We have quite a few forum participants who have scanned negatives before but I’m afraid with the info you provided your question can’t possible be answered. Perhaps if you gave some detail as to what you are doing and some info about what your concerns are someone will be able to give you an answer or some tips.
Here is a link that may be of interest.
http://www.scantips.com/ —
Have A Nice Day, 🙂
James Hutchinson
http://www.pbase.com/myeyesview http://www.myeyesviewstudio.com/ wrote in message
I know this is somewhat off topic, but I don’t know where else to go.
I’ve recently purchased an Epson 4870 scanner and I’m trying to scan a large slide collection onto DVDs. I’m using Elements to clean them up, but I keep wondering if I’m doing everything I can to get the best scan possible. Any help would be appreciated.
I’ve been using a 4870 for scanning slides, too. I use 4800 dpi and turn on Digital Ice. This gives me PSD files of about 60 mb. That’s enough that I can enlarge and crop substantially and still get a decent print. I usually do a batch of eight at a time, although sometimes an individual slide benefits from some tweaking with the scanning parameters. I find that some underexposed slides are scanned very dark, although that can usually be corrected in Elements.
Dust and mold, especially on the older slides, is the problem that takes the most time to correct. I use an anti-static brush to get the worst of the dust. Color fading can usually be corrected fairly easily in Elements.
Once I have corrected files, I use the batch facility to get JPEGs and burn a tray (140 slides) per CD. I can then play the slides on the TV with the DVD player. Now if I could just persuade my wife that we really need that 50 inch plasma…
Bob Warren
I use my Coolpix 990 to scan my slides. This is a very different way of digitizing slides and not many people do it now. But if you are interested in how it works, let me know.
It is flawless!
Jane
Before I started scanning my slides with a Polaroid 4000, experimented with "dusting" methods. I got good results with a very powerful hand puffer bulb (DL-0405P) & a 1" camel’s hair brush, & it "feels to me" safer to my slides than other methods. I puff 3 times on each side, then brush back and forth gently 3 times, then puff 3 times again. The Polaroid 4-slide holder is convenient when doing this, you don’t want to accumulate oil from your hands onto the brush. I clean the brush with the puffer only, & keep it in a ziplock.
This gets rid of most of the dust, saving gobs of cleanup time in PS.
Carl
Thanks Carl Thats a great tip!
Julio
It is prety useless as you allready have a slide scanner, but Jane’s technique is the way to go for large numbers of slides.
Buy a slide copying device to attach to your front lens or construct a system where you can place your slides in, firmy attached to your camera and keep on shooting. This way you will be able to copy hundreds of slides an hour.
The time saved can be used to tweak your images. ;-(
If anyone is interested, I can tell how to construct such a device; it takes some time and careful woodwork, but the results are often worth the effort.
Leen
Hi Leen, My husband was going to make several of them, but all we needed was the original one that I bought for our Coolpix 990.
Here is the link with good pictures,
<
http://www.steves-digicams.com/happenstance.html> With the Coolpix 990 and its excellent macro, I find that I can do hundreds in an afternoon, and then all I do is open them in PSE and correct color and whatever else they need. Its the old underwater slides that are the most difficult to fix. But PSE will do it!
I find that most of my time is just looking at them and enjoying the memories that each slide brings back to us.
Pretty good invention! But your camera has to have a good macro. Jane
That is so cool Jane! I wish they made one for my camera. I’m about half way through my late Grandfathers slide collection and it’s only taken me two years. 😉
Leen, if you don’t mind, I’d be interested in at least seeing what’s involved in constructing a slide copy device. I’m not much of a carpenter but who knows, maybe I could put something together.
Joe
Me too Leen. Can you tell us how to make a slide copier. Thanks
Julio
Mee too, Leen! My husband could make the little ones that are in the link for the Coolpix cameras, but other cameras with large and moving lenses are far different. If you could send us info on this, perhaps my husband could make one for other cameras.
Not for me however, as I would use our CP 990, but for my brother and our kids with their newer cameras. Actually, I have the new CP 4300, and that lens moves as it focuses, I must look at it when it is working in macro to see how much it moves. Just a little bit would make it have to be a totally different attachment.
(My father-in-laws slides are of his trips in the 50 and 60s all over the world on the Oceanographic research ships, and there are some great ones in his collection! Just gotta find the box they are in, really hope they are here and not lost!)
This is fun, a great project to work on!
Thanks,
Jane
I tried to describe the construction in english, but that is pretty difficult as I am not a native speaker and desribing a construction is just a little too difficult…..
At that moment I felt guilty and wished I didnot make this promise.
To my relief, a quick search on the internet showed me somebody else made a similar construction and the images show clearly what I meant.
You can find it here:
<
http://www.angelfire.com/ar/thecameranutjwb/page2.html>
Leen
Remember, when using this home made slide copier to set the right colour balance for the colour temperature of the lighting source.
Leen
That’s ok Leen. After reading about slide copiers in this tread I "googled" and found a few resources.
Here are a couple commercial slide copiers:
<
http://www.bugeyedigital.com/product_main/ome-96msv.html> <
http://shop.vendio.com/daleathy/category/1/>
The first one looks kind of cheap and at $9 I’m a little skeptical. The second link, however, looks like it might be a pretty good deal. The copier actually has a built in macro lens.
I also found another "do-it-yourself" plan for making one but can’t find it again! Grrrr…
Oh well, I’m going to seriously consider buying one for my camera.
Joe
Hi Leen, That is great! It is easy for people to see. Just have to have decent macro, good light(not direct) and the thing built like you have it. It does not have to be small and plastic, like the Happenstance, just has to sit in front of the lens as you have it. My husband could make hundreds but there is no call for them here.
Thanks!
Jane
Jane, with a good marketing campaign and at the right price, he might even produce thousands. If there is no call, create your own market!
Leen
Jane,
I need one. Am willing to be beta tester.
Ken
This is a good idea, I might get him to try one for my CP 4300. I guess that marketing would be much easier now in the day of the internet. We had 3 clever inventions about 25 years ago, that we couldn’t market, so we gave up. But it sure was fun to make the stuff.
With summer coming on, and seeing how short it is here, I am sure he wouldn’t attempt anything until the fall. But I sure will see what he says.
It is certainly up his alley, as that is what he does for work, make prototype stuff for oceanographic research. He has made a lot of custom underwater housings for instruments among other neat stuff.
Jane
Jane, thanks for your good ideas.
Now I am facing the problem of scanning a collection of ca. 400 2×2 inch (6×6 cm) color slides and dito bl/w negatives. Does anyone have experience with this large size?
Hein.
wrote:
Jane, thanks for your good ideas.
Now I am facing the problem of scanning a collection of ca. 400 2×2 inch (6×6 cm) color slides and dito bl/w negatives. Does anyone have experience with this large size? Hein.
The Microtek scanmaker 5900 will do a good job on 6×6 and larger negs and chromes. Check eBay for deals – well under $100, or get a new one for about $130 and sell it on eBay when you’re done.
—
Mike Russell
www.curvemeister.com
www.geigy.2y.net
120/220 film format.
6×6 shot by Hasselblad mainly.
Unless you want to spring around $1900 for large format film scanner like Nikon’s 9000 or Minolta’s Scan Multi-Pro, you’re going to have to use flatbed with transparency adaptor.
No question that Epson’s line gets the nod here, 2400, 3200, and 4800 ppi models.
While flatbeds do not achieve the same actual final resolution per ppi as dedicated film scanners, the Epson’s do a darn nice job with larger format film as you have more surface area to begin with.
Slow scanning at high rez, though.
Mac
Jane
I have been playing around with my new Nikon Coolpix 4300 as a slide copier. I am placing the slide on a lightbox and bringing up the camera (mounted on a tripod) as close as it will focus. So far, I am getting most of the slide in focus, but after cropping to remove the border and curvature near the edges, I am left with about 2 MP of a 4 MP image. Results have been surprisingly good, at wide angle with the macro setting on. Because I am using a tungsten source, the images require color correction (good results with auto-color correction in Ph. Elements) and unsharp mask settings of 176 (amount), 1.5 (radius), and 10 (threshold). I use autofocus and exposure but use a 3 sec. self timer to minimize shake effects. Exposure are about f2.8 at 1/125 or 1/250th of a sec. (no flash).
Would appreciate hearing about your technique on your 900 before I commit to a massive slide copying project.
Jack Polejes ()
Hi Jack, I use the Happenstance one that was designed for the CP 990, and I find that non-direct sunlight from my kitchen window is by far the best.
Everything else that you are doing is exactly what the Happenstance thing does. I just put the camera on Macro and fire away on automatic. Here is one slide that is exactly as the camera "digitized" it. Haven’t Photoshopped this one yet.
<
http://www.pbase.com/image/29112149>
If you padded the slide holder too far away from the lens then I think that you would not get the whole slide, so you might have to adjust that distance.
You could try a hunk of sort of milky-partially-transparent plexiglass or glass, and conjure up a thing like the Happenstance thing, lay the camera on its back, and try it that way.
I really should get my husband to do some of these, but he is terribly busy at the moment. Good luck.
Jane
