35mm Photo Slide and Negative Scanning Service

Convert 35mm Slides & Negatives to Digital Photos and/or Movie Slide Show DVDs

Converting a 35mm or other photo slide allows it to be stored and managed on your computer, much like those from a digital camera. Another option is to have the photo slides converted to a disc-based format so they can be viewed as a slideshow on the computer or television.

Samples:

Low Cost / Standard Quality

The image below shows an example of the low cost / standard quality process. Note the color tint and low level of detail visible in the dark color patterns.

Standard Quality Photo Slide Scanning Service Example

High Quality – 3600 dpi

The image below shows an example of the high quality process at a resolution of 3600 dpi. Note the correction in the colors, levels, contrast, and detail in the dark areas.

High Quality Photo Slide Scanning Service Example

Low Cost Scan Quality Option

The high speed scan process gives you the equivalent of an 8 Megapixel camera image of your slide which is about 2500 dpi. This process is very quick and can even be processed directly using your Kodak 80 or 140 slide carousels. Once the slides are digitized, we will post process your digital photos using professional grade software to correct the color, contrast and optimize the lighting levels. The quality of the low cost process is very good and many customers choose this option for archiving large collections of slides.

High Quality Scan Option

Two Squares also offers a high quality scanning process if you desire the best quality possible. The high quality scanned photo slide comes in two options: 6400 dpi or 3600 dpi. The 6400 dpi scanned image would be equivalent to a digital camera image with a sensor of about 44-65 Megapixels and the 3600 dpi image would be roughly equivalent to a camera with a 14-18 Megapixel sensor. The high quality scans will also be post processed using professional grade software to correct the color, contrast and the lighting levels to further improve the quality.

Choosing the Right Resolution

The main thing we ask our customers when they are trying to decide what resolution they need is: “What do you plan on doing with your digital images?” 3600 dpi is usually more than enough for most people unless you plan on creating large prints from your slides or you want the highest quality possible. A 3600 dpi scan of a 35mm slide (which is about 1.3” x 0.9”) will give you about 4550 x 2890 pixels. This is much higher resolution than a 4K TV at 3840 x 2160 pixels. Therefore, if you just want to watch a slide show of your pictures on TV or on your computer, 3600 dpi is more than enough. If you wanted to create a photo print of your slide, a general standard for print resolution is to have about 300 dots per inch printed on paper minimum to give great image quality. Most photo kiosks at your local superstore or pharmacy print at 300dpi. So if you were to enlarge your 3600 dpi image, you could make it about 11”x 16” and still have enough pixels to give you 300 dpi. If you planned on printing a larger image, or you would like the ability to zoom in and crop digitally, then you would want to scan your slides at a higher resolution such as 6400 dpi. The quality of this process is excellent and is often chosen by customers who want to regularly enjoy their pictures and/or use them for special events.