The perfect Slide Storage, Retrieval & Viewing System (warning: deceptive title)

[Rob-F]

Made you look. However, this is really a question made to seem like I know the answer.

I have slides stored every which way.

1) The ones that are really most important to me are in Kodak Carousel trays, organized in "shows." Or else they are:

2) Many othres are in plastic pages that hold twenty slides per page. Those (some of them) are filed in Pendaflex hanging folders with label tabs, and kept in file boxes. The advantage of this system is, I can find what I'm looking for. I can pull the pages out of the hanging files and lay them on a light box.

3) I have tried putting the same type of pages into three-ring binders. That seemed like a great idea, but it's lousy. I have to open the binder rings and pull the pages out to see which ones I want. I got rid of that setup.

4) I have other slides stored in Kodak cardboard boxes, the way they used to come back from the Kodak labs. I write the general subject area on the end of each box and they are stacked 7 high and 5 across: 35 boxes of 36 each, or about 1,260 slides. I can spot the titles on the boxes quickly; then I have to lay some of them out one by one to see if I want one, and if so, which one. That's time-consuming, but in some ways easier than having to slide them in and out of the pockets in the slide pages.

Some are stored in the plastic boxes that come back from processing in recent years. Pretty much the same idea as the cardboard boxes, but they don't stack nicely.

5) I have tried the metal file boxes that store each slide in a separate slot. That's for the birds.

6) But I also have eight Kodak metal boxes with hinged plastic bins that hold I think about twenty slides per bin. They are pretty nice to use.

I'm thinking as I write this that the plastic pages are probably the best single way, if I were to convert to just one system. But I wanted to see what others might be doing. I know about the idea of scanning the slides, and I'm trying to avoid doing that!

So: do you have a method I have not mentioned?

 

[Moto-Uno]

^+1 for #1 , that's pretty much it for me ! Peter

 

[MikeMGB]

You don't want to hear this, but I scanned mine then put everything in plastic pages and stored them in three ring binder/boxes.

The scans are sorted in folders in a way that makes perfect sense to me, every slide was numbered sequentially as I scanned it and stored in the pages in that order. If I want a particular slide I first locate it in my folder system, the file name then gives me the slide number which I can find easily in the three ring boxes.

 

[michaelwj]

I'm going to agree with Mike.

Everything scanned with file names of the type Roll#_Shot#.tiff With the originals sleeved in binders. It's far easier to search and preview on a computer than in cupboards and folders. I can easily find the shot I'm after and then go and quickly retrieve the original if I need to.

 

[skucera]

My slides are stored in all these ways, plus I have my dad's slides starting from his enlistment in the Marine Corps in the late Fifties right up to this death stored in linear trays that fit his Mansfield Skylark slide projector (made in Massachusetts).

I have a Carousel projector, but most of my slides are still in binder pages and the boxes they came back from Kodak in. Half of my slides are 110 sides in standard slide mounts, but one roll was was mounted in the Kodak Pocket Carousel mounts that don't fit any projector that I own. They're really cute.

Oh, I even have a few boxes of my mom's 126 slides, which are dazzling for being shot in such a pedestrian camera. They colors are amazing, and the square format is surprising when they come up on screen.

This Christmas, when all my kids are under one roof again for a week, I should break out the slides and my dad's home movies from when I was a toddler in the Sixties just so they can look at the past when everyone was young, or even just arriving from the hospital after birth. 🙂

I do like the idea of scanning all these slides. I wish my scanner was quicker, though, and higher resolution. Hmmm... maybe I can rig up something to let my iPhone capture them? That would be way quicker, and much higher resolution. I'll look into that.

Scott

 

[skucera]

A few minutes on the internet, and I've got the most elegant slide scanning method I've ever seen. Project the slides on the screen, and then take a picture with the iPhone. Duh. Too simple....

Scott

 

[Big Ursus]

1) and 4) for me. BTW, are the plastic pages archival?

I like Skucera's idea though.

 

[SteveM]

I haven't shot slides for several years now, but I do have a projector and get my old slides out occasionally to show people. Since I need to access them quickly they are all pre-organized by subject or theme, into slide trays. These trays for a Leica projector (on this forum, what else) are straight, and come in containers holding 2 trays of 80 slides each. Very compact, and stack nicely for storage. They also have little clips that holds each slide in position making them tip proof. Most of my slides are organized this way. This required some ruthless culling, but it was a worthwhile process.

I still have some slides that didn't make the slide tray cut, but I didn't want to throw out either. These I keep in the plastic boxes that slides used to come in, which are labelled. For viewing these, I use a slim lightbox for slides. I've recently started acquiring bits and pieces to scan them using a digital camera but haven't done that yet. Even if I do scan them, I will keep my projector and boxes of slide because ... it's a nostalgic and enjoyable experience.

Steve

 

[Rob-F]

These trays for a Leica projector (on this forum, what else) are straight, and come in containers holding 2 trays of 80 slides each. Very compact, and stack nicely for storage. They also have little clips that holds each slide in position making them tip proof.

Steve

You have my curiosity going, trying to figure out which projector and trays you meant. An 80 slide tray sounds like a rotary carousel tray, and then the projector could be an RT-300. But the little clips that holds each slide in position . . . doesn't sound familiar. What projector and tray is that?

 

[David Hughes]

Interesting, all my slides are in boxes of two trays. The trays hold 36 slides (what do you do with No. 37?) and the boxes are marked "Leitz Wetzlar" or whatever it is.

Anyway, my 2d worth is to say store them in trays; they can't give them away on ebay or in charity shops, it seems to me...

Regards, David

 

[Michael Markey]

Scanned all my slides and then stored them all in Leica slide trays ready to project (although I haven`t done that for some time 🙁 )

 

[SteveM]

You have my curiosity going, trying to figure out which projector and trays you meant. An 80 slide tray sounds like a rotary carousel tray, and then the projector could be an RT-300. But the little clips that holds each slide in position . . . doesn't sound familiar. What projector and tray is that?

The projector is a Leitz Pradovit 153 IR and the slide trays are Leica LKM 2 x 60 or 2 x 80 boxes. These tray boxes store slides more compactly than carousels. The top edge of each slide slot has a little tooth that holds the slide in place. These are straight-line trays.

For my medium format slides (645 only) I have a Leitz Prado Universal. No IR remote for these old projectors. They are manually operated, single-slide-at-a-time affairs, but project beautiful images. I store those slides in labelled boxes but don't have too many.

Steve

 

[ptpdprinter]

I had my slides in carousel trays, but somewhere along the line my projector went missing. Since I'd haven't had a slide show in thirty years, and didn't expect to have one in the next thirty years, I transferred them to PrintFile slide pages in three ring binders, and gave the slide trays away to forum members. I started to scan them, but there weren't many I really wanted to print, so I quickly gave that up. They are there if I need them, but I think they will end up in the landfill when I'm gone. My current work is much more interesting, and I am a better photographer now.

 

[skucera]

Interesting, all my slides are in boxes of two trays. The trays hold 36 slides (what do you do with No. 37?) and the boxes are marked "Leitz Wetzlar" or whatever it is.

Anyway, my 2d worth is to say store them in trays; they can't give them away on ebay or in charity shops, it seems to me...

Regards, David

OK, this may be a little out of order, but our local thrift shops just dump out all the slides and sell the empty boxes and carousels, often with the original owners’ hand written notes about the slides’ themes still written on the boxes, like “European vacation 1967.”

Scott

 

[plummerl]

So, my approach to storing slides is using something like this:

http://www.printfile.com/Tan-slide-storage-kit.aspx

One box holds around 1200 slides, with 6 boxes inside holding 25 slide mini boxes. For my carousel projector, I have a Kodak Stack Loader that I can use on the 25 slides. Of course I still have 20 empty 140 slide carousels!

 

[wes loder]

I use steel cases with compartments each which hold about 20 slides. If I project, I lift out in clumps of 20, so easy to work with. Only the slides to the outside of each group seem to gain any dust. I have 22 of these cases, all mostly full, each holding an average of 600 slides, so plastic sleeves in a binder or trays are pretty much out of the question. I have also found that slides tend to stick inside these binders and are hard to get out after time. Hope this helps, WES