Slide projection in 2006

[Shadrash]

Good day All,

I bought myself a Pradovit P 150; I think it had been sitting in the store for a few years unsold.

I was looking at my Dads old kodachromes, and some of the slides I have taken, and found it was really nice to see the images projected larger than life on the wall.

It's been a long time since I looked at slides this way - it's usually through a loupe or after I scan them. I was just wondering if anyone else in this day in age still project their slides.

 

[Mauro]

Yes, I do love using my slide projector: it is a Chinon, received as a gift 20 years ago about. On dull days, I like looking at my first slides rolls taken in Great Britain so many years ago!
I believe that the fascination of slides has not a real competitor.
Mauro

 

[robert blu]

Hallo, I am a fan of slides projection. I have three Pradovit P 600 which I use for slideshows, sinchronized with music. But I also like, after dinner, to sit with my wife (she s also fond of taking pictures) and watch at the slides we both have taken during the week end. With some competition between us! Large size viewing is simply...great emotion!
ciao, rob

 

[TEZillman]

After 20+ years of taking slides, I still love seeing them projected. My first projector was a gift from my wife while we were still dating and it's the one I still use for the most part. I've also found a number of projectors second hand for such low prices that I can't pass them up. I think I have a total of six Kodak projectors and one old (60s vintage) Leitz one.

 

[ch1]

After sitting idle for a number of years, last Spring I finally dragged out my old Kodak projector and had a "go" at viewing my old slides.

It was the first time my wife had seen many of them and was real nice to see them projected.

I must admit it also inspired me to "go digital" with my slides. So I bought a Nikon 5000D scanner and just finished up a Winter project of scanning all my slides (both old ones and newer ones).

I'll keep the 'chromes as archives and am now looking at getting a digital projector for viewing. But boy those things are expensive! I guess because they have a "limited" commercial market.

 

[RicardoD]

I am about to get a hold of my father's slides from the 60s and 70s. I have only seen these once before but I remember many of these Kodachromes were beautiful. I also have some beautiful slides of my own taken on my trip to Bolivia in 1991 on mini-cruise on Lake Titicaca (the highest navigatable lake in the world).

What I remember about these slides is how projecting them makes them come alive. As if the light from the original image is reborn. You just don't get that from a print.

I just purchased a Minolta Dual Scan IV to scan these slides and then I was thinking to project these scanned slides in my home theater via the PC connected to my LCD projector.

Then it occured to me I should just project the slides themselves as that will produce an even better "high definition" image. Here I am throwing all this technology at the problem, when the original thing, properly projected will probably be ten times better in terms of resolution and clarity. Problem is I didn't have a slide projector.

So I picked up a Leitz Pradix projector on ebay for $28 not really knowing that much about it. I am in the middle of refurbishing this thing (see my post about it here ).

I am eagerly anticipating sitting down with my brothers, popping some popcorn, and taking a trip down memory lane with my little Pradix. It has been a joy to work on so far.

Now of course I have two rolls of Fuji Astia in my fridge waiting for me to work out the bugs in my newly purchased rangefinders.

 

[GeneW]

I also like, after dinner, to sit with my wife (she s also fond of taking pictures) and watch at the slides we both have taken during the week end. With some competition between us! Large size viewing is simply...great emotion!
ciao, rob

Rob, that sounds delightful!

My wife and I were at dinner at a friends last weekend. Their neighbours, who are naturalists, brought along a small slide show of their nature trips. Birds and animals from Australia, Africa, Tasmania, Belize, Florida -- the lady is an excellent photographer and her slides were stunning. It's inspired me to do more slide shooting.

Gene

 

[John Camp]

I'll keep the 'chromes as archives and am now looking at getting a digital projector for viewing. But boy those things are expensive! I guess because they have a "limited" commercial market.

I don't do film photography anymore because digital works better for me, but I do have a digital projector that I bought for academic meetings. The projections are so much poorer than slides that I may investigate the possibilities of going the other way -- of moving my best digital to slides. There is a conversion service near the university here that will output full-res digital as color slides (as i understand it.) I don't know how they do it, and it's expensive, but jeez, if you've seen color slides and digital projections side-by-side, there's no comparison. I think it's because with digital, you're essentially enlarging a small low-res TV-style picture until its roughly a trillion times bigger than it should be. The pixels are as big as quarters, and you're looking at them from fifteen feet.

Converting -- I wonder if you could simply make a high-resoution digital print and then copy it with slide film and decent lights? How much would you lose?

JC

 

[ErnestoJL]

I´m using a Braun Paximat (german made) which I bought in a garage sale in 2005. This was the replacement for the old Revue N24 my dad bought in 1966.

I´m planning to add autofocus and an internal slide timer to it.

Ernesto

 

[sooner]

I love slides and projecting them, and my greatest fear over the demise of film is losing the ability to buy/shoot/develop slide film. There is just no comparison to projecting a slide; it's like you're there again, with the light as it really was, the glint in people's eyes still there at that instant. Can't even come close to that with prints. Our family always did slide shows at the holidays, but in the last few years I've switched to slide film myself and use a Kodak projector my wife bought for me on Ebay for a birthday. Enjoy your slides, and thanks for the post/thread. --John/sooner

 

[RicardoD]

John,

A very, very, good Hi-Def home theater projector is 1920 × 1080 in terms of pixels (2 megapixels) . Mine is not even hi-def, 848x480, works great for DVDs and even Hi-Definition TV looks fantastic even though it exceeds the projector resolution.

Anyway I am sure projecting a slide has two be at the very least 2 to 3 times as good as 1920 × 1080.

I want to scan my slides to archive some of them digitally, make some prints, and make a small photo book for my father and mother.

 

[doubs43]

Good day All, I bought myself a Pradovit P 150; I think it had been sitting in the store for a few years unsold. I was just wondering if anyone else in this day in age still project their slides.

It's interesting that you posted this today. I bought a Leitz Pradolux RT-300 on ebay last weekend and it's to be delivered today. The lens is a 60~110 Vario-Elmaron f/3.5 which is supposed to be quite good. The projector uses the same trays as a Kodak projectors which is a plus as they're easy to find.

I have a couple of thousand slides, some dating back nearly 40 years. It should be interesting seeing them again. I used to have a B&H Cube projector but it went missing during our last move 18 years ago. The slides are all accounted for though.

Update at 13:30 - I've just returned from the nearby thrift store where I bought two 80-slide Kodak trays in their boxes and a folding projection screen for $7.40. Should go well with my new projector when it gets here.

Walker

 

[robert blu]

Hi GeneW, nice to read you again here. Hope you are doing fine ! A part my recent interest in B&W after maybe 30 years I print my last photo myself, I always liked, let even say I'm phanatic for slides projections !
In my photo club we have also a digital projector which makes in many cases easier to look at photos. You also can add usimg relative cheap software music and transition effect. It is acceptable, but the colours, the details, the light of a real Velvia or any other "analog" slide are untill now much much better. At least for the ones grown with them.
ciao
rob

 

[Talisker]

Slide film is my usual medium, and projection is the best way to see them. There's nothing to beat a good, saturated slide well projected. I'm thinking about a second-hand 6X6 projector to deal with the output from the Bronica 645RF as a light-box just isn't the same...

 

[clarence]

Hello,

I just purchased a Moskva 5 with a view to producing and looking at 6x9 slides. I was hooked the first time I saw my 6x6 slides. I doubt these will ever be seen projected, though.

Clarence

 

[amateriat]

Even though it doesn't get used quite as much as it used to, I keep a Kodak Ektagraphic (basically a musclebound Carousel) on hand, with both flat- and curved-field zoom lenses. Since I shot a crazy amount of slide film from the mid-70s until the early 90s (still shoot a little, but a lot more neg film now), having a decent projector around is essential. A good used one is relatively cheap and will last forever (it wasn't just digital that convinced Kodak to stop making them as of last year...most people who bought one never had to buy another); just keep a few spare bulbs around and you're set. Digital projection? Convenient, and better than nothing in a pinch, but really no comparison unless you're ready for that second mortgage.


- Barrett

 

[Rob]

Yup, I often find Kodak projectors cheap at yard sales and thrift stores and they usually work fine for less than $20. A great lens to try if you can find it is the Raynox 100mm F2.8
flat field lens. Great sharpness. A friend of mine had 3 different Kodak lenses for his projector and never was happy with any of them. I popped mine in his projector and the difference was amazing. This lens is discontinued but pop up on Ebay for $20 or so. I also use it as a slide loupe by reversing it too.

 

[RJBender]

I like my Rollei P-11. It projects medium format and 35mm slides. If anyone has a spare remote, I'm interested in buying it.

Some of the old Leitz Pradovits have carriers for medium format slides.

A digital projector bulb lasts approximately 1200 hours and could cost $300-500 to replace.

R.J.

 

[doubs43]

I got home from work around 10 PM Friday night and there was my package sitting in front of the door. Inside was a very well-packed Leitz Pradolux RT-300 slide projector. I sat it up on the kitchen table, loaded some slides in the Carousel tray and set up the $3 projection screen I'd gotten that afternoon at the local thrift shop.

All I can say is, it's one slick projector. Smooth and easy to operate, the 60~110mm Vario-Elmaron lens is tack-sharp and plenty bright. The auto-focus didn't hunt at all and was quick to lock. There was no evidence of over heating and the fan, while slightly noticeable, wasn't annoying at all.

It doesn't have the remote control but I'll look for one later.

Walker

 

[Shadrash]

Wow, lots of great responses... after seeing the slides projected I have been inspired to shoot more chromes (I have been shooting negative or BW lately).

Now all I have to do is find a good way to organise all of these slides, so that it is easy and convienent to project them. Some of them are in sleaves, and others are in the old yellow plastic kodak containers...