Many of us have collections of old 35 mm slides that we find awkward to look at and almost impossible to share with others. If they were digitized, we could burn them to CDs, post them on the web, etc.
One way to do this is to have a commercial service scan them for you. This may prove rather expensive for an extensive collection of slides.
A second method is to scan them yourself. SAHS has a slide attachment for a couple of the scanners that allows you to put the slides in, and scan, using close to the traditional method. (You need to change to a very high resolution.) I have tried this and while it works, I found it very tedious to do and do not wish to do it with many slides.
A third method is to project the slides to a screen in the traditional manner and take pictures of the picture on the screen with a digital camera. This method is both simple and fast and is currently my favorite. Suggestions: put some effort into showing the slides under optimal conditions. Use a 'real' screen rather than a bedsheet or wall. Use a tripod for your camera. Darken the room carefully. If truly going into mass production, consider using two cameras, one set up and formatted for a horizontal picture, one set up for vertical format, so that you can do an entire tray of slides without going back and forth. I think that before I do it again, I need to see if a new bulb will brighten the pictures shown on the screen. Scott, (someone who knows much more about this than I), suggested using a camera that allows taking pictures "with a faster ISO setting and in RAW format for better color adjustment" if available.
I have posted a couple of images that I have done on a sample page with a bit of commentary. (the page has a number of pictures - patience while loading...)
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