Unusually, I attended the Dorchester meeting on 11th December ( see notes on our website) . The demonstration seemed quite impressive as were the comments thus far.
The slide scanner should be making its progress around the other centres now that the Dorchester group has done various tests etc.
The slide copies are saved to an SD card for you to transfer to your Mac and do any manipulation you think necessary. This will probably depend largely on the original quality of the slide or negative and it is very important that the original is as clean as possible before starting the scan. Having seen the high quality of some of your photographs, Roy, I should imagine you would feel some cleaning up afterwards would also be desirable. Though many people would agree with me that the result direct from the scanner is good enough for their needs.
One has to bear in mind that for some people the original slides were taken many years ago on a run of the mill camera and to be able to include these in your iPhoto library as early family records is an advantage.
It is intended to pass the slide copier between centres on a roughly monthly rotation. Transport between them will be arranged between myself and Mick. Each centre will arrange how the copier is to be shared between members during the month and it is expected that one member will act as coordinator. The Dorchester group has devised a plan which I am sure they would be happy to share with other groups if required.
A benefit of the scanner is that it is very quick and simple to operate so it is feasible for several members to be able to copy large numbers of slides within a month of usage.
Perhaps some of the Dorchester members would add their observations.
John Surtees 