Several years ago, some subscribers’ suggested digitizing old photos and slides (Oct. ’07, pg. 46 & Jan. ’08, pg. 78 & May ’08, pg. 63). I saved the information, as we were interested in doing this, but I was discouraged by the overall assessment of how time consuming and/or expensive the process was. In January ’11 we purchased a PowerSlide 3650 slide-digitizing machine plus its CyberView X-MS software from Hammacher Schlemmer (800/321-1484) for $800. We found the same item at Amazon for $700, but we paid the higher price because of Hammacher’s ironclad warranty. The current model, the PowerSlide 5000, sells for $1,200. In our spare time over the next 13 months, we digitized over 10,000 slides. A 50-slide tray was included for automatic mass processing. The device is a bit noisy, so we set up a workstation in our family room where the TV could drown it out; you wouldn’t want it running where you were trying to sleep or concentrate on work. We found one quirk in the software: we had to shut down the software and the machine after every 100 slides. We experienced only minimal jamming (fewer than 50 slides), mostly involving purchased slides or our own slides that had been heavily viewed (especially those from our trip to Tibet in 1985, the first year Tibet was opened to tour groups). The device has a tiny image-preview capability so you can make selections of what you want to capture. Our opinion is that this would be way too slow a process; it’s better to capture everything and edit later. Older slides, of course, had already deteriorated in quality, but now we have the ability to clean up and enhance the saved digital images with Photoshop or similar tools. Our international trips had been previously edited down to 140 photos (one slide tray) each, so they were easily processed. Most of our other photos were stored in slide cubes and we hadn’t looked at them in years. What memories we uncovered! Our honeymoon. Our first overseas trip. Friends and destinations that we had forgotten. The effort has been well worth it, to us, even if no one else cares after we’re long gone. DONNA PYLE Boulder, CO