types that feed only one slide at a time
2. Slot-loaders that use trays holding up to four slides at a time
3. Flatbed scanners that can scan four or more slides at a time
4. Slot-loaders that can use an optional automatic slide feeder

Another fast option is to not scan slides at all, but to copy them with a digital camera using home-grown solutions. I have one example here. And Pete Ganzel built an automated gizmo that he might be willing to lend you. ;)

I've recently tried experimenting with photographing slides using a set up that includes an off-camera flash, a perspex diffuser as background and a macro lens. Results are reasonable (although you need a modeling light for the camera to AF) and very quick, but not quite up to the quality of my Dual Scan II... I didn't do a direct comparison, but there is not a lot of difference between the Dual Scan II and the higher-resolution (but flat-bed) Epson V350...

I can show the set up and some comparisons if you are interested.

leohendriks wrote: I use a slide duplicator (1 to 1) on my DSLR.

About a year ago I finished copying ~25,000 slides using my older KM 5D and a 'front of lens' duplicator. I use flash illumination as I found that a cold cathode lamp (in a light box) exposures were long and there was a risk of vibration.

sybersitizen wrote: Just for clarity, #4 above is still very slow - but since you could theoretically set 50 slides into the loader and go to bed, it would end up taking little of your time.

I realize that scanners are inherently slow. Maybe someone will come up with some mind-blowing way to speed copy.

Lynn

The Minolta Scan Elite 5400, first version, is excellent.

1. High resolution.
2. High DR for slides.
3. Hardware filter for suppressing grain.
4. IR solution for removing scratches and dust.

It is slow. But you win a lot of pp-time with 3 and 4.