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35mm film scanner

mobydoc
 
Posts: 25
Location: Exeter, Devon, England, UNITED KINGDOM

Re: 35mm film scanner

Post Wed Aug 13, 2008 8:44 am


wolfeye wrote:You can use your DSLR to capture the slides .....


If you had thousands of slides to convert, would you be prepared to use this method?

Financial outlay is a major consideration, but so is my time which is why I am looking to add a measure of automation to the process which the use of batch slide scanners would appear to offer. The magazine system whereby 100 slides can be selected and then be set to run unattended is a major plus to me.
After the project has been completed, I may be able to recover a proportion of my outlay by reselling the batch scanner and am prepared for that to represent 50% depreciation.

The Nikon represents nearly double the initial outlay, but the difference in resolution appears to be 10%.

In your opinion, would the difference between 4000dpi and 3600dpi resolution be noticeable to a non-professional eye?
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wolfeye
 
Posts: 96

Re: 35mm film scanner

Post Wed Aug 13, 2008 10:25 pm


mobydoc wrote:
wolfeye wrote:You can use your DSLR to capture the slides .....


If you had thousands of slides to convert, would you be prepared to use this method?

In your opinion, would the difference between 4000dpi and 3600dpi resolution be noticeable to a non-professional eye?


Yep. I'd go with the DSLR as my first choice. How long it takes is up to you. You pull out a slide, put it in the duplicator, take a picture, take the slide out, repeat. If you average how long a few slides take, you can figure out how long total it'll take. Any scanner except the Nikon (which does 40 at a time, and you simply load it and scan and walk away for however long 40 slides takes) will require you to put the slides in, x-number of slides at a time, and possibly then have to save/fix/adjust each one by hand.

niekirk
 
Posts: 129

Re: 35mm film scanner

Post Sat Aug 30, 2008 7:28 am


Hi Mobydoc

I think I can help with your questions. Firstly, yes, I believe that the Braun, Reflecta and Pacific scanners are rebadged versions of the same machine. Only the Braun and Reflecta are available here in the UK.

I have the Reflecta machine as, like you, I have a lot of slides I want to convert. I also have a Nikon Coolscan V that I bought a little while ago. It is excellent, but has no bulk feeder.

Quality comparisons between the two are perhaps irrelevant. I set the Reflecta to a mid-quality setting (OK for display on computer screen, projection [where you would be likited to, say, 1400 x 1050 pixels at best] or printing to 5 x 7 [125 x 175 mm]). I could happily crank up the Reflecta to higher resolution settings if I needed them for any particular slide, but would probably use the Nikon instead for that purpose.

VueScan was recommended to me as better than the bundled software that comes with the Reflecta, and buying it was money well spent. It also sorted out the compatibility problems I had with the Nikon. Nikon's Mac software did not work, but VueScan will run the Coolscan too.

Don't get hung up on image quality, unless you have a genuine professional need to get the very best. Scanning at the highest possible resolution is slow, takes up masses of disc space, and may be beyond the ability of your computer to handle at a reasonable speed. You are likely to find yourself reducing the scanned quality whenever you want to do anything with the images, so why not start at a sensible quality as the default setting, and crank it up only when you need it.

Now the bad news!

Unfortunately, there is nothing else like the Reflecta on the market, so you have to take it with its faults, or not at all.

The main one is the slide transport. It's basically a slide projector, that has to cope with different mounts and magazines. If all your slides are in CS mounts, in CS magazines, I suspect you will have no problem. Mine aren't. I have had to put them into a conventional straight magazine (several types of magazine are compatible), and there is a small percentage of misfeeds. You just have to expect them, and you will get used to sorting them out. I had one misfeed which dropped the slide into the body of the machine, from where I have been unable to retrieve it. So start with your least valuable slides. Perhaps borrow a manual scanner for any that are really precious. You can't go out and leave it, but it is a lot less time-consuming than a manual or flat-bed scanner.

Finally, I bought mine from Pixmania. That was a mistake. The first one did not work, and it cost me £30 ($60) to return it to them. They did replace it, but without so much as an apology, let alone a refund of the costs. I'd have preferred to buy it from a local shop, but none stocked it.

I hope this helps.

isleofmanmotorsport
 
Posts: 2

Re: 35mm film scanner

Post Fri Oct 03, 2008 2:44 pm


I have a Nikon Coolscan IV which I have been using for about 4 years. It may be a little slow when using Digital ICE mode when removing dust and scratches. The Nikon scanners differ from other makes and flatbeds as they have three coloured lamps rather than one white light source. The 3 lamp system gives much finer control to scans and colour adjustment. I scan images of Fuji chrome slide film to an Apple Mac computer at 600-900 dpi which gives an image size of 700 x 500 pixels. It is possible to scan the whole slide to give a 12 x 10 inch A4 print with a file size of 40MB. I also use Adobe Creative Suite CS which can be set-up to automatically adjust colour balance and give a digital look to a photo if you wish. To get the most out of 35mm film scanning I would recommend a good Apple Mac computer and the most expensive scanner that you can afford. I second-hand Nikon scanner is worth considering as they very robust (I have taken mine apart to clean a couple of times).

Happy scanning!!!!!

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