Hoo Ha - Lost Treasure Found, And More

[Charles Self]

I'm told that slides and negatives are best done on a high res drum scanner, but from what I've seen, prices for decent ones start at about a grand.

I have what is now an old Epson here that came with a slide/neg scanning set up. It's fairly high res and will do more than one at a time (IIRC, about

4), with halfway decent results.

I think the best way is one of the slide duplicators that you find on Ebay. Most seem to run about $65-$80, attach to the front of the camera lens, and let you adjust, fiddle and otherwise play with the various camera settings and lighting schemes until you get pretty much what you want, at which point you just run a bunch through. If I didn't have studio flash, I'd use a halogen 250 watt light, adjust white balance and try it. I'd also shoot in RAW format if the camera had it, because that makes things much more easily adjusted, but RAW is a feature of DSLRs and higher end prosumer cameras mostly, and requires special readers for many programs.

[Charles Self]

Argh, choke, gasp. I just checked and the cheapest drum scanner at B&H Photo is $4995. A bit of my class. Good film scanners can be had for under $300.

[Charles Self]

There is a light above the scanning bed, too, and the slides fit into a frame that positions them properly, but there is still NO way to adjust for possible film warp over the years until you get to a film scanner.

[Charles Self]

The backlighting is imperative. It can be cobbled up on a non-backlit scanner, but it's easier to get one that is built right. Even then, it isn't perfect. Perfection in this kind of thing seems to be about $550, plus six months' practice.

[Charles Self]

Hah, yeah, Raleigh's got one or two. I'll have to give 'em a call, and see what they can do for me. Thanks.

I think I'd cry if someone had done that to me.

Life did that to me. I had a fire in '66, lost everything, no insurance. Agian, in '84--I had bought a new camera for work instead of paying the frigging insurance. '03, we had a basement fire, insured this time, but the stuff lost made me gag emotionally.

I wonder if I spent some time putting together an article on the most effective/cheapest ways of scanning slides and stuck it on either my blog or website it would be of interest? I've got some of the gear, some is too expensive to add to what I have, but some would be neat to have. It might take a few weeks to do (more like 10-12, because I'm literally up to my ears right now), but if it has some value for enough others, it would be worth posting, and it might just be fun to do. I've got some old slides that made it through the fire, so maybe an instruction on clean-up and remounting might help, too.

Jeez, that's two months' work there. I'll put it up piecemeal, though.

[Dave Balderstone]

It depends on what you want in scan quality. To reproduce at National Geo quality without having to much in the way of correction in PShop, you want drum scan with an operator who know what they're doing.

If you're willing to settle for a mediocre to decent scan that will require significant effort to get to a quality level that can be published in a magazine with any quality standards whatsoever, the sub-$300 scanners are for you.

djb

[Mark & Juanita]

He also didn't say he was scanning *pictures*, but was wanting to scan in

35 mm slides (transparencies).

If the only thing one wants is 35 mm thumbnails, that might work.

Again, he's not scanning in 3x5 pictures, but 35 mm slides. Totally different issue.

+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ If you're gonna be dumb, you better be tough +--------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

[Mark & Juanita]

About 9 years ago, we had an issue at work that required us to get 35 mm film processed to negatives and then generate the needed output from the negatives ourselves. I found and rented a Kodak scanner that could scan either slides or negatives (and process the negatives electronically to correct color) into digital format. I don't recall the Kodak model right now, I'm sure it's been superseded by at least 5 generations of improvement by now anyway. The OP might check various local high-end digital photo suppliers to determine whether they have something like that available for rental. Might be a good way to get to use a high-quality unit without having to buy it.

+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ If you're gonna be dumb, you better be tough +--------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

[Dave Balderstone]

Yup.

A good slide/neg scanner will be at 4000 pixels per inch res (for a desktop model).

The Nikon Coolscan 9000 is 4000x4000 optical res, 48-bit color depth, firewire, and just under $2000.

The Konica Minolta Dimage 5400 II claims 5400x5400, 16 bit, USB for $575.

If I was seriously looking for a slide scanner I'd lean to the Nikon for the color depth and firewire.

djb

[J T]

Sun, Jan 15, 2006, 12:50am (EST+5) [e-mail] (Charles=A0Self) sends the bad news: Life did that to me. I had a fire in '66, lost everything, no insurance. Agian, in '84--I had bought a new camera for work instead of paying the frigging insurance. '03, we had a basement fire, insured this time, but the stuff lost made me gag emotionally.

Yeah, that would be bad. But, emotionally, I'd prefer that over somone destroying them deliberately.

JOAT You'll never get anywhere if you believe what you "hear". What do you "know"?

- Granny Weatherwax

[George E. Cawthon]

You are right but it depends on who "he" is; I missed the slides. The who, by the way, that I was replying to is Gerald Ross, but probably appeared to be Swingman. Get's complicated when the thread keeps evolving and being hijacked.

[Swingman]

Actually, you replied to my post directly, as the thread, and your quoting, clearly shows ... and the sub-thread I started was clearly marked "OT" to differentiate it from the original thread, which also happened to be about "slides".

[Swingman]

Finally, some useful information!

Although I have never tried it, I couldn't imagine that simply laying 35mm slides on the type of flatbed scanner under discussion would be the complete process to obtain something useful.

I was aware that there were "services" that would do this for a fee, but that fee has always appeared a bit steep for what I wanted to do ... starting to think it may be actually be a bargain.

Thanks for the insight.

[Charles Self]

Glad it helped. It is costly to hire it done. In fact, at today's prices, if you have some spare time and loose change, you can do it yourself at a far lower cost, even if you have to buy a new scanner. But, as I noted, I am interested in trying the cheap front lens element digital copiers to see how they do. My basic problem is having to wait for cash flow in to equal lens buying cash flow out. I have been a wee bit over-enthusiastic about buying lenses for the Pentax in the past six weeks or so (not a lens a week, but four in that period).

[New Wave Dave]

There is a scanner primer under the EQUIPMENT menu. I would post the complete link if they weren't "down" for maintenance this morning.

[mac davis]

Show them almost any book about Nam.. there's at least one reference to the "blooper" or "blooper guy" in most of them...

Same goes for mortars... people think that they explode out of the tube AND when they hit... that would be a neat trick..

mac

Please remove splinters before emailing

[mac davis]

that was one of the options... and since I don't ever want to hit a woman, the best action at the time was to "un-ass the area and drive on".. (damn.. words that I haven't thought about in about in over 35 years come back way to easy)

mac

Please remove splinters before emailing

[Jim Weisgram]

[...snip...]

I have a scanner that has a holder for negatives and slides, and backlights them during scanning. That said, I think for "good quality" you might also want a scanner with a high optical resolution, which mine does not. The lower resolution limits the size you can blow the

35mm image up to before the pixels are obvious.

[John Thomas]

"Charles Self" wrote in news:0%gyf.474443$ [e-mail]:

Yes, please do this as you have time ...

[J T]

Sun, Jan 15, 2006, 9:59am (EST-3) [e-mail] (mac=A0davis) doth remindeth me: Same goes for mortars... people think that they explode out of the tube AND when they hit... that would be a neat trick.

Oh, I don't know. LOL I was driving past an infantry outpst somewhere between Anh Khe and Pleiku, when a 4.2" went off. Startled the Hell out of me, and I proceeded to slam on the brakes. My boss, very patronizingly says, "Don't worry, they're not shooting at us". I just looked at him, and said, "I 'know' that, but I want to see where' they're shooting before I go further". Took a few seconds for it to sink in for him, and by that time the round had hit, a mile or so, to our left. We then, speedily, went on. LMAO

Another time, we had radio traffic saying a bridge outpost was being hit a mile or so down the road from us - rockets, small arms, mortars. I wasn't driving this time. We pulled over in a pump station to wait it all out. Then the LTC got antsy, probably with visitions of a Meal of Honor, or at least a Silver Star, and told the driver to proceed. All this with the bridge still under attack. And, me in the back, saying the standard mantra to the War Gods, "Oh, shit, this idiot's gonna get me killed". "Oh, shit, this idiot's gonna get me killed". "Oh, shit, this idiot's gonna get me killed". Luckily the driver wasn't in any great hurry, the LTC didn't get on him to go faster, and it was all over before we got. Fortunately, the War Gods answered my praryer. LMAO May the Gods protect us from the Custers in our lives.

JOAT You'll never get anywhere if you believe what you "hear". What do you "know"?

- Granny Weatherwax