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This Is Why I Don’t Throw Away Books

I might need to scan some slides!

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My photo of a jury-rugged slide scanner

My parents took my children, my wife, and my sister to Disneyland in 1978. I had to work, so I did not go. Oddly, I was working for my father that year, so that does seem odd, doesn’t it?

Yesterday I cleaned out an old pile of stuff and came across a small box marked Disneyland Slides. Holding a few up to the light, I could see that most were not from that trip, but there were several dozen that were.

I also found two slide viewers. Neither worked; when I opened them up, I found that batteries had been left inside and everything was ruined by corrosion.

That’s OK, I could photograph them. My brother-in-law told me about an app called SlideScan. It costs $30. I bought it but found it quite clumsy to use. I also found several on-line places that will convert slides for reasonable prices, but I decided to try it myself first.

First, I needed a backlight. My iPad sitting on a blank Notes page with the brightness at maximum answered that problem. I cut a square hole in a small cardboard box that I could move around on the iPad with a slide sitting over the hole.

I have a tripod, but it has two problems. It’s too tall, and the part that holds the camera broke years ago. I superglued it back together, but…

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Anthony (Tony/Pcunix) Lawrence 👀

Written by Anthony (Tony/Pcunix) Lawrence 👀

Retired Unix Consultant. I write tech and humor mostly but sometimes other things. See my Lists if your interests are specific.

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