Scanning Slides to DVD

35 mm slide shows were one of the most popular ways to enjoy pictures in the 1960’s and 1970’s. You probably have some of those classic Kodak slide trays that held 80 or 140 slides. If you have a projector that works, you’ll have a lot of fun viewing your slide the old fashioned way. If you don’t have access to a projector or if you want to share and enjoy your slides on today’s digital devices, bring or mail your slides to Photo-60. We will transfer your slides to DVD. We can even make custom slideshows. We have been scanning slides to DVD since 1999. Scanning slides to DVD is a great way to preserve your precious memories from fading.

The good news is that those classic slide trays double as great storage devices for slides (assuming you don’t have your trays in your attic or garage). The not so good news is that not all slides age well. The type of slide film used, the quality of the processing and the environment the slides have been stored in all influence the stability of the images. Kodachrome slides tend to be the most stable if they have been stored in a dark, cool, dry place. Ektachrome slides (E4 or E6) are either reasonably stable or horribly faded based on the factors mentioned above. Either way, the best option you have for preserving your slides, prints and negatives is to make digital copies of them now (scanning slides to DVD). Photo-60 is your memory preservation experts. We’re in it for the memories!

Scanning Negatives to DVD

If you are an organized person who saved your negatives along with your prints, there is no question you’ll get better digital files from your negatives than from your prints. Negatives and slides should be considered the originals of your images. Or, to paraphrase Ansel Adams, your negatives are the scores for your symphony (symphony = print). Scanning negatives to DVD will also capture more detail then scanning the print. Scanning negatives to dvd will give you the detail from highlights and shadow areas that you can't get from scanning a print.

Our standard resolution scans from 35 mm negatives will deliver a jpeg file whose size is around 5 megabytes when open. These scans are made on our Noritsu commercial scanning device and they are color and contrast corrected by the technician operating the scanner. The digital files we return to you are perfect for sharing your pictures digitally, making new prints, for inclusion in video and presentation projects and as digital backups.

Additionally, we offer a super-resolution option scanned on the same device and corrected to the same standards as our standard resolution scans. The super resolution option will deliver a jpeg file whose size is around 18 megabytes when open. This option is best when you intend to produce large prints (16×20) and above from your scans. The difference between a standard resolution file and a super-resolution file has nothing to do with the quality of the scan but exists only in the size of the file we deliver. Because the super-resolution scans take three times as long to complete, the charge is higher than the standard resolution scans. Majority of our customers scanning negatives to DVD choose the standard resolution.

Chose the Extreme Resolution fo scanning negatives to DVD for maximum detail at prints sizes 24x36 and above! The opened file size will be 48 megabytes. Keep in mind this takes three times longer that our super-resolution scans. For archiving images we suggest the 18 megabyte file size.

As in any photographic process, the digital files from our scans will only be as good as your original.

Click here for Scanning Slides to DVD Order Form

Suppose you want to scan your 4x6 inch prints at 300 dpi. You'll get an image that is 1200 pixels by 1800 pixels.  We arrived at those numbers by doing some simple arithmetic. Our print is 4 inches high and we are scanning at 300 Dots (pixels) Per Inch. Each linear inch of the print will produce 300 pixels.  4 x 300 = 1200 pixels.  We do the same math against the width of the picture and get 6 inches x 300 DPI  = 1800 pixels.  Our print yields 1200 x 1800 pixels. 

Ok, so how many MegaPixels is that?
Everyone is talking MegaPixels these days and we can credit the Digital Camera manufacturers with that.  When you buy a digital camera, the price is usually related to how many MegaPixels it can produce.  The higher the number, the sharper your images and the more expensive the camera.  More pixels generally means more detail.  Back to our example of the 4x6 print.  We've scanned the photo and we now have a digital image that's 1200 x 1800.  That means we have a matrix or grid that is 1200 in one direction and 1800 in the other.

If this simple 3x3 pixel image contains 9 pixels, our 1200  x 1800 pixel image must contain 2,160,000 pixels.  1200 x 1800 = 2,160,000.  That's 2.16 million pixels or 2.16 Mega Pixels.

Cool! So how big is my file?
The answer to this is, it depends....  I know, just when you thought you had a handle on this stuff, somebody had to mix it up.  The reason it depends is because of compression, but more on that later.  If we take compression out of the equation, it's simple to compute file size.  A pixel is made up of the three primary colors of Red, Green, and Blue or simply RGB.  The computer stores the representation of those colors in bytes.  One byte for each of the three colors.  Therefore, 1 pixel = 3 bytes.  If our image is 9 pixels, like in the example above, its 9 pixels x 3 bytes big, or 27 bytes.  One megabyte is 1 million bytes.  Our 4x6 inch print is 2,160,000 pixels so if we do the math, we find that the image is (2160000 x 3 ) 6,480,000 or simply 6.4 Megabytes (MB) in size.

Give me lots of resolution! The more is better. Right?
Hold on now.  More is not always better. 2000 dpi for slides to DVD and film is usually enough for most people but if you think you might want to crop, 3000 dpi may be a good option, too. 4000 dpi or higher Scanning Slides to DVD is not always the best option for consumer level film and/or older film. Modern electronics exceed the resolution that's available in most film so by scanning at a higher dpi, you actually start to see the chemistry of the film as flecks or grain. Film like this actually looks better when scanned at a lower resolution.  If you need to crop or print large, you can use software like PhotoShop to increase the resolution using special software techniques to get the desired size with better quality results and less grain.  Higher end film or some of the more modern consumer level high resolution film exude resolution and 4000dpi works well on that film. 

When scanning prints, there is usually no more than 600 dpi of information in a print so scanning at a higher resolution gives you more data without any extra information. That means, for instance, if you can see the face of a watch on someone's arm in the print but can't read the time, scanning at a higher resolution won't bring the time into view.

Ok. I think I've got it.  But what about compression?
Here's where it gets tricky.  There are two types of compression.  The first type is called Lossless because it results in no loss in quality or degradation to the image.  It manages to make the file size smaller the same way that zipping works. Lets try to compress our 3x3 image.  Lets suppose that all of the pixels in that image are the same color.  We could store that image uncompressed and it will take up 27 bytes.  But since all the colors are the same, we could just store it in such a way that describes the image as 9 black pixels.  Since the pixel takes up 3 bytes, we need three bytes for that then we need one more byte to indicate how many of those black pixels we have, 9 in this case.  We've just compressed our 27 byte image down to 4 bytes.  Of course, this is over simplified, but that's the basic concept.  We can now uncompress the file when we open it and get an exact representation of the image with no loss in quality.  Pretty clever, huh?

The other type of compression is called lossy because it results in the loss of data.  It works on the assumption that the human eye can't detect certain details in an image so it strips those details out.  This type of compression is much more complex and also very configurable.  JPEG is considered a lossy compression file format but its degree of loss is configurable.   You can vary the quality factor from 0 to 100%.   As you lower the quality factor toward 0, your file size gets smaller and your picture loses more detail.  The biggest problem with lossy compression comes up when you open and the save the file over and over again. It suffers from 2nd generation degradation as each successive save reduces the detail of an image that already lacked detail.  Its much like a photocopy of a photocopy of a photocopy.  Each successive copy gets worse. 

Here is a table of various sizes you can expect from your print images.

The JPEG file sizes are approximate and will vary depending on the image content.  Some images compress in JPEG better than others.

Now you're probably wondering how many images fit on a disc.  That's easy to figure out, too.   A CD can hold 650MB and a DVD can hold 4700 MB (4.7 GB). 

Here are the numbers for prints:

Print size	Number of photos at 300 DPI				Number of photos at 600 DPI
	CD		DVD		CD		DVD
	TIFF	JPEG	TIFF	JPEG	TIFF	JPEG	TIFF	JPEG
3x5 Prints	162	650	1175	4700	39	185	284	1342
4x6 Prints	100	430	746	3100	25	130	180	940
5x7 Prints	68	325	490	2350	17	81	123	587

Here are the numbers for Slides and Film:

These numbers are estimates. Actual results may vary.

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Photo-60 Is Located in Woodbridge VA, but we provide services to customers all over the United States and Canada. We have have been offering slides to DVD, Film to DVD and negatives to DVD services since 1996. Below is a list of cities that our customers live in.

Maryland -- Abingdon MD, Annapolis MD, Baltimore MD, Bethesda MD, Cambridge MD, Centerville MD, Charlotte Hall MD, Chestertown MD, Chevy Chase MD, Cumberland MD, Elkton MD, Forestville MD, Frederick MD, Germantown MD, Glenelg MD, Hagerstown MD, Jarrettsville MD, Largo MD, Laurel MD, Leonardtown MD, Millersville MD, Montgomery Co. MD, Oakland MD, Ocean City MD, Port Tobacco MD, Prince Frederick MD, Reistertown MD, Rockville MD, Rossmoor MD, Salisbury MD, Silver Spring MD, Snow Hill MD, Travilah MD, Timonium MD, Waldorf MD, Westminster MD, ,

Virginia -- Alexandria VA, Arlington VA, Chesapeake VA, Chantilly, Falls Church, Great Falls, Hampton, McLean, Newport News, Norfolk, Portsmouth, Richmond, Virginia Beach, Wolftown, Wolftrap

Washington D.C.