My scanner is an HP ScanJet 3970 and has an attachment to scan slides. My problem is that I have some old slides that are too large to fit into the attachment. Does anyone know how I can scan these? Any help will be appreciated.

I'm skeptical, but the manual says "To scan large transparent items, such as a presentation transparency, place the item on the scanner glass under a piece of white paper and scan as usual."

Hi stringbean,
I made the mistake of thinking I would be scanning standard slides and 35mm film... smile.. and so I ended up getting scanner similar to yours where the the holder and the tube is in the hood of the scanner.... I should have spent an extra 75 bucks more and gotten the one where it would accepta lot more number of slides and designed to scan odd sizes... of film/slides....

3 things you can do.....
1. now the size if the size of the slide primarily because of the cardboard/plastic frame and the film part is just a 35mm size . you may try putting the film part into a new standard plastic fram.... where the fram now fits the slide/film holder

2. another way, if you place/position the slide on the glass plate that will work.... however.... the quality may not be that great because of the distance between the slide and slide/film scanning tube....... also if it a large slide you may need to do two seperate scans.... then later merge them!

3. another way.... limited success... and when placed on the face plate scan it as if your scanning a photograph.... but again don't expect miracles.

4. and of course if you got a lot of these odd size film and slides... you may find it more advantagious to get a new scanner... hp and espson they both have a model that can handle odd sizes!!

My scanner is an HP ScanJet 3970 and has an attachment to scan slides. My problem is that I have some old slides that are too large to fit into the attachment. Does anyone know how I can scan these? Any help will be appreciated.

I will try the scan with the white paper. I don’t have enough pictures to warrant going into all the options Jerryb suggested. Thank you both for the help.

If you only have a few of the odd sizes, oyu can take them to your local photo store and have them scanned.

If you only have a few of the odd sizes, oyu can take them to your local photo store and have them scanned.

I think that is what I will do.

I'm skeptical, but the manual says "To scan large transparent items, such as a presentation transparency, place the item on the scanner glass under a piece of white paper and scan as usual."

This technique will work with presentation transparencies, to a degree, such as where most of the transparency is blank. For instance where you have just text, and maybe a line drawing. This is because you have a lot of contrast, and is therefore easy for the scanner to pick out. For something like a photo, though, there is often not enough light left to reflect back from the background paper, which is why items such as 35mm photos are generally scanned using a back light, and the front light turned off.