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Can anybody recommend a 35mm negative scanner that will output a file size acceptable to alamy. I have a load of stuff taken in a former life of the south atlantic, antarctica etc.

The lower end of the market seem to be a max of 5mps, miles to small, i think at least 20mps will be needed. Thanks in advance.

Andy

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Nikon LS-5000.

 

In the end I gave up and bought a serious digital camera and never looked back at those thousands of slides.

A good camera with a good macro lens and some cleaner is much quicker.

 

13 hours ago, aphperspective said:

And for the price of one i could go back to antarctica and retake the pics:mellow:

 

That's always the best option. ;-)

 

wim

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dust cleaning software such as ICE doesn't work on negative scanners, so you would have a lot of time cleaning up. Many now use a macro lens and dupe rig or you can find a selection of scanners at Ffordes. They could advise, the prices vary a lot. As ever, the more you spend the more you get

 

Wim is right as usual, a Nikon LS-5000 is excellent, but they have long been discontinued and used ones fetch a good price

 

 http://www.ffordes.com/category/Printers_and_Scanners/Film_Scanners

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Just now, Robert M Estall said:

dust cleaning software such as ICE doesn't work on negative scanners, so you would have a lot of time cleaning up. Many now use a macro lens and dupe rig or you can find a selection of scanners at Ffordes. They could advise, the prices vary a lot. As ever, the more you spend the more you get

 

 http://www.ffordes.com/category/Printers_and_Scanners/Film_Scanners

 

Dust cleaning works perfectly on the LS-5000: it scans with the IR and visible light in the same pass, which is far more accurate than in two passes like the LS-4000.

FARE and ICE degrade the image. Photoshop works just as well or better.

However cleaning by using the IR channel does not work on silver based black and white negative film because the silver will look the same in IR and visible light.

Kodachrome does work in the LS-5000.

Velvia will give peppercorn in all scanners, however it's far less with the wet method with scan oil.

For scan software: use Vuescan.

 

The best scanner is still a drum scanner. (Velvia will not show peppercorn with a drumscanner.)

However with that it's both financially and time wise a better idea to go back to Antarctica with a 42 megapixel Sony or Nikon.

 

Which will both outperform a drum scanner when coupled with a good macro.

 

wim

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I used my old Nikon LS 4000 scanner, had problems with Win 10 at first as it's firewire, but all's good now.

 

I've been bulk scanning negatives on a Canon 9950F recently, various formats and a few have now got onto here. Getting a good piece of software to clean some up helps.

 

I tried the SRDX plug in on Photoshop CC - two devices, clean implementations, before virus scanning went on and it crashes the program every time I add in the code. I've given up (for now anyway) as Lasersoft support was little short of pathetic. No refund from them - another thing I'm working on! for now using the old Polaroid software (well past support, still working really well!).

 

Neither bits of the hardware are currently available, both can be found second hand. I think there's a V2 of the Canon - 9000F V2 is £199 via the UK web site. I think the Epson's are better but more costly.

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5 hours ago, wiskerke said:

 

Kodachrome does work in the LS-5000.

 

 

Do you mean with ICE? If so, I would like to know how. I've always understood that you need the LS-9000 for ICE to work with Kodachrome.

 

Alan

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I have a Nikon LS 5000ED that I picked for about $1000 US just before Nikon discontinued them. They're available on Amazon and eBay at various prices up to $2500 or so. At 4000 ppi it will give you approximately a 55mb 8 bit tiff.

 

If you decide to buy one used, you should ask about the last time it's been cleaned and maybe ask for a sample scan. Last time I checked Nikon charged $250 for cleaning, plus shipping and insurance - Or you can find cleaning instructions on the internet. I cover mine with a plastic bag and clean it every two years or so. 

 

I'm currently using VueScan on a Mac. I find it less than ideal but it does what I need it to do. Then I just clean it up in PhotoShop CS6.

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Have been using a Minolta Dimage Scan Elite 5400 quite happily until the transport mechanism broke and I can not find anyone to repair it. As I still have a few thousand transparencies to scan am currently considering the Plustek OpticFilm 8200i SE, but may use it with the VueScan software. Anyone using the Plustek? Or perhaps tremendous knowledge Wim could give some guidance which would be much appreciated.

 

As the Minolta is not supported any more I used an old Windows XP laptop for scanning but never felt confident enough to submit recent scans to Alamy for fear of QC failure affecting my ratings; however they have been submitted to other places and are selling.

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7 hours ago, Inchiquin said:

 

Do you mean with ICE? If so, I would like to know how. I've always understood that you need the LS-9000 for ICE to work with Kodachrome.

 

Alan

 

Don't know about ICE, but the LS-5000 IR cleaning works in combination with Vuescan.

 

@ Joe, sorry never used a Plustek.

 

Like Keith I would now try the camera with a good macro first.

Last time I have used my LS-5000 was to scan a lot of Tri-X and T-Max. Now that I have a 42 Mp Sony I would not go that route again.

There's an immense amount of slide copiers still around. Most not good enough for current quality expectations. But neither are 35mm slides.

 

wim

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7 hours ago, wiskerke said:

 

Don't know about ICE, but the LS-5000 IR cleaning works in combination with Vuescan.

 

 

Not here it doesn't. Not with Kodachrome anyway. I get exactly the result I would expect to get - unpleasant artefacts.

 

Alan

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2 hours ago, Inchiquin said:

 

Not here it doesn't. Not with Kodachrome anyway. I get exactly the result I would expect to get - unpleasant artefacts.

 

Alan

 

I must have been lucky then. As I have no Kodachromes they were not my own slides and we tried just to settle the question because I was scanning the b&w's.

Hamrick claimed it would do Kodachrome and it did. This was almost 3 years ago. I have been looking for the scans, but must have thrown them away afterwards.

(The black and whites were all cleaned by hand.)

 

wim

 

edit: they were Kodachrome 200's

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5 hours ago, wiskerke said:

 

they were Kodachrome 200's

 

 

Do they have the same physical architecture as 25 and 64?

 

When I can find a spare moment I'll scan a couple of Kodachromes here with cleaning switched on.

 

As I understand it, IR cleaning works because dirt is on a different plane from the emulsion and it detects the difference. But this doesn't work with Kodachrome because it's a multi-layer emulsion.

 

Alan

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Well, I'll see your Wikipedia and raise you Scantips.com....:)

 

Quote

Kodachrome slides are silver-based too, and processing sometimes leaves some of the silver in it, so it can become partially visible in infrared too.

 

https://www.scantips.com/basic13d.html

 

So, yer pays yer money.... :blink:

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15 hours ago, Vincent Lowe said:

 

I've always understood it to be that Kodachrome retains some metallic silver, as does B&W film, which the IR sees as dust....

 

 

I don't think that would explain the artefacts I've seen, which are much more suggestive of the IR being confused by the multi-layer emulsion.

 

Alan

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1 hour ago, Inchiquin said:

 

I don't think that would explain the artefacts I've seen, which are much more suggestive of the IR being confused by the multi-layer emulsion.

 

Alan

 

Yes that is the usual explanation, in combination with some pigments that are in those layers. There are more films that show some relief on the surface of the emulsion side.

I have not tried wet scanning with the Kodachromes, that may very well do away with the pigment problem, that looks exactly the same as the peppercorn problem with Velvia.

Because also dust is largely done away with wet scanning, it may well do away any relief problem.

 

We may not have looked well enough and I wish I had kept (or could find again) those scans. Anyway I think we even did not do a scan with and without cleaning. Just a run with cleaning on and concluded: hey it works (with Vuescan) - myth busted.

My friend/colleague was using Nikon Scan at that moment. We did not repeat it with that either. Probably because of the huge job we had to do at that time.

 

wim

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I had a Canon 8800 neg scanner it was wonderful, but they stopped updated software and suddenly it doesn't work with my Mac anymore. One of my images of a skull in the Garden Of Fugitives at Pompeii was scanned with it. I'm afraid I don't know how to post it here.

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On 4/27/2018 at 13:09, wiskerke said:

Velvia will give peppercorn in all scanners, however it's far less with the wet method with scan oil.

For scan software: use Vuescan.

There's a guy in The Netherlands (Woerden) who makes something called the Scanhancer that apparently improves grain, including Fuji pepper, without the need for wet scanning.

I haven't tried it personally, but am thinking of it since I still have a bunch of slides to scan. If I were going to try wet scanning, I'd get supplies from Scanscience.
I do use Vuescan with my Canon FS4000US and it works fine despite the fact that Canon discontinued supporting it.

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