I would like to copy some 35mm slides for a web page using my Nikon Coolpix 900. Is there a simple way of doing this beside cranking up the old slide projector and taking the pictures off the screen(or investing in a $2000 slide scanner). Slide dupping setups are fairly common in the 35mm SRL world, but have not been able to find an equivalent in the digital camera world. Any suggestions?

Gary Keller

-- Gary Keller (gary.keller@ibm.net), November 10, 1998

Answers

Since most cameras do a decent job of white-balance correction, almost any sort of backlit surface would work for this purpose: In a pinch, I've taped a slide to the edge of a table, put white paper on the floor, and lit the paper with a bright floodlight. Not pretty, but it works well enough for shots to go on the 'web. A copy stand and an artist's transparency-viewer should do the trick quite nicely. The obvious limits will be resolution (whatever your particular digicam can do), and losing detail in the shadows.

BTW, this takes a LOT of macro: On my Oly 600, I ended up using about 4-5 diopters of auxiliary "macro" lenses, and could really have used more. If you plan on doing much of it, you should invest in good- quality (multi-element) macro lenses, although I'm not sure about hanging all that glass off of the lens threads of a '900.

Good Luck!

-- Dave Etchells (web@imaging-resource.com), November 11, 1998.