Help on Scanner Selection

[Charlie Roberts]

I am, finally, going to get a scanner with the main aim
of scanning my slide collection. I have about 6,000
slides, but I do not intend to scan all of them - at
least in one go. I also would like to scan some old
family albums, almost all black and white photographs.

I would, of course, like good quality, but as I am not
a pro, I do not want super-duper quality. I am looking
for a good digital reproduciton ot the originals.

Reading reviews, etc., it appears that in terms of
productivity, the Epson V850 is good. Of course, it
is top of the ranage and it is aimed at pros. However,
what I read about tis productivity looks worth it.

OTOH, I have also come across a lot of shotcomings.
The foremost is good documentation. Some users
have said that they got more out of YouTube videos
than from the manual. For a complicated top of the
line machine, I would have expected Epson to have
a detialed manual. I am familar with scanners and
colour management, but am not a pro.

I also read that the Epson V850 is not very good
for simple document scanning, though it is more
to do with the sofware it comes with, as far as
I can tell from user commets.

In the light of this, I would input from any of you
who has had to deal with scanning a slide collection.
I am specially interested in other manufacturers
like Canon. The key criteria are qulaity of scan,
productivity (process more than one slide at a
time, ease of use and good documentation).

Any input will be appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

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[nospam]

In article <gfupkgh5ao2u7lov6...@4ax.com>, Charlie

Roberts <crob...@gmail.com> wrote:

> I am, finally, going to get a scanner with the main aim
> of scanning my slide collection. I have about 6,000
> slides, but I do not intend to scan all of them - at
> least in one go. I also would like to scan some old
> family albums, almost all black and white photographs.
>
> I would, of course, like good quality, but as I am not
> a pro, I do not want super-duper quality. I am looking
> for a good digital reproduciton ot the originals.

scanning is a pain. you will eventually scan some photos and wish they
were higher quality.

do it correctly the first time and you'll know you have the best
quality, which you can always reduce for email or whatever.

the best option is get a used slide/film scanner, scan your photos and
then sell it to the next person.

do not use a flatbed unless you're scanning prints.

or, hire it out to a pro, who will scan it on far higher equipment than
you can afford. perhaps do that for a few specific images.

[Peter Jason]

On Thu, 23 Sep 2021 20:00:38 -0400, nospam <nos...@nospam.invalid>
wrote:

I did this a while ago using a Minolta "Dimage Scan Elite II" having a
4-slide capacity per load. Does negatives too capacity 6 per load.

Excellent quality, but verrrry slow.

A commercial photo-scan company might be the way to go. Either:
1/ Just scan.
II/ Scan and optimize.

Once I scanned some poor-quality slides for a friend then did some
PShopping. Some details emerged from the dark areas including people
long forgotten. They were very happy over this.

[Anton Shepelev]

My favourite film scanners are Nikon's Super Coolscan 8000
ED and CoolScan IV ED. I believe Nikon used to sell a sepa-
rate roll-film adapter for them. With proper usage, these
devices produce excellent scans. Some tips:

1. Avoid standard software that comes with the scanners,
it does everything humanly possible to ruin your
scans. You VueScan instead.

2. Scan at maximum resolution and store the result in a
lossless format.

3. Use maximum dynamic range, by adjusting white banalce
physicall, via the individual exposure contols for the
red, green, and blue LEDs. For negative film, strive
to make the unexposed (orange) area nearly white
(250,250,250).

4. Focusing is critical! Focus at several crucial
points, than use an average or geometric average for a
final setting.

5. Film may warp, both of itself and when heated inside
the scanner (in spite of "cool" in the name). Be
careful.

6. If the grain is too nasty, try wet mounting. But in my
experience slide film scanns very well dry-mounted.

7. Respect color integrity:
and perform initial processing in linear RGB.

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[Anton Shepelev]

I wrote

> 7. Respect color integrity:
> and perform initial processing in linear RGB.

I meant to insert a URL:

http://www.c-f-systems.com/Phototips.html#completeintegrity

And another importat recommentation: turn off *all* postpro-
cessing in the scanner software. Its purpose it to digitise
the image, not to ruin with unnecessary transformations.

[Charlie Roberts]

On Thu, 23 Sep 2021 20:00:38 -0400, nospam <nos...@nospam.invalid>
wrote:

>In article <gfupkgh5ao2u7lov6...@4ax.com>, Charlie
>Roberts <crob...@gmail.com> wrote:
>

.......

>or, hire it out to a pro, who will scan it on far higher equipment than
>you can afford. perhaps do that for a few specific images.

I have read this advice several times! Recommeded speceially when
one has to scan a lots of slides.

I do have a few ancient albums to scan and so I will need a flat bed.

Perhpas a flat bed for the phtos and farm out the slides?

[Anton Shepelev]

Charlie Roberts:

> Perhpas a flat bed for the phtos and farm out the slides?

Last time I checked, high-quality film scanning at the maxi-
mum resolution was *very* expensive. Also I should be chary
of mailing my precious slides...

[nospam]

In article <20210927104123.f7f71006b86e140a36ea5185@g{oogle}mail.com>,

Anton Shepelev <anton.txt@g{oogle}mail.com> wrote:

>
> Last time I checked, high-quality film scanning at the maxi-
> mum resolution was *very* expensive. Also I should be chary
> of mailing my precious slides...

find a local place.

[Charlie Roberts]

Thanks for the hints. I understand some of them,
but stuff like Hint 3, is beyond me. I guess that will have
to play around to bit to see what white balance does.

I will look into the Nikon ...