What scanner?

Could you elaborate, Matt? (I have no slides)

This is the first ray of hope I've seen, and I'd like to be as sure as I can before shelling out.

Also, O oracle , any idea whether the OD improvement between the V ED (4.2) and the 5000 (4.8 ) is worth having?

Chris,
The Vuescan software is available here: http://www.hamrick.com/
It's been a looong time since I did scanning
Vuescan has auto-insertion detection for slides - so that worked a treat. For negs, with the Coolscan IV you had to fiddle about with a neg carrier, and Vuescan could detect when you inserted that too. However, since the registration wasn't always 100% (as it would be with a slide) I found it best to manually set up the first frame and let Vuescan do the rest - there are options.

As far as OD, to be honest I found that Vuescan gave a terrific scan from the old Minolta Scan Dual I had (especially compared to the Minolta software :roll. There wasn't a great deal of difference in scanning slides with the Coolscan IV - higher res, yes, but not a huge difference. I'm not sure whether higher OD is more relevant to neg or slides...
The plus side of VS is that you could do a kind of HDR - it'd do multiple passes with different exposures (if the scanner allowed) and provide a wider range. Used that a couple of times (but obviously longer scanning time).

If you've been using digital for a while it'll be a shock going back to film - I have some scans from Fuji 1600ASA negs that I go back to every now and again to remind me just how awful the quality was in comparison to the current dSLR crop!

Hope that helps!
Matt

This isn't a hardware, media or format issue. It's strictly software.

Your software...

When not pressed for time, I try to shoot more deliberately (which for me means much more slowly), and I like to think that the lack of quantity shooting this way is made up for, at least a little bit, but higher quality images.

Hi. I have used a film scanner for about 10yrs. First an Epson and more recently a Microtek Filmscan 3600 budled with Lasersoft's Silverfast scanning suite. Results from slides (esp with Silverfast) have been great - but it is a time consuming process. I must confess that I now "cheat" and send my undeveloped films off for E6 process and scanning at the same time. Its a lot quicker and less hassle!

Time is always tight when shooting, the more I shoot the better I get and the more decent frames I get.
With film, the fact I only have 24 or 36 chances to get that one perfect frame means I think more and that, believe me, is hard!!!

I'm currently running a Coolscan V and using the Vuescan software and can only echo Matt's comments about how much difference that Vuescan makes to the process. With strips of slides, it's a breeze to load and let it do its stuff.

Another thought, although it's an expensive option, if you're scanning mounted slides is to grab one of the automated slide feeders. The SF-210 unit will only work with the Coolscan V but you can load up a full 36 box of slides and it'll clunk it's way through them with ease. I've already done all my own mounted slide collection this way and have lent the whole set-up to my Dad to scan his collection over the winter. Given that the Coolscan V and the SF-210 unit hold their value well, it's not a bad option to pick one up on ebay and then sell it once you're done - even if it costs you a £100 it's probably money well spent if you get digital access to all your old images.

Since picking up the slide feeder I really regret having all my later slide work unmounted - still have to work through quite a bit of that...

Will

Will just add that I'm also using an Epson 4990 for all my Med Format stuff, great for scanning up to 6x17 - again with the Vuescan software it just makes it that bit easier to get right...

Can I borrow it when he has finished?

Been reading these old forums about slide scanners, and would like to ask although, if you are on a budget, want something quick and easy, that still gives relatively good results, to bring out some good into you old fuji velvia slides, what would you recommend

I bought a Minolta Scan Dual for £65 with scsi card, running it on an old PC with windows XP. You get about an 8Mp image,

here is a colour neg scan and B&W, both straight out of the scanner from memory:



http://picasaweb.google.com/Backhouse78/PentaxFilmStuff#5534284237653639282



http://picasaweb.google.com/Backhouse78/PentaxFilmStuff#5534365018342447234

I think you can download the full res versions from the picasaweb links below the piccies.

Pick up a Nikon Coolscan off of ebay, as recent a model as you can afford would be my advice as the earlier ones (Coolscan II etc) are fairly limited in their operation - use it and get all your scanning done and then sell it again... my Coolscan V that I bought 3/4 years back and am still using day to day has actually gone up in value!!!

As a side note I'll be selling a Nikon Coolscan III LS-30 soon, boxed with all it's bits and a newer SCSI card so it will work with all versions of windows, including the 64bit versions. I tested it (with Win7 x64) to get it ready to sell only yesterday. It does 4000dpi, mounted or strips of film - spits out about 15-18MB files if I rememeber right... If anyone is interested, I'm looking for about £200 for it.

Will try to put a proper ad in the classified asap...

I'd forgotten this thread, I ended up with a cheapscanner like this CLICKY LINK.

It does what I want and produces images like this.



Taken on Fomapan 400 with my MZ-30.