e’re sure a lot of readers would be familiar with this problem, because many people have large collections of slides (transparencies) which they have collected over the years, or boxes inherited as older generations pass on.

They’re often of too much sentimental value to throw out, so they sit in the back of a cupboard somewhere, perhaps not seeing the light of day for perhaps decades.

But if you have looked at any of them recently, you may well be horrified at their deterioration. Slides suffer from two main problems – they discolour or they grow mouldy.

So how do you preserve your priceless family history? If you don’t do something soon, it may well be too late to recover any image at all. Once an image starts to deteriorate, it keeps on deteriorating. And some slide films of yesterday are well known for deter-iorating virtually from day 1!

Perhaps you even have a scanner – but have been putting it off for a rainy day when you will get down to it.

But most flat-bed scanners are not suitable for scanning slides because their light source is reflective, not transmissive. Even flat-bed scanners with transparency adaptors are seldom ideal, being a compromise.