I have a question for all you photo experts out there. I am still working on sorting, cataloguing and organizing all of my pictures -- and I have a lot. I took most of the really old pictures to a photo shop and they created 35 mm negs for me. They did a fabulous job and gave me a good price due to the quantity. I have properly stored my original photos and copies, but now I am faced with lots of 35 mm neg strips. I am ordering acid free sheets for three ring binders that hold these strips. But I also notice in the same section of the catalogue that they sell insert sheets for contact prints. Is it possible for a photo lab to make a contact print of a whole page of 35 mm strips? If so, is it usually costly to have this done? Is there any way to create a contact print of a whole page on a scanner or some other home copying device? It would sure make it easier to retrieve the correct neg strip if I had a "contact print" of the whole sheet of strips. . I hope this makes sense to somebody out there. Thanks, Phyllis in NJ

Family 35 mm negatives are arranged in the order taken in holders, and strips numbered to match contact sheets printed in a home darkroom with one less strip per page. Those are also in binders in the same order. A shop would likely charge a fair bit for printing because of handling. Some negative holders are clear and might be okay printed like full page contacts. Best to ask locally. Purchased a film holder to make contact sheets with a scanner that has an early model of Transparent Media Adaptor 300 dpi. A TMA is like a second full size scanner built into the lid. Only used for a few sample pages of contacts. Some of the 35mm slides are organized in clear holders and filed in ring binders after scanning. Mostly scanned originals (loose) organized in archival sheet protectors along with printouts from Family Tree Maker scrapbooks for individuals and marriages. Elizabeth in Canada ----- Original Message ----- > Is it possible for a photo lab to make a contact print of a whole page > of 35 mm strips? If so, is it usually costly to have this done? Is > there any way to create a contact print of a whole page on a scanner or > some other home copying device?

Is it possible for a photo lab to make a contact print of a whole page of 35 mm strips? If so, is it usually costly to have this done? Is there any way to create a contact print of a whole page on a scanner or some other home copying device? It would sure make it easier to retrieve the correct neg strip if I had a "contact print" of the whole sheet of strips. . With a 4"x5" transparency adapter (my Epson 1200 psu scanner has this), you can scan 8 (2 by 4) horizontal 35mm negatives or 9 (3 by 3) vertical negatives at a time using the transparency backlite. In this mode, the scanner automatically corrects for the negative source. Even though this isn't a full 6x6 contact area, depending on your requirements this might be acceptable. I suspect that you could rig some other backlight to scan a traditional 35mm contact print (6 by 6, or more) by using the full area of the scanner. When I put the Epson in the "TPU for neg Film" mode, it will automatically only scan the 4x6" area illuminated by the transparency backlight. I don't know about the behaviour of other scanners. -Dean

At 11:14 PM 12/12/01 -0500, you wrote: >With a 4"x5" transparency adapter (my Epson 1200 psu scanner has this), >you can scan 8 (2 by 4) horizontal 35mm negatives or 9 (3 by 3) vertical >negatives at a time using the transparency backlite. In this mode, the >scanner automatically corrects for the negative source. Even though this >isn't a full 6x6 contact area, depending on your Dean, What kind of results do you get with this arrangement: passable? good? excellent? I'm trying to decide if spending $700 to $1000 on a dedicated transparency scanner would be better spent on a new state-of-the-art flatbed with transparency adaptor. I'm currently using an HP Scanjet 5100C (no adaptor). Linda <http://www.king.igs.net/~bdmlhm/>

> Dean, > What kind of results do you get with this arrangement: passable? good? > excellent? > > I'm trying to decide if spending $700 to $1000 on a dedicated transparency > scanner would be better spent on a new state-of-the-art flatbed with > transparency adaptor. I'm currently using an HP Scanjet 5100C (no adaptor). Linda, The results are passable to good but I haven't quantified anything by a real test. I did make a template for the scanner to put microfilm through and this resulted in acceptable results but far from spectacular. What works better for me is using a digital camera. I have a Nikon Coolpix 900 camera with a slide adapter. It can image slides and negatives. I rigged up a portable contraption so that I can image microfilm with the camera by using handles from my microfilm reader and a small 4x6 transparency viewer backlight. If I get a chance in the next few days, I might do a test to compare the various methods. BTW, I hadn't thought about the idea of imaging contact prints and saving printouts with the negatives. This is a good idea, and the Epson scanner does give passable results without using the backlight for contact image sizes (cover must be closed). Dean http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~mcgee/

> What works better for me is using a digital camera. I have a Nikon Coolpix > 900 camera with a slide adapter. It can image slides and negatives. I > rigged up a portable contraption so that I can image microfilm with the > camera by using handles from my microfilm reader and a small 4x6 > transparency viewer backlight. I apologize for the mistake in camera numbers. I have a Coolpix 990, not a Coolpix 900. I think the '900 has a resolution of 1280x960 pixels and the '990 has a resolution of 2048x1536. I do not know if the slide adapter will work with the Coolpix 900 and even if it did, I don't think the resolution would be acceptable for microfilm imaging but might be adequate for some slide and negative copying. The '990 is generally acceptable for 35mm microfilm imaging, but there are always cases where you would like more resolution. I think the latest Coolpix model is the '995 which fixes red eye and other idiosyncracies of the '990 -Dean