slides
 

Hi friends,

I have quite a lot of slides from places where I will never get back, unfortunately. From this sentimental value i cannot just bin them. :)
I have also film/slide scanner Canoscan FS 4000 which takes 4 transparencies at the time, takes ages (cca 5 min per frame). I do not have pacience to do it because also the result is not too satisfiing (dirt, dust, lost of detail...):mad:. What to do?
- let some lab to scan them???
- do they do a good job???

Do you have some experience or advice? Please let me know.

Susan

Look on eBay for a used Nikon Coolscan III or LS 2000, both are capable of excellent scans, the later models demand much higher prices. I use a Nikon Coolscan III and VueScan Pro software, it's a combination I use quite a lot as I have many thousands of slides which I am in the process of scanning to DVD, (Blue-ray disk when it reaches a sensible price). Depending on how many slides you have to copy it could work out your cheapest option..

nirofo.

Thanks nirofo for your reply. It goes to thousands too... So the Coolscan III is fast? How much time you spend with one slide (incl. post processing)?
I read just now some old posts: it suggested to photograph them on lightbox. It seems to be fast method so i will play with this one on weekend. I try macro 100mm lens and see the quality?!? I'd like naturally good copies, but I am affraid it will need too much time....

Susan

Susan

Hi Susan

I usually do full scans 0n my Nikon Coolscan III at 24bit using VueScan Pro scanner software, these come out at approx 28mb each and are saved as TIFF files, each scan takes approx 3 minutes depending on how fussy you are at setting them up. I don't believe in sticking the slide in the scanner and accepting whatever comes out, I may have several attempts using various settings in VueScan Pro to get the scan right, I do ensure the slide is clean and dust free before I put it in the scanner. If the scan is a good one then you will need to spend less time in Photoshop or whatever, getting the result you want. I never scan for JPEGS, if I want a JPEG I will make it from the TIFF file, this has the highest data content.

Copying slides from a light box works OK providing you can set it up to give 1/1 magnification and you can position the lens perfectly above the slide, you will obviously need to use a good solid tripod. I'ts essential that the light box has a colour corrected light source, otherwise you will spend time correcting colour casts afterwards. Another way which cuts out the problem of setting up each time, or using a scanner is to buy one of the dedicated slide copiers that fit onto your camera just like a lens and have a holder for your slide at the end. Results can be very good with these and are certainly quicker.

nirofo.

I think the key is surely to clean the slides carefully before scanning and make sure that the scanners ICE is working. Scratching the old grey cells I thought the Canon FS 4000 had ICE? I once scanned some slides on my Minolta scanner and ICE was turned off and it made a huge difference.

Yes, I agree. The claning is also boring. How to do it? Only kind of bottled air or what is the best method for this job? I did not view the slides often for not to scratch them, but bit of the dust got there and on scan it shows.

Far from perfect but the occasional slide I scan I use my Rocket blower and carefully wipe with a lens cleaning cloth if necessary. I believe the latest top end flat bed scanners from the likes of Canon and Epson due a very good job in batches of around four or eight a go. I too have loads of slides which are also both unsorted and not scanned because I just can not face doing it. I suppose the answer would be for me to occasionaly do a few but I suspect they will still be sitting there for my children to go through when I am in the great studio in the sky!

Thank you Mike, I try slowly put together the Canoscan with Mac/leopard and see what i can achieve.

I have enormous problem with rocognazing the scanner (canon CanoScan FS4000US) with Mac OS X as well with PC windows XP. Now TWAIN does not exists, replaced with WIA.... somebody knows what to do????

Susan

Try using the latest driver and scanning application from here:
http://software.canon-europe.com/products/0000464.asp