9 replies to this topic

[spencer!]

Forgive me if this is in the wrong place, but I have questions concerning scanning UW pictures taken with a film setup...

My dad was an avid UW photographer, and I have recently found a HUGE stash of pictures (hundreds) and slides(hundreds) he took over 20 years of diving (1960s-1980s). I am planning on buying a NICE scanner to document and preserve all the images and am wondering if anyone has any suggestions as to the best scanner for the job, and/or advice for getting the best result with prints and slides that have been unceremoniously piled in the basement for 25 years!

Thanks in advance for any help!
Spencer

[Steve Williams]

Spencer,
Scanning hundreds of slides is a huge job. I'd recommend going through them first and pulling out the really nice ones, and the ones that are important to you, show your dad, etc. Try to find some of your Dad's old diving buddies and a projector. By a case of beer or two and have some fun. If your Dad was like me he kept everything and maybe only two or three out of a roll of 36 was any good. Especially in the 60's.
You kind of need to know the number your taking on to decide which scanner type to get. You can also ship them off to be done "professionally" but it can get pretty steep. If I were you I'd pick up an Epson 4490 or better that would let you do four at a time. Pick out about the best 30 to 50 or so and make yourself and your family members an album. Put a couple on the wall to toast to every now and then.

I'm assuming your Dad wasn't a professionally known photographer with hundreds of images printed in Skin Diver magazine. You didn't mention his name. Just my thoughts, I'm sure others may have a better idea. Good luck and I'm glad you cared enough to ask.

Steve

[Charlie_Matco]

Dear Spencer!

You may want to pick up a Sony UY-S77, UY-S90, or UY-S100 minilab scanner for under a couple hundred bucks on eBay, a 35mm strip film gate, and/or a slide feeder gate. (Oh, and a SCSI card, too!) This will allow you to chew through the film archives to generate something like "index print-to-4x6" quality images for you to catalog and pick out the choice shots to re-scan on a better scanner.

Caution: If your Father shot a lot of Kodachrome, beware that, just like B&W negative film, Digital ICE (scratch & dust removal via an IR channel, i.e. RGBi), doesn't work due to the silver retained in the image. In other words, when you see a gorgeous 40 year old slide that, when viewed from the emulsion side, looks like it's been etched into the film... That's Kodachrome.

On The Other Hand, if the slides look washed out and have a magenta cast, then they are old E-4 Ektachromes.

The forums on Photo.Net are an excellent place for scanning help.

Forgive me if this is in the wrong place, but I have questions concerning scanning UW pictures taken with a film setup...

My dad was an avid UW photographer, and I have recently found a HUGE stash of pictures (hundreds) and slides(hundreds) he took over 20 years of diving (1960s-1980s). I am planning on buying a NICE scanner to document and preserve all the images and am wondering if anyone has any suggestions as to the best scanner for the job, and/or advice for getting the best result with prints and slides that have been unceremoniously piled in the basement for 25 years!

Thanks in advance for any help!
Spencer

[scubamarli]

The Nikon Coolscans are pricey, but excellent quality, and 4000 dpi. I would recommend the model with the 50 slide adapter; I went with the next model down, and have regretted it ever since. One at a time is TEDIOUS.
Cheers,
Marli

[rinjani]

The coolscans are good.

But beyond just scanning be prepared to process the images slightly to get them to look similar to your original slides (most likely). You may need to adjust curves and sharpen the scannned images.

Regards

jon

[Michael]

You want to go with the coolscan 5000 with the bulk loader (well worth the money). While not drum scan quality, it's pretty good. Obviously, the ultimate quality of the digitized image depends on the quality of the original transparency. This scanner can crank out 50mb (11x17 @300dpi) tif files that are good enough for magazine spreads and covers. Remember to use digital ice to cover up lint and little dirt specs but be aware that this option softens the image somewhat. A little bit (remember, just a little) of unsharp mask in PS resharpens the file.
Good luck.
mpo
mpostock.com

[saga7]

I have scanned hundreds of slides including kodakchrome on a canoscan 8600f (canon). After scanning i have made books on my apple computer and having apple print them in iphoto. After putting the book together on my computer you send file to apple and about 5 days later the fedex package arrive with the book. I scan at 2400dpi and save scan in TIFF format. Do not save in jpeg as file is compressed. Four slides are scanned at once and it takes 15 min for the scan in 2400dpi. At 2400dpi files saved in TIFF are 20meg each so you have lots of info for color correction. If you save file in jpeg file is 3 meg looks okay but not as good as TIFF file.

[onokai]

You want to go with the coolscan 5000 with the bulk loader (well worth the money)
Thats what I di a few years ago-its the only model with a stack loader. Load them up and go to sleep-This is the scanner you want the 9000 does not have a stack loader. Got my setup from b&H.I still shoot film and scan it. Mark

[wolfeeldiver]

I am an old timer with 30,000 kodachrome underwater slides, and last year got a Nikon Supercoolscan 5000 film scanner. Yes its true that the Digital Ice that is shipped with the Nikon unit has difficulties working on cleaning up kodachrome slides. It tended to "soften" the slides, which I did not like (it sees the silver layer as "dust", and cant deal with it correctly...)
However, I discovered an excellent solution for cleanup of Kodachrome slides... I discovered an excellent scanner program called VueScan. It is an in expensive and well designed scanner program, and I found it to be easier and more powerful to use than the Nikon software. And best of all.. its built in Infrared Cleanup (IR) filter (aka the Digital Ice equivilent) actually works very well on Kodachrome! For this reason alone, it is great! Do a google search for VueScan. I scan each slide one at a time, at full 4000 dpi resolution, multiple sampling, into 48 bit TIFF files, then load them into photoshop and tweak them there. Then burn to a DVD data disk for archiving. Kodachromes scanned by a Nikon Coolscan tend to have a little bit of a blue tint... so I then make slight adjustment in Photoshop, and they are then right on. Learning how to adjust in photoshop and read curves took a little time and research. The best ones I then make copies of by saving as smaller web optimized .jpgs for the casual web or email use. Before you do any scanning or color correction, be sure to invest in a monitor color calibration device. It makes no sense to correct the color of a scan, if your monitor is "off". I used the inexpensive Spyder device, works well for me.

[TylerMoore]

I use a Minolta Dual Scan IV for slide scanning. It does a great job, and it is much cheaper than the Nikon counterpart. I would say that it is comparable if not better than the Nikon cool scan. Google it to get some specifics and stuff.