This paper is written from the perspective of a museum conservator working with slide-based artworks within the context of a fine art collection. One of the challenges addressed by this research, which is centred on the imminent demise of analogue technology, is the gap between the trained practitioner rich in bench skills, the artist who has chosen to work in this medium and the language used by imaging science to describe the properties of a slide and any subsequent analogue or digital production route.