My father took thousands of photos of family events and vacations over a lifetime. Recently my mother told me she would line to look through these sides again and asked if there was a way to digitally scan them. While I know there are service that can do this for you, I thought it might be a cool DIY project.
Before going further I say that for me is a work in progress. I am still planning out how to do this. These are my notes. Not a a description of a completed project.
I did some research online and their are lots of videos about scanning slides and film negatives using an iPhone, but it is a manual process. There are also a number of projects that show how to automatically scan digital slides using a Kodak Carousel Projector, a DSLR camera, and a laptop or computer board to control and automate the process.
I want to combine these two approaches. Use and iPhone to scan the 35mm slides use a carousel projector and some added controls to automate the process. If I use the iPhone to scan the photos, I should then be able to automatically upload the photos to iCloud. My mom can then view them on her iPhone, iPad or Mac, and she can share them with me and the rest of the family too.
Unfortunately, after a fair amount of google searches I haven’t found anyone that has done this project this way. So I’m going to try and see if I can do it.
I want to scan my slides using an iPhone, its the only camera I have. My father was an ameuter photographer. He didn’t have fancy equipment so I think the camera on my iPhone 12 plus or even my iPhone SE 2 2020 would be good enough for the job.
Somewhere along the way, my father picked up dozens of Kodak carousels and stored his slides in the carousels in the original carousel boxes. My mother also has a Kodak Carousel Projector, so I could l use that.
One project I found on YouTube used a Kodak Carousel 4200 Projector and DSLR to automatically scan slides.
In his video he removed the projector lens and replaced the 300W projector bulb with a 30W 3300K halogen bulb.
The way it works is to point the camera directly into the projector and photograph the slide image directly. That’s why the projector lens isn’t needed. The 300W projector bulb is so bright so it can project the image on a screen or wall. It’s too bright for pointing the camera into the projector.
He replaced the 300W projector bulb with a 30W halogen bulb meant for under the counter lights. The 300w projector bulb socket supplies 82 VAC to power that bulb. Because his 30w buib uses 12V DC, he didn’t plug the bulb into the projector but rather connected it to a 12V DV external power supply for cabinet lights.
For this project, I’ve been lucky so far in that I have happened to find some free parts for the project.
First, I found a working Kodak Carousel 4200 projector out on the curb for free. Someone was moving and cleared out a bunch of stuff. The only downside was that the projector didn’t come with the remote. I figured I could buy one on eBay or borrow the one from my mothers projector. It wasn’t until I downloaded the user manual months later, did I realize the projector has a built in storage compartment for the remote. I opened it and the remote was there. Score!
I also realized I’d need to ordered the 30W light bulb and a 12V power supply. Then recently, I scored a complete brand new under kitchen counter halogen light unit brand new in the original package. I thought great, I can use this as the power supply and light source.I’d have to remove the lamp and socket from the fixture that contains three lights.
When I turned on the lights I realized the light color was way to warm or yellow to use to backlight my slides. But I still can salvage the 12V power supply.
I orders some 20W 6000K MR11 LED replacement lights off Amazon and some lamp socket adapters. I’m waiting for these parts to arrive.
So that is it for now on this project. If you are interested in something like this, leave a reply below. I plan to update this article with progress (and proof reading) as I go along.