Author Topic: Activities to do through the COVID crisis (Read 35597 times)

Bubba · « **Reply #140 on:** March 31, 2020, 04:54:36 pm »

Quote from: quadzilla on March 31, 2020, 04:13:14 pm

Thankfully my dad digitized most/all of his slides but now they just sit on external hard drives gathering dust. At least they take up less space now. I've debated putting them up on Google Photos but then wonder who will ever sit and look through them. Decisions, decisions.

Someone will look at them. I have 9,131 photos on Flickr and they have been viewed over 570,000 times.

PJungnitsch · « **Reply #141 on:** March 31, 2020, 04:54:53 pm »

Quote from: Railton on March 31, 2020, 04:08:23 pm

Quote from: PJungnitsch on March 31, 2020, 03:53:28 pm
I had a bunch of slides to do for the parents, said to hell with scanning and just took them to Costco, who did a great job

For the photos, I might try with my phone and an app like Google photoscan
What did they charge you for that?
Railton

First 50 was 28.00 and then it was 32 cents each

Railton · « **Reply #142 on:** March 31, 2020, 04:56:51 pm »

That could add up!
Railton

PJungnitsch · « **Reply #143 on:** March 31, 2020, 05:31:31 pm »

It does! I was one of those people staring at a dusty box of slides for way too long. With the coronavirus and my parents being in their 80's, it was time to get it done.

Golly · « **Reply #144 on:** March 31, 2020, 08:43:07 pm »

Quote from: blur911 on March 31, 2020, 12:50:37 pm

^Loving the Vega, you kept it going about 15 years longer than most

LOL, my co-workers used to razz me a lot about my POS but for me it was a point of pride keeping it running for as long as I could. It also made financial sense at the time.

Golly · « **Reply #145 on:** March 31, 2020, 08:56:14 pm »

Quote from: Railton on March 31, 2020, 03:35:34 pm

Quote from: Golly on March 31, 2020, 12:41:31 pm
A couple of years ago, I started digitizing 36 years worth of slides and negatives that I had accumulated from 1969 to 2005. I started with the slides using a flatbed scanner that had an adapter tray to hold the slides. That was ok but when I tried scanning the negatives, it became unbearably slow. So I bought a dedicated, expensive and mickey-mouse film scanner but it too was tedious to use. I was constantly having to dial in colour and brightness corrections. The results were mediocre at best, probably due a combination of the degradation of the negatives and crappy performance of the scanner. I put the project aside but with this Covid isolation thing these past 2 weeks, I slogged through and finished the project. Probably scanned 7000 photos.
I also have a 5hit pile of 35mm slides from my Dad - and a flat bed scanner with 12 or 16 slide tray. Yes, really slow and you need to adjust each one almost. So, which way did you scan them all? What was the size of each? Must have taken ages to do.
Vegas usually rusted out. You got 4x the life out of it.
Railton

The slides are 35 mm and I scanned them all using the flatbed and it worked pretty well. I had no means of adjusting the colour but my slides are mostly Kodakchrome that go back to 1969 and it was remarkable how well the colour had held up. My negatives are also 35 mm and I scanned them using a dedicated scanner called the Kodak Scanza that allowed me to adjust brightness, red, green and blue. It was finicky at times to get the colours right and there were some negatives that I could not get right at all. As I said, the results were mediocre at best. I also came across a few rolls of 110 that I have no clue where they came from as I never owned a 110 camera. My scanner had a tray for 110 but after I tried a few, the images were so bad I didn't bother. I used a 35 mm rangefinder and 35 mm SLR.

Took me 2 weeks, 3 - 4 hours a day.

Golly · « **Reply #146 on:** March 31, 2020, 09:00:50 pm »

Quote from: Bubba on March 31, 2020, 04:54:36 pm

Quote from: quadzilla on March 31, 2020, 04:13:14 pm
Thankfully my dad digitized most/all of his slides but now they just sit on external hard drives gathering dust. At least they take up less space now. I've debated putting them up on Google Photos but then wonder who will ever sit and look through them. Decisions, decisions.

Someone will look at them. I have 9,131 photos on Flickr and they have been viewed over 570,000 times.

wow, that's great

I doubt anyone would be interested in looking at my photos of mostly various children and family events and gatherings. Heck even I don't remember some the people in my photos

Bubba · « **Reply #147 on:** March 31, 2020, 09:42:58 pm »

^^^^ Da Grump!

draghon · « **Reply #148 on:** March 31, 2020, 10:07:03 pm »

Quote from: Golly on March 31, 2020, 12:41:31 pm

A couple of years ago, I started digitizing 36 years worth of slides and negatives that I had accumulated from 1969 to 2005. I started with the slides using a flatbed scanner that had an adapter tray to hold the slides. That was ok but when I tried scanning the negatives, it became unbearably slow. So I bought a dedicated, expensive and mickey-mouse film scanner but it too was tedious to use. I was constantly having to dial in colour and brightness corrections. The results were mediocre at best, probably due a combination of the degradation of the negatives and crappy performance of the scanner. I put the project aside but with this Covid isolation thing these past 2 weeks, I slogged through and finished the project. Probably scanned 7000 photos. Not sure if it was worth the effort as I’m sure not many people will actually want/get to see the digital images. If nothing else, the process brought back many memories. Sadly there were lots of faces, places and occasions I could not remember.

Anyway, came across photos of 2 memorable vehicles I had owned, notable because of the length of time I owned them and also the many road trips we took in them. The first was a 1974 Vega GT that I bought new when I graduated from university. The GT came with the upgraded 2.3 liter 4 banger that put 85hp (base engine only had 75) and had a 4-on-the-floor tranny. No PS, PB,PW, PDL, CC etc. Did 0-60 in 12.3. Compared to today’s cars, it was pretty easy to repair, so I did pretty much all own repairs including replacing timing belts, water pumps, radiators, clutches and brakes. We drove it 19.5 years before disposing of it. It was still running but the rust was bad.

The second vehicle was a 1980 G10 Chevy Beauville passenger van with only 1 row of back seats, with a 350V8 that IIRC put out 175hp and 250 lb-ft. When I bought it used it was less than a year old. IIRC car loans were over 20% at the time when inflation was rampant. We drove it until Oct 1998, so it was 18.5 years old when it got disposed of. The engine had died due to some electrical thing and it was rusty. It was the first vehicle I owned with AC, PS, PW, PDL and CC. The AC was a great treat and every vehicle since has had AC.

Yes, cars have come a long way.

The attached photos were taken just before the vehicles were disposed of.

Do you have any photos to share from when they were new?

Golly · « **Reply #149 on:** April 02, 2020, 12:10:50 am »

Here's a couple of the Vega when it was 1 yr. These images are non-enhanced digitizations of 45 year old Kodakchrome slides. I'm amazed by how well the colours have held up.

Oddly, I couldn't find any of the Beauville, maybe because it was bought shorty after we started a family so baby pictures became the priority. Back then we were much more selective of what we photographed because of the cost. Today's digital photography is free. Many photographers will use the "spray and pray" approach, i.e., take a gazillion pics hoping 1 will turn out. Guilty.

If nothing else, the digitization of these old images have made it a lot easier to search for them.

Weels · « **Reply #150 on:** April 02, 2020, 04:35:48 pm »

^ Love it!
My wife had a bunch of slides that i scanned a few years ago, they came out great as well.

I got this Lego kit for Christmas, it has been a busy year so far so it hasn't been touched.
Probably about time i got on it

https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a26454291/mustang-fastback-lego-kit/

Hannibalsmith · « **Reply #151 on:** April 02, 2020, 04:40:10 pm »

Quote from: Weels on April 02, 2020, 04:35:48 pm

I got this Lego kit for Christmas, it has been a busy year so far so it hasn't been touched.
Probably about time i got on it

https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a26454291/mustang-fastback-lego-kit/

Nice. I got the fastback for my youngest son...its currently sitting to my right in the my home office

KD · « **Reply #152 on:** April 02, 2020, 04:42:29 pm »

Wife and I just got back from a walk in the park and noticed a sign posted there regarding physical distancing limitations. At least they are using a better term now. I always thought the term social distancing was kind of odd. No worries with that as it's pouring rain here and we were the only ones out. Good chance to check the rain gear anyway.

random006 · « **Reply #153 on:** April 02, 2020, 04:53:19 pm »

Rainy day got you cooped up? Haul out those jigsaw puzzles!

We have several, acquired over the years. Some of them hadn’t even been opened. Excellent way to pass the time.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Ontariodriver · « **Reply #154 on:** April 02, 2020, 04:58:41 pm »

Cards, Video games, is how I get though. I'm not used to this. I normally work 12 hours a day. I'm finding hard to fill the time. I can't do anything right now, it's limbo time....

rrocket · « **Reply #155 on:** April 02, 2020, 11:53:53 pm »

Anyone play backgammon?

I play online if anyone wants a game....

OliverD · « **Reply #156 on:** April 03, 2020, 02:33:49 pm »

Quote from: random006 on April 02, 2020, 04:53:19 pm

Rainy day got you cooped up? Haul out those jigsaw puzzles!

We have several, acquired over the years. Some of them hadn’t even been opened. Excellent way to pass the time.

We've been picking away at this one.

Also got a few Lego Speed Champion sets last week and I built the Nissan GT-R. It's a great little build. I read today that Lego is selling very well right now and if you order directly from them the processing times have been slowed down due to the demand.

Lots of my Thursday evenings are spent meeting some friends at a local beer bar. For the last two weeks we've been doing it virtually. My wife picked up a few more HRB products yesterday too.

quadzilla · « **Reply #157 on:** April 03, 2020, 02:41:10 pm »

Quote from: rrocket on April 02, 2020, 11:53:53 pm

Anyone play backgammon?

I play online if anyone wants a game....

I'm interested. What app are you using? I can't predict my schedule but would be nice to get in a game with you now and then.

Gurgie · « **Reply #158 on:** April 03, 2020, 02:41:30 pm »

^hey Shane said he was canning the Hawaiian today...

draghon · « **Reply #159 on:** April 03, 2020, 04:02:13 pm »

Quote from: Golly on April 02, 2020, 12:10:50 am

Here's a couple of the Vega when it was 1 yr. These images are non-enhanced digitizations of 45 year old Kodakchrome slides. I'm amazed by how well the colours have held up.

Oddly, I couldn't find any of the Beauville, maybe because it was bought shorty after we started a family so baby pictures became the priority. Back then we were much more selective of what we photographed because of the cost. Today's digital photography is free. Many photographers will use the "spray and pray" approach, i.e., take a gazillion pics hoping 1 will turn out. Guilty.

If nothing else, the digitization of these old images have made it a lot easier to search for them.

Guilty as well! Maybe if we are required to stay home long enough I will have time to organize and triage our digital photo collection as well.

The image quality of the slides is great considering the age! Different wheels from new to when you got rid of the Vega?