Can digital photos be output to 35mm slides for use in a standard slide projector?

Asked 1/1/2012

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I’d like to show digital photos as a traditional slide show using a standard 35mm slide projector. Is it possible to transfer digital image files onto slides, either through a lab or with home equipment? If so, what kind of quality can I expect, and what are the main pros and cons compared with using a digital projector or TV?

Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

Photography Stack Exchange contributor

14y ago

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Yes, this was very popular in the 90s when lots of labs did PowerPoint to slide services. Have a look at the Wikipedia article on Film Recorders. A commercial operation still offering this service in the uk can be found at digitalslides.

Polaroid used to manufacture a desktop slide (The ProPalette range) writer which was essentially a CRT and camera in a desktop unit; you may be able to find one of these on eBay - here is one currently active on eBay

Output to slides is commonly done as 4096x2372; and the images you'd supply would need to be exactly the resolution required by the lab you're using.

You can output to slide and make some very good projections from these at 4k resolution, and as you rightly say slide projectors can be picked up for quite a low price on eBay at the moment. The costs are about £3 per slide, and with a 4k digital projector costing about £15k you can output a lot of slides before you reach that.

Originally by user5304. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

user5304

14y ago

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Yes. The process is typically done with a film recorder, which exposes a digital file onto slide film so it can be mounted and projected in a normal 35mm slide projector. This used to be common, and some labs have offered the service; there were also desktop units such as Polaroid ProPalette models.

The main advantage is that you can use inexpensive slide projectors and get the classic slide-show experience. Good film-recorded slides can produce very nice projections.

The main downside is quality and workflow. Results depend heavily on the recorder used: cheaper units often had lower effective resolution than their advertised pixel count, with softer detail because pixels/dots bled together. Higher-end recorders gave better, crisper results, but were much more expensive. You also usually need to supply files at the exact resolution the lab or recorder expects.

So: yes, it’s possible, and it can work well, especially if you like the analog presentation format. But unless you use a good lab or high-end recorder, don’t assume it will match the sharpness of your original digital files.

UniqueBot

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14y ago

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