Scanning slides CD

[Daffy D]

So the time has come to scan some of my gzillon slides before they deteriorate beyond recovery.

I need to buy a scanner

I have done a search here and on the internet and am thinking of the CanonScann 9000F MkII http://i.nvade.it/4K7 at 7,190bt.

Mainly because I can just about afford it and it's available here in Thailand.

Couple of questions:- It says it scans 35mm film - I presume this means 35mm color slides.

All my slides are mounted in little plastic frames or the original Kodak cardboard frames, does the film have to be removed from the frame to scan?

[draggons]

I've been thinking of getting a dedicated scanner too. Just looked at the canon site and it says it scans mounted slides. http://www.canon.co.uk/For_Home/Product_Finder/Scanners/Flatbed/

Looks good.

[Daffy D]

I've been thinking of getting a dedicated scanner too. Just looked at the canon site and it says it scans mounted slides. http://www.canon.co.uk/For_Home/Product_Finder/Scanners/Flatbed/

Looks good.

Missed the bit about scanning mounted slides, so that's a relief.

Canon CanoScan 9000F Mark II 12x35mm film strip, 4x35mm mounted slides and 120 format film max. 6x22cm

Looks like that's going to be the one

Don't know what I would have done if all the slides had to be unmounted

[astral]

I used to have a Canon slide/film scanner, http://www.shutterbug.com/content/canon-canoscan-2700f

It would be irrelevant now, as it was a scsi connection

I mention all this to give you an idea of what to look for if you are a serious scanner

Flat bed scanners with slide adapters are not ideal

It was excellent taking strips of 35 mm negatives or individual slides

Resolution 2700dpi

The sw would remove the orange background from negatives

and even produce images from negs that the shops could not print

[Daffy D]

For me this is just going to be a one off digitizing some of my old slides.

I'm a Canon fan and the CanoScan 9000F Mark II seems to be good compromise as I was thinking of getting a new scanner anyway.

Have not looked at my slides for about 20 years, hopefully they are still good enough to copy.

[Tywais]

Have not looked at my slides for about 20 years, hopefully they are still good enough to copy.

I have an Epson V300 Photo scanner that does film/slides. It even recognizes the borders of a film strip and automatically create separate files for each photo in the strip. A very important thing is to make sure the slides are VERY clean of dust and smudges. A can of high pressure air will help there. Also a very fine camel hair brush like used in painting is useful.

Many of my slides are over 40 years old and still in great shape. Here is one taken in 1968 outside Utapao RTAFB and used the above scanner to convert. Believe the camera was a Yashica SLR.

[Daffy D]

Looks good for a 40 year old picture, colors still bright and no sign of fade - Nice

Had a quick look at a couple of mine, bit difficult to see much by just looking at the slide but they seem to be OK.

Got the scanner on order so should be able to start scanning in the next few days - and days - and days and months

How long is this going to take

[Daffy D]

I've been thinking of getting a dedicated scanner too. Just looked at the canon site and it says it scans mounted slides. http://www.canon.co.uk/For_Home/Product_Finder/Scanners/Flatbed/

Looks good.

You didn't by any chance order the CanonScann 9000F MkII from http://i.nvade.it/4K7 ?

Just tried to order one from them and got "sollly no abb" - only one in stock and just sold that one maybe get another in couple of weeks

Was that you?

[Tywais]

You should brush up on techniques to scan slides, especially the cleaning process. Here is one site. How to scan

When using the scanner software, do not use in processing features of the scanner and that includes automatic dust removal. You want the slides saved exactly as scanned, that is normal. Post processing of the scanned images is better when nothing has been removed or blurred in the scanning process.

Also, if you can get your hands on a portable slide viewer that will help a lot in evaluating the slides pre-scanning. Even a light table and hand loupe will work.

[phuketrichard]

I have a Nikon coolscan 4 and works fine.

my biggest problem was many of my Kodachrome slides from the 70's the color shifted so much had to make them B&W images.

took me an average of 10 minutes/slide to scan and correct

it was an all summer job :-)

[Tywais]

my biggest problem was many of my Kodachrome slides from the 70's the color shifted so much had to make them B&W images.

Slide scanner with hardware Digitial Ice works well but not with Kodachrome as the Infrared is not dealt with well with that emulsion. Believe it creates a blue shift.

[phuketrichard]

ahh could be why my Ektachrome slides came out better

[Daffy D]

Mine are Ektachrome so maybe the gods are smiling on me after all

[Daffy D]

Seems like the Gods did not smile upon me after all.

Looking my slides seems only a few are Ektachrome most are Kodachrome and yes they all have lost color.

Managed to find a scanner from another place and had it delivered next day so have started my scanning project.

The "How to scan" link from Tywais was very useful and I'm using the free GIMP program they suggest to bring some life back into my faded slides.

It's a fairly simple program to use but as it looks like I have to "tweak" each and every slide it is going to take a long long long time.

One thing I notice was that the 'tweaked" file is much larger than the original, I guess this is how it works

Sample:-

[Tywais]

One thing I notice was that the 'tweaked" file is much larger than the original, I guess this is how it works

Two things - 1st is that more color saturation and definition can cause a size increase. 2nd, did you save with the same .jpg compression? Suspect it is the 1st. Example, you take an all white or all black jpg and the file size will be quite small. Put some random color in it and that size jumps. Has to do with the jpg algorithm which is based in part on RLE (run length encoding).

I do recognize that color saturation loss from other images of the era on the web, loss of blue (cyan). Kodachrome doesn't have as stable an emulsion I would guess. Just read that Kodachrome actually keeps better. Will have to check my slides again but pretty sure most are Ektochrome. Storage temperatures and humidity will also effect the fading.

[Tywais]

Further research does show Kodachrome more time stable for color. A good article on all the causes - old photo.com and another site that discusses 110 but same emulsions just different size - http://www.tedsimages.com/text/scan110.htm

[Tywais]

Just ran a test on some slides just now. Mixed results it seems. First three are Ektachrome circa 1986. The last was Kodachrome 1970 Ottawa Canada. No PP nor slide cleaning. The 3rd one shows the fading or color shifting as yours yet taken at the same time frame as #2. I do remember that Kodachrome was the best for color saturation and always tried to use it but found it difficult to find in my Asia travels, especially the remoter regions. The 3rd one can see a lot of dust in the skies as I did not clean it before the scan, partly a test as to what I can do post processing.

Edited February 20, 2014 by Tywais
Corrected from Toronto to Ottawa

[Tywais]

One thing to do is if you find a batch of slides with the same problem setup a profile in your image editor. That is find the best 'tweaks', that is saturation, color, contrast, etc., that give you good results and save the profile so you can apply it quickly to the other slides.

[fimgirl]

Daffy

There's a fair bit more detail in your scan than you are getting.

[fimgirl]

or this version

[Daffy D]

"Tywais" Looking at a selection of my slides seems I have the same variation of deterioration as your samples. Some like my oasis picture just seem to be a bit faded while others have that "yellowish'" look like your second sample while others have that "dark" look like in your third sample.

Interestingly they all look better when viewed on the Samsung LED Tv than on my Samsung LED monitor. Think I'll just get them all scanned first and worry about the color correction at some later date

I remember now that on this trip (early 1970's) I used all Kodachrome as at the time I thought it gave the best color.

"fimgirl" your picture does seem crisper/sharper is that more contrast? I think it is a little dark, it has lost the brightness of the sun through the trees onto the water and length of the shadows indicate late afternoon so should have that warm evening glow.

Or was it early morning? I can't actually remember

Anyway thank you for the effort

Edited February 22, 2014 by Daffy D

[Italian guy]

For me this is just going to be a one off digitizing some of my old slides.

If you want when you're done you can pass it to me. I was just looking for a second hand 9000f.

If you're interested send me a PM.

Good luck with your scanning!

[Daffy D]

Hi "Italian Guy"

I don't have a lot of room left on my desk and the slides scanner is bulkier than the small flatbed I had so thought I'd only use it for scanning the slides and the sell it on.

Thing is the scanner, apart from scanning slides, is a lot faster and does a few more things than my old scanner that I decided it keep it after all. Had to build an extra shelf to put it on and wouldn't be without it now.

Gave the old scanner to a student friend of the wife who doesn't have much money.

The scanning of he slides was a bit tiresome but not too bad. The big job is to optimize them all to bring back the original color/brightness to the faded ones.

No rush for that, they're on the HDD now so not going anywhere

Can scan a few slides for you if you don't want to lay out for a scanner just for a few one off job.

Daffy.

[Italian guy]

Hi Daffy,

No poroblem, I'll buy one sooner or later.

The thing is that I still enjoy shooting film every once in a while and I shoot both 35mm and 120mm medium format negative, especially bw.

I'd like to handle all the process of developing and scanning by myself (since buying an enlarger and setting up a darkroom would be far more expensive and demanding). There aren't many options available to scan 120mm: either the Canon 9000f or the Epson 750v Perfection that seems to be even better but costs three times as much...