Prepping Your Carousels

Understanding Sawyer Tray " Carousel" Preparation

The Sawyer-style carousel holds 100 slides and presents a unique challenge: the slides must be removed before scanning. Unlike Kodak carousels, Sawyer carousels stand upright during projection (more like a "Ferris wheel" than a traditional carousel), which means the slots are tight and slides become firmly stuck in place. This design makes slide removal time-consuming and labor-intensive.

Your options: You can remove the slides yourself before shipping (recommended to save money), or we can remove them for a small additional fee. Please contact us if you'd like us to handle slide removal. Note: Slides are not returned to the carousel after scanning—they'll be organized in stacks.

Step-by-Step Visual Guide

Sawyer carousel showing vertical reel design that holds 100 slides — Sawyer carousel with vertical "Ferris wheel" design

Close-up of Sawyer carousel slots showing tight fit of slides — Tight carousel slots make slide removal challenging

Beginning to remove slides from Sawyer carousel — Starting the slide removal process

Carefully extracting stuck slides from carousel slots — Carefully extracting slides from tight slots

Continuing slide removal from carousel — Continuing the removal process

Multiple slides being removed and organized — Removing and organizing slides

Progressing through carousel slide removal — Working through the carousel systematically

Nearly empty carousel with most slides removed — Nearly complete—carousel almost empty

Organizing removed slides into stacks — Organizing slides into neat stacks

Creating organized slide stacks maintaining carousel order — Maintaining carousel order in stacks

Stacking slides in proper sequence — Keeping slides in sequence

Checking slide orientation in stack — Checking slide orientation

Reviewing slides for proper landscape orientation — Reviewing orientation before scanning

Critical Step: Rotate Portrait Slides to Landscape

Find portrait-oriented slides and rotate them to landscape position. Some photographers turned their cameras sideways to take vertical "portrait" pictures, then rotated those slides in the carousel for correct projection. Before scanning, ALL slides must be rotated to "landscape" (horizontal) orientation to prevent cropping.

Don't worry: We'll rotate your digital images to display correctly after scanning. This step just ensures nothing gets cropped during the scanning process.

Example of portrait slide that needs rotation to landscape orientation — Portrait slide that needs rotation to landscape

Rotating portrait slide to landscape orientation — Rotating slide to landscape orientation

Final organized stack of carousel slides ready for scanning — Final stack ready for scanning—all properly oriented

Why This Preparation Matters

Proper preparation ensures efficient scanning and prevents image cropping. While the removal process is time-consuming, it's essential for high-quality results. If you'd rather focus on enjoying your memories than extracting slides from tight carousel slots, we're happy to handle this step for you.

Need help with carousel preparation?

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