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Do you have boxes of 35mm slides in your house? These slides used to be a staple in American households and were the best way to store memories and share images with friends and family. However, over the years, film replaced the use of slides while digital cameras and smartphones eventually took over. Along with floppy discs and pay phones, today’s children might not have any idea what slides are or why they were used.
Whether the slides are your own and document important memories from the past or if they were left by a loved one, you can digitize these photos and save them in more durable formats. Here’s what you need to know about converting slides to digital files so you can kick off this project today.
This is Not a DIY Project
One of the most common questions that our customers ask is: Can I convert slides to digital files by myself? Technically, yes you can. You can order a slide scanner online to digitize your files and start this project whenever you want. However, you also have to ask whether you actually want to do all of this work by yourself.
Scanning can be a slow and time-consuming process. We reviewed what using a photo scanning app is like and how you can only digitize one photo at a time. While downloading an app is a good idea if you only have a few images, it’s not ideal if you have several boxes that are packed with loose prints. The same thing can be said for photo slides. While you can find a slide converter online, the process might be slow to the point where it becomes annoying.
Our team at Memory Fortress has professional scanning equipment and trained technicians who are experts in digitizing files. They can complete your project faster so you can spend more time enjoying your images and less time digitizing them.
The More Slides You Have, the More You Save
Do not stress out if you are trying to figure out how to convert slides to digital files when you have several boxes of images. Our business is designed to digitize large orders and process thousands of slides in less than a week.
We have developed a pricing plan where the more slides you have, the more money you can save. For example, if you have a box of 500 slides, we can digitize them at a rate of 54 cents per slide. However, this drops to 52 cents per slide if you have more than 1,000 slides. Our scale keeps going down until you hit the threshold of 5,000 slides, where we digitize them at a rate of 49 cents each.
Our team can scan about 4,000 slides in a week, so don’t worry about sending us big projects. We can take on this job so you don’t have to.
There is one thing to note: we charge a 20-cent per slide fee if the slides are in metal brackets. This covers the extra time it takes to carefully remove the slide and scan it before replacing the brackets. You can save money on your project by removing these brackets yourself beforehand.
Choose the Best Format to Convert Slides to Digital Files
Another reason to work with a professional scanning company to convert slides to digital files is that you can choose how these images are saved. We have more flexibility because of our diverse customer base. We have DVDs on hand, keep a variety of USB drives in different sizes, and are happy to send your memories to you over the cloud.
If you are trying to estimate the cost of your digitization project, here is what you need to know: We can deliver your slides digitally (regardless of how many you have) over the cloud for a $10 flat fee. Once you estimate the number of slides you have and the per-slide cost, you can add this fee to complete your price estimate. The cloud photos are stored on an active link for 14 days, which gives you time to download the images and save them in your preferred method.
We also offer delivery via USB drive, and the cost depends on how many images you have. A 16GB USB drive can hold around 10,000 photos, which should be enough for most slide-scanning projects. Our USB drives start at 8GB for $12 while a 16GB drive costs $20.
The final option is to receive your slides on DVDs. The first DVD is free and any additional DVDs are $9. For larger projects, you may need multiple DVDs to store all of your memories.
Organize Your Memories Before Shipping Them to Us
Working with a company like Memory Fortress is a great way to convert slides to digital files without any heavy lifting. However, you may want to do a little prep work before you ship your memories. Our team cannot label each individual image that we scan, but we can sort them into groups. We recommend using plastic Ziploc bags (or similar) to organize your memories. This way your wedding photos don’t get mixed up with your graduation or travel photos. After you sort through your memories, label the bags with a permanent marker so we know what the call each group.
If you don’t want to go through this process before sending us your slides, we are happy to send the files as one large group and you can go through them on your own. Some customers prefer to look at the digital images and label them individually after we deliver the bulk files.
We Can Convert Slides to Digital Format for You
Converting slides to digital files can be a time-consuming and sometimes frustrating process. While it is possible to do this project on your own, we don’t recommend it. Our team receives thousands of slides each week and can process them quickly. We are happy to take on this project so you don’t have to.
Learn more about the process of working with Memory Fortress and how we carefully project all of the memories we receive. When you are ready, start your order. We are happy to digitize your slides so you can save the memories for yourself and future generations.