Re: filmscanners: Lot of newbie questions

[Arthur Entlich <artistic@ampsc.com>]

Hi Davorin,

I can answer some of your questions, but not all of them.

Davorin Palijan wrote:


> Since I finally got my MDSD II and made first 30 or
> 
> so scans I have a couple of questions:
> 
> 1. Is there some type of "full frame" frames for slides?
> 
> I would like to decide myself if I want to crop my slides
> 
> or not.
> 

Yes, there are full frame mounts made by some companies.  I believe 
Weiss is one.  They are a bit tricky to get mounted correctly, because 
there is very little extra play in film between frames, so you may get 
some frames which will show light on the cut edge of the film.  The 
reason the slide mounts are cut slightly small is due to this, an d 
because each camera spaces the frames differently.  Also, most 
viewfinders show between 95-90% of the actual frame area, so the 
normally mounted slide usually shows a more accurate representation of 
what you probably saw in the viewfinder to begin with.

> 2. Why do I get some strange "double line" on one
> 
> side of the slide frame? It looks like black, unsharp line
> 
> running parallel to one of the longer sides of frame.
> 

This may be either light reflecting off the rather bright slide mount, 
causing excessive response from the CCD, or it may be due to the two 
layers of slide mount, where the top one extends slightly  over the 
button one, causing a slight lip.


> 3. Sound during scanning varies - i suppose it's because
> 
> of different exposure, but on one slide it was like some weird
> 
> "zig-zag" sound, like scanner is going backward-forward in
> 
> small steps. Slide scanned OK, though. Why is that?
> 

This zig zag sound is usually indicative of a scan which is going back 
and forth.  It happens when the hard drive or other location which is 
accepting the data in your computer from the image scan is too slow to 
keep up with the rate the scanner wishes to send it.  With EIDE hard 
drives, often this is a result of not having the drive for DMS data 
interfacing.  If you have a hard rive that has a DMS mode, make sure it 
running that way (change it in the properties menu on a WIN machine). 
If it is unchecked it usually requires a reboot to activate.  If it is 
already checked, it might be worthwhile to uncheck it and try it that 
way.  For some odd reason some drives report backwards.

Lastly, check to see where the scan files are going, and if they are 
going to C;\windows\temp for instance, make sure that is a fast drive 
partition, and that there is adequate space on that drive.


> 4. Minolta manual says emulsion side should be up. That way
> 
> slides come out reversed. Is that really OK?
> 

It would seem to me that the slides should come out correctly.  If they 
are reversed, Minolta is out to lunch IMHO.  There should be enough 
depth of field with that unit to avoid focusing problems.  Unless there 
is a refection problem with one side versus the other, I would scan so 
it is correctly read.

> 5. I've been trying Vuescan and since it seems that consensus
> 
> on this list is that the best way to use it is to output raw files
> 
> that's what I've been doing but...
> 
> ...some of the scans stay very dark no matter what I do in
> 
> Photoshop (I'm not new to Photoshop-started with v. 2.5.1-
> 
> but not expert with curves either).
> 
> Are these slides cases for multipass exposure?
> 

Slides that manifest darker shadows or underexposure are good candidates 
for multiple expose, in general.


Art

> I'm asking because I was never able to see any difference
> 
> between Auto exp.-Long exp.-Multipass exp. regular (not raw) scans.
> 
>  
> 
> I really apologise for long post and lot of questions,
> 
> few months of lurking have cleared many foggy
> 
> issues for me, and this is the rest.
> 
>  
> 
> Davorin Palijan, Croatia