For the family's keeper of the old slides
Dad's slides are still in the wardrobe. Let's get them back into family life.
Turn compatible 35mm slides and negatives into digital pictures you can revisit and share. Start with the family holiday, the Christmas photos, or the carousel everyone remembers.
You've kept the slides. Viewing them is the difficult part.
The carousels are in the spare-room wardrobe, where they've been since the projector went. Holding a slide up to the window tells you roughly what's on it, but not who's in it or where it was taken.
So it stays a "one weekend" job. Every Christmas, every clear-out, the box comes down and goes back up.
This scanner sits on the kitchen table. You slide a frame in, see it on the small screen, press a button, and a digital copy is saved. That's the weekend job, one carousel at a time.
First, check what's in your box.
Most Australian family collections from the 1960s to the 1990s are one of these two things. Hold yours up against the pictures below.
35mm mounted slides
Square cardboard or plastic mounts about 5 × 5 cm, usually stacked in a projector carousel or a yellow Kodak box. The picture inside is a small transparency.
35mm negative strips
Orange-brown strips with sprocket holes along both edges, usually in the paper sleeve that came back with the prints. Each strip holds four to six frames.
- Printed photographs and photo albums
- Super 8 and other movie film
- VHS, Video8 and other videotapes
- Medium-format (120) film and glass plates
- 110 and 126 cartridge film (the small square Instamatic negatives)
- Slides in thick glass or metal mounts
We only list a format as supported once we've scanned it on our own unit. Not sure what you have? See the FAQs or contact us with a photo of the box.
What a scanned slide looks like.
Illustrative examples of the kind of picture you get back. Unedited scans from our own unit will replace these once we have tested it. Tap any picture to enlarge it.
What you'll get
A JPEG file for each slide or frame, sized for viewing on a phone, tablet or TV. Colour follows the original: a warm 1970s slide scans warm, and a well-kept one scans clean.
What it won't do
It does not repair fading, scratches or mould. A faded slide scans as a faded picture. Dust on the slide shows in the scan, which is what the brush is for. It isn't a substitute for a professional lab scan.
Still being confirmed
Output size (reference class: 2592 × 1944 pixels, about 5 megapixels) and how large the files print well. We'll publish measured results from our own unit here.
How the pictures get from here to there.
Scanning and sharing are two separate jobs. The scanner does the first on its own. The second uses the memory card.
Load compatible film
Put a slide in the slide holder, or a negative strip in the negative holder, and push the holder into the side of the scanner. Move it along to the next frame when you're done.
Preview and scan
The picture shows on the built-in screen. If it's upside down or the wrong frame, adjust and look again. Press the button to scan and save a JPEG to the memory card. No computer is involved in this step.
Move the files, then view or share
Take the memory card out and put it into whatever you'll view on. From a phone, the pictures go into the family WhatsApp group like any other photo.
Tested transfer routes
The scanner is not wireless. Files travel on the card or by cable.Memory card → a card reader that plugs into your phone's charging port → the phone's Photos or Files app.
Memory card into the computer's card slot or a USB card reader, or the scanner connected by its USB cable.
Memory card into the TV's SD or USB slot (via a USB reader), or a video cable from the scanner if one is included.
Slidemora
Film & Slide Scanner
- ✓Scans 35mm mounted slides and 35mm negative strips
- ✓Preview each picture on the built-in screen before you save it
- ✓Saves JPEG files to a memory card, so scanning needs no computer
Working price, provisional
In the box
- Film & slide scannerto verify
- Slide holder (35mm mounted slides)to verify
- Negative holder (35mm strips)to verify
- USB cableto verify
- Power adapterto verify
- Cleaning brushto verify
- Printed quick-start guideto verify
Memory card and phone card reader are not included unless listed above.
Start with one carousel.
Don't start with the whole wardrobe. Pick the carousel with the holiday everyone remembers and finish that one. The rest can wait for another evening.
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Step 1
Choose a small batch
One carousel, or one sleeve of negatives. Usually 36 to 80 frames.
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Step 2
Prepare the slides
Brush off dust, keep them in carousel order, and note anything written on the mounts.
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Step 3
Scan them
Load, check the preview, save. Move to the next frame. Scanning is the quick part.
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Step 4
Transfer the files
Card out, into the reader or computer, and send the best ones to the family group.
Sorting, cleaning, loading and transferring take longer than the scan itself. Allow an evening for the first carousel. Measured timings per frame and per carousel will be added once we've tested our own unit.
The pictures start the conversation.
Picture a Sunday afternoon. The first carousel is scanned: the caravan trip, 1979. Someone recognises the beach before anyone says where it is. Mum names the couple in the deckchairs, who nobody under fifty has heard of, and the story about the tide comes out for the first time in years.
Your nephew asks for that one, and it's in the family group before the kettle has boiled.
An imagined afternoon, not a customer story.
What arrives, what's optional, and where to get help.
In the box
- Film & slide scannerto verify
- Slide holder (35mm mounted slides)to verify
- Negative holder (35mm strips)to verify
- USB cableto verify
- Power adapterto verify
- Cleaning brushto verify
- Printed quick-start guideto verify
Optional, not included
- SD memory card
Needed to save scans. Reference class accepts cards up to 32GB. Capacity limit to verify. - Phone card reader
Plugs into an iPhone or Android charging port to copy pictures from the card. Proposed accessory; model to confirm. - Spare film holders
Handy if you want to load the next slides while one holder is in the scanner. Availability to confirm.
Help and returns
A plain-English setup guide comes in the box and is on this site. [link to confirm]
Email: [support@slidemora.com.au]
Phone: [to confirm], [hours, AEST]
[Return window, condition requirements and who pays return postage, to confirm.] Australian Consumer Law guarantees apply regardless.
Questions people ask before buying.
If they are standard 35mm mounted slides (about 5 × 5 cm mounts) or 35mm negative strips, yes. 110 and 126 cartridge film and unusually thick glass mounts are awaiting verification on our unit. Printed photos, movie film and videotapes do not fit. See "First, check what's in your box" above.
No. It scans transparent film only: slides and negatives. For prints, a flatbed scanner or a phone scanning app is the right tool.
A JPEG for each frame that looks good on a phone, tablet or TV. Reference-class output is 2592 × 1944 pixels (about 5 megapixels), to be confirmed on our unit. Colour and sharpness follow the original slide. It is not a professional lab scan.
No. What is on the slide is what you get, including fading, scratches and dust. Brushing the slide first helps with dust. If a picture matters, the scan is a good starting point for a photo shop or an editing app to work from.
Not to scan. Loading, previewing and saving all happen on the scanner, and files go to the memory card. You need a phone, computer or TV only when you want to look at or share the files, and the card is how they get there.
Take the memory card out of the scanner and put it into a card reader that plugs into your phone's charging port. The pictures then appear in your Photos or Files app and can be sent to WhatsApp like any other photo. The reader is not included; we are confirming which model to recommend and which phones it works with.
Some TVs have an SD or USB slot: put the card (or a USB reader with the card in it) into the TV and open its media viewer. Otherwise use the video cable from the scanner if one is included. We are confirming the tested TV route for our unit. Not every TV has a suitable slot.
The memory card and the phone card reader are not included unless they appear in the "In the box" list above. Both are common items available from electronics retailers, and we may offer them as accessories once confirmed.
The scan itself is quick (reference class: about three seconds per frame, to be confirmed). Sorting, brushing, loading and moving the files take most of the time. Allow an evening for a first carousel of around 80 slides. We will publish measured timings once we have tested our unit.
[Support contact and hours to confirm.] [Return window, condition and postage terms to confirm.] Australian Consumer Law guarantees apply regardless of store policy.
Choose the first carousel you'd like to see again.
One evening, one box, and the pictures are back where the family can see them.