I suppose it's because I have so much time on my hands these days, that all these memories come flooding back to me.

I have just bought one of those 35mm scanners that allow you to transfer all your old slides and negatives onto your computer. I had been trying for ages to buy a second hand one on eBay, but never had any luck, as I was always getting out-bid at the last second. So when I saw that Aldi were selling them reasonably cheap, I got up early that morning and got there right on opening time, and bought one. It was just as well I did get there when I did, as they only had eight of them to sell, and I got the second one. I never realised that there were so many folk out there who have those old slides that they wanted to transfer them onto their computer, the same as me.

Anyway, when I got home with it I opened it really carefully as I intend to sell it on eBay when I have finished using it, as obviously I will have no use for it after that. I loaded up the driver CD that usually comes with such items, and started to read the instructions. I think that's where I went wrong, as they were so confusing. I gave up, and started to have a go myself and began to load the first cassette which holds three slides. Then after having a good look at it and the scanner itself, I figured out how to insert it. When the first screen popped up, I realised it looked very similar to those "picture resizing" programs that we need to use to reduce the size of photos before sending them by Email. It wasn't that long before the first three pictures appeared on screen one at a time, and after pressing a few keys and reading prompts, they were transferred to my computer without any problems.

All I had to do after that was to get all the rest of them transferred, which was a problem for me the following day. I had created a new folder called "Navy Photos" to put them into, but for some reason that folder had hidden itself somewhere amongst all the files in the My Documents folder! I had spent an hour or so repeating the process on the same slides thinking that they were not being installed onto my computer, until I eventually figured out what had happened. It was only when I got a routine going, and I had time to look at the actual photos that the memories started to come back to me, as I have never seen these photos properly before, as I never did own a slide projector, so all I could do was hold them up to the light.

The quality of the photos once they came up on the screen was amazing, the scanner itself is five mega-pixel, and it also allows you to change things like the colour contrast and so on. There is even a program where you can remove items and even people from the photo, and air brush the area when you are finished doing that. I was really impressed with the whole thing and the fact that a sliver surfer like me could actually do all the processes required to transfer old photos on slides to computer. So if you have a look on eBay in the near future, you will see a 35mm scanner for sale, in good condition, one owner, so why not put in a bid and have a go yourself, as I am fairly sure that you will have some old slides somewhere in your house.

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