How it is done

This picture shows the digitising of the glorious 9x12 cm colour originals. All the 6x7 cm originals were done in the same way. Basically a lightbox and a 24 MP digital SLR camera with a macro lens. While the process is slow it yields good results. Great care was taken to align the camera and the lightbox so that there is no distortion. The camera was remote-released.

The 35 mm slides were done with a more mechanised system (but essentially similar):
An old slide projector was modified by fitting a less powerful light source and removal of the lens. The same digital SLR and lens were used to take pictures directly “into” the projector i.e. of each slide as it was lit up from behind.
This process is relatively quick; basically after the magazine of the projector is loaded all that’s needed is pressing the remote release of the camera and the advance button of the projector alternately.