Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1998/11/15

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Subject: [Leica] How to accentuate the positive?
From: "Dr James Harper" <DRJH@btinternet.com>
Date: Sun, 15 Nov 1998 21:22:16 -0000

I have a 50-years accumulation of some thousands of colour positive, colour
negative and monochrome  material (mostly lacking contact prints) which I
think that it is about time to have a clear-out of while I can still
remember what they are about. Some might be worth keeping for  historical
reasons. Colour slides are fairly easy to review, assuming that you have
the time.  Black and white negatives I can read and interpret  adequately,
though slowly.  Colour negatives I find difficult to interpret quickly, 
and I have too many of them for it to be sensible to have them all
contact-printed.

Is there an easy solution to this problem?  There was, about 10 years ago,
a Tamron gadget called something like Fotovix which connected to your TV
and immediately converted colour or black and white negatives into
positives.  It is no longer made (but still crops up second-hand
occasionally) so presumably was not successful/popular.  And may have been
long-winded in operation anyway.  Has anyone experience of it?  Is there
any more modern/sophisticated solution, apart from the overkill and time
demands of scanners?

Apologies for this rather retro request for advice. In mitigation, I should
say that most of the material  was  photographed  with various Leitz
cameras and is  fragrant with bokeh.

Many thanks in anticipation of the usual generous and knowledgeable
responses.

JH