Customer Reviews

Opteka HD² Slide Copier for 58mm Digital Camera Lenses

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I don't "review" much stuff but this is an exception. This little gizmo has exceeded my expectations in almost every way.

I had a small photo business for years so I had copied all sorts of graphics to film, but those days are pretty much gone. I have a large number of mostly 35mm slides that I wanted to transfer to digital - I'm still in the middle of the learning curve on digital. I decided I would try this copy attachment, "just to see". I had some concern about hanging the weight of a copier attachment on an all plastic digital camera. It turns out this thing weighs almost nothing.

But the real surprise to me was the optics. I would judge, for the price, the optical performance of this thing is astounding. The only issues I've had with slide copies made with this have been due to problems in the original slide, or simply incorrect auto-focus in the camera I've used the attachment with. I still seem to get the usual contrast "bump" that always occurs with film copies, but that's easy to fix in the computer. The only real issue that I can find to nit pick on this is that a lot of slide mounts tend to hang up on the little spring pressure pads inside the holder. You learn very quickly however, when a slide is fully seated in the holder so that's a fairly minor annoyance. Overall, I don't see how you could beat this for the price.

This product works well. I am using it to copy slides digitally. I took photos using slides for 30 years and wanted to have some copies of favorite images on my computer. If you have a large number of slides to copy it could be slow going as it can only copy one at a time. There is a slight vignetting with my camera, a Canon Powershot Pro 1. This can be eliminated by not copying the whole slide, and zooming in at about 90%.
All in all, I am satisfied with the product.

I was somewhat sceptical given the price however the results were very acceptable. I used my Canon Powershot G11. Colour balance was excellent and sharpness was much better than a standard flatbed scanner. Barrel in manufactured from metal while the slide tray is plastic.

Some hints on use:

1. Set-up the exposure at the lowest practical ISO speed. Higher ISOs may cause degradation due to noise reduction circuitry in the camera. Alternatively, shoot in RAW and post-process. I used auto white balance with good results.

2. Copier optics is designed to work with lens length set to 110mm (35mm equivalent).

3. Use a mid-range aperture setting with a remote shutter trigger to ensure sharp reproduction.

4. Turn-off image stabilization and focus-assist light (if equipped).

5. For high contrast slides, do not overexpose the highlights. Lighten the shadows in Photoshop or equivalent.

I have all these parameters set in the G11 as a custom setting so setup is quick and simple. Results with a large-frame sensor in a DSLR should be that much better.

I wanted to digitally convert old slides my father made but I quickly learned this process is much to slow and the quality is poor. Don't waste your money. Pay someone to convert your old slides for you or buy a high quality slide scanner.

For the price, this gadget works fairly well. I only had a couple of "nits" to pick. First, the set screw holding the light box at the end could be longer as it's fairly difficult to tighten it sufficiently enough to keep the box from accidently rotating. The screw head itself is close to the box flange and it doesn't allow you to get a good grip on it. Secondly, getting a good shot of a 35 mm slide requires a nice even light source. Bright light is good, but it must be diffused to give you optimum results. Shooting directly at a non-diffused light will put localized "hot spots" into the photos. I put my camera on a tripod and shot outdoors on a bright but overcast day, shooting into the neutral sky background for best results. And make sure your slides are dust free or every speck will show up after you view them on the computer. Minor dust specks can be eliminated with photo editing software, and for best results, you'll probably want to examine them for anomalies after you're done. All in all though, it's a worthwhile product to buy and if you have hundreds of slides to copy, it sure beats paying an online company 40 cents per slide and getting 600 dpi quality for that, when you can do it yourself!

Managed to copy all my slides and they look pretty good at least I can look at them easily now. Easy to use too.