TOT Film scanners

On 01/01/2011 16:21, Dave Saville wrote:
Anyone had experiance of the 35mm film and slide scanners that the
like of Maplins sell? Looking for a self containd type that records to
SD card. No way will I find drivers for a connected one for my old
OS/2 system. :-)

TIA
Go with Bill's suggestion. The results will be miles better.
I copied some 8mm film that way. Project onto a screen and tape the
results with a camcorder. The results were excellent, especially with
the commentary that the family added.
Dave
--
Blow my nose to email me

On Sat, 1 Jan 2011 16:30:33 UTC, Bill Wright wrote:

Dave Saville wrote:
Anyone had experiance of the 35mm film and slide scanners that the
like of Maplins sell? Looking for a self containd type that records to
SD card. No way will I find drivers for a connected one for my old
OS/2 system. :-)

TIA
Best way is to project the image and photograph it. I can give you
details if you like.

Bill

Please.

--
Regards
Dave Saville

On Sat, 1 Jan 2011 22:33:44 UTC, Java Jive
wrote:

Dual-boot with Linux? Linux is usually quite good for old drivers,
that is assuming that drivers for the hardware were ever written in
the first place. Often they are, sometimes they are not.

You could put a toe in the water by trying out a live cd.

I have a linux laptop - but I don't really want *another* scanner. I
have a good SCSI one that does work on OS/2. The mistake I made was
not buying the slide attachment for it when it was new :-(
--
Regards
Dave Saville

Dave Saville wrote:

I don't really want *another* scanner. I
have a good SCSI one [] The mistake I made was
not buying the slide attachment for it when it was new

eBay?

On Sunday, January 2nd, 2011 at 14:48:21h +0000, Dave Saville wrote:

The mistake I made was not buying the slide attachment
for it when it was new :-(

Do you check eBay (or similar sites) from time to time to see if anybody
is selling one "pre-owned"?

On Sun, 2 Jan 2011 15:14:14 UTC, J G Miller wrote:

On Sunday, January 2nd, 2011 at 14:48:21h +0000, Dave Saville wrote:

The mistake I made was not buying the slide attachment
for it when it was new :-(

Do you check eBay (or similar sites) from time to time to see if anybody
is selling one "pre-owned"?


No - I think I might try Bill's idea of projecting and re
photographing - when he posts his "how to" :-)

--
Regards
Dave Saville

Dave Saville wrote:
On Sat, 1 Jan 2011 16:30:33 UTC, Bill Wright wrote:

Dave Saville wrote:
Anyone had experiance of the 35mm film and slide scanners that the
like of Maplins sell? Looking for a self containd type that records to
SD card. No way will I find drivers for a connected one for my old
OS/2 system. :-)

TIA
Best way is to project the image and photograph it. I can give you
details if you like.

Bill

Please.

Take care to get the projector dead square on to the screen. Obviously
it must be opposite the midpoint of the projected picture.

Project at a reasonable distance (I found 2m best. That gave an image
about 1m across.)

If the picture on the screen is out of focus at the edges stop the lens
down if it will. If not consider a home made aperture stop -- a matt
black washer-shaped piece of aluminium (etc) immediately behind the
lens. Card will catch fire!

Slide popping is a problem. Auto focus helps of course.

If it's a zoom lens on the projector find a focal length where
pincushion-type distortion is at a minimum and the illumination is most
equal. This likely to be at about the middle of the zoom range.
If the projector gives uneven illumination across the picture you'll
never get good results.

Mount the camera as close as possible to being on the same axis as the
projector. A good way is to put the projector on a table and put the
camera on a tripod so it's immediately above the projector. That needs a
Benbo-type tripod though. I suppose you could use a shelf unit for
projector and camera. Although you can theoretically have the camera and
projector at different distances from the screen I find it's easier to
have them one above the other.

If the camera has a zoom lens (only) find a focal length where
pincushion-type distortion is at a minimum. This likely to be at about
the middle of the zoom range. It it works out wrong for the filling the
screen you might have to fiddle with the projector zoom or the distances.

Set the camera to the highest resolution and minimum compression feasible.

If the camera has a PAL output it can be useful to monitor it on a telly.

Experiment to find out if the viewfinder is accurate.

Allow a small border around the slides; trim it off later.

Take the shots with absolutely no extraneous lights on. Total darkness.
Minimise reflections from screen to walls/ceiling and back again as
these reduce the depth of the blacks unevenly.

Auto exposure will probably be OK. Experiment with spot, general, etc
settings. Slides vary a lot in density so exposure adjustment is
constant if on manual. If the camera has a contrast setting consider
putting it on low to give more exposure latitude, then correct in
Photoshop. Also consider exposure bracketing, plus or minus one stop.
It's important that you capture the full dynamic range of the slide. If
this means that the results look flat use Photoshop's controls to
correct. The worst thing is to have the highlights burnt out or the
shadows black.

For copying colour, project nothing (white screen) and set the camera's
colour balance accordingly. If the camera won't do that try the settings
for tungsten light. There will probably be several. Ultimately, correct
balance in Photoshop, but get it as good as you can in the camera first.

Use a long exposure and a small aperture. Depth of field is important,
surprisingly.

Even monochrome originals look better if copied in colour. You can
always convert to mono or sepia later.

Have a short session then assess the results critically.

Hope this helps.

Bill

Dave Saville wrote:
On Sun, 2 Jan 2011 15:14:14 UTC, J G Miller wrote:

On Sunday, January 2nd, 2011 at 14:48:21h +0000, Dave Saville wrote:

The mistake I made was not buying the slide attachment
for it when it was new :-(
Do you check eBay (or similar sites) from time to time to see if anybody
is selling one "pre-owned"?


No - I think I might try Bill's idea of projecting and re
photographing - when he posts his "how to" :-)

It's done, it's done!

Bill

wrote in message
...
On Sat, 01 Jan 2011 16:30:33 +0000, Bill Wright
wrote:

Dave Saville wrote:
Anyone had experiance of the 35mm film and slide scanners that the
like of Maplins sell? Looking for a self containd type that records to
SD card. No way will I find drivers for a connected one for my old
OS/2 system. :-)

TIA
The Lidl GBP35 one was unevenly lit, noisy, oversaturated by miles
and could not focus the whole frame at once. Otherwise it was fine.
I took it back.

I use a Canon CanoScan 4400F flatbed scanner with negative and slide feature
built in. Great results

Bill Wright wrote (apparently) in uk.tech.digital-tv on Sun 02 Jan
2011 19:00:38:

Dave Saville wrote:
On Sat, 1 Jan 2011 16:30:33 UTC, Bill Wright
wrote:

Dave Saville wrote:
Anyone had experiance of the 35mm film and slide scanners that
the like of Maplins sell? Looking for a self containd type
that records to SD card. No way will I find drivers for a
connected one for my old OS/2 system. :-)

TIA
Best way is to project the image and photograph it. I can give
you details if you like.

Bill

Please.

Take care to get the projector dead square on to the screen.
Obviously it must be opposite the midpoint of the projected
picture.

[Snipped...]

Bill

Bill, thanks for that. Some good tips I may well need later in the
year to do something with things I've inherited.

Couple of things I've noted with a couple of cameras I've used.
Some Canon models can be connected to the PC and controlled
remotely, including taking the shot - once the settings are right
it's fairly easy to get through a number of shots like this. An
external power supply might be useful for this though.

Also when taking the shots, even if the camera is tripod-mounted,
if there is a self-timer setting, this will prevent any camera
shake from pressing the shutter button down fully. I tried some
long exposure night-time shots recently and the 2 second self-timer
delay was very handy.


Regards and Happy New Year to all.
--
MrGuest
Always, seemingly, on the road to nowhere