There are many 35mm slides tucked away in closets, attics, basements, and drawers. Their owners may have inherited the slides from relatives or friends. Or they may have gone to the trouble thirty or forty years ago to have their vacations and family events preserved on slides. Very few people watch “old-fashioned” slide shows today. Slide projectors have become outdated, many are broken, and most people don’t have the time to set up a slide projector and view their old slides.

The solution to this dilemma is to convert slides to a digital formal. Old 35mm slides can be converted to TIFF or JPEG format and stored on CD’s or DVD’s. This allows for convenient viewing on a computer monitor or television. When you convert slides to digital format, the CD’s and DVD’s take up little storage space. You can organize your photographs according to date or subject and find the exact photograph you want at any time. You will also be able to email or print your slide photographs once they are stored on a CD or DVD.

You can convert slides to digital images yourself. One of the least expensive ways to do this is to take a picture of the slide with a digital camera. To hold the camera steady, use a tripod, with the extension bar pointed towards the floor. Attach the camera to the extension bar, place the slide light box underneath the camera, place a slide in the light box, and take the picture. This method has several drawbacks, including the amount of time required to convert slides and the poor quality of some of the digital pictures.

You can also use a slide scanner to convert slides. Scanners come in a variety of styles and prices. A high quality scanner can cost thousands of dollars. There are some less expensive models, but you may not be pleased with the digital images produced by these scanners. You will not be able to print your digital images with the lower-end scanners. If you want to convert slides without worrying about the dust that inevitably finds its way to slides, you will need a higher priced model that has the capability of covering the dust for a blemish-free image.