Through the history of photography, slides once played a dominant part in the sharing and storage of photos. In recent years their popularity has declined, but there has been a small and loyal following that has held onto their slides and enjoyed sharing them with family and friends. Sharing these slides is not always easy, and when others are wanting to view and share cherished family memories getting copies of slides is not a simple task for most people.
Getting a dedicated slide scanner will allow you to easily copy, store, and share a slide collection for very little money. Many people would normally consider hiring a camera or photography shop for this job, but these services can cost a pretty penny at most places. The purchase of a scanner, usually for under $40, will be a one time fee for as many slides as your collection holds.
The biggest benefit that purchasing a slide scanner will bring is being able to have a back up of invaluable heirlooms. Just as with paper photos, when slides are obtained many people throw away the negative leaving only the slide as the single remaining copy of the photo. With family memories and historical events being held on many of these glass slides, having an affordable and reliable method of duplicating this information for storing and sharing is an extremely valuable resource for any slide owner.
Slide scanners are easy to operate and are generally plug and play operation, meaning that straight out of the box the slide scanner should just plug into a computer and be operable with no extra software or firmware needing to be installed. This is great for those individuals who may not be as skilled with computers or using peripherals.
There are various types of slide scanners available. Some mount onto an existing scanner, while others are stand alone scanners used only for slides. There are also several brands of commercially available scanners that have slide scanners built into the flatbed of a regular scanner.
e the photos are scanned, slides can be placed in long term storage for safe keeping or kept in active use. The scanned photos can be easily uploaded to photo sharing websites or copies of the pictures can sent to others in email.