A better batch scanning software for slides?

[wlaidlaw]

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I have recently upgraded to an Epson V700 perfection scanner. I am now undertaking the laborious task of digitising all my old transparencies both 35mm and 4.5 x 6.5mm. Epson supply their own software and also Silverfast SE V6.6. I also have Vuescan Pro latest version.

 

I am not finding any of these programs really satisfactory for this job.

 

1) Epson generic software - does do batch scans but very slowly and then takes you into Epson File manager without option. Epson file manager is one of the nastiest and most useless bits of software I have ever encountered and it locks up all the time.

 

2) Silverfast is OK but I cannot get SE to batch scan. Having gone on to Silverfast's website, I think that you need the full version of Silverfast to do this - anyone else got any experience of Silverfast.

 

3) I am currently using VueScan, which does an excellent job of the scanning and does batch, sort of. However you cannot go away and leave it to work on its own. As it completes each slide, you have to allocate a name for the file and instruct the program to go on to the next slide. As it takes about 7 minutes per slide at 2 pass (1 visible and 1 I/R) scanning, this means I have to hover over my Powermac the whole time.

 

I am looking for a software for Mac, that will work on an Epson V700 and that will do un-attended batch scanning after it has had its parameters set. It should award incremental file numbers to the file name prefix, as it completes each scanned image.

 

Any thoughts guys?

 

Wilson

[stunsworth]

Wilson, you can get Vuescan to auto number the files. Assuming you are saving as Tiffs if you specify a name in the Output tab having the format "Wilson 01+.tif" the plus sign will result in files automatically named "Wilson 01.tif", "Wilson 02.tif", "Wilson 03.tif" etc.

 

I don't know if it works with a flatbed scanner, but in the Input tab there's an option to scan all the frames - or you can enter a list of the ones you want. I use this when scanning film strips in my Coolscan V.

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[wlaidlaw]

Wilson, you can get Vuescan to auto number the files. Assuming you are saving as Tiffs if you specify a name in the Output tab having the format "Wilson 01+.tif" the plus sign will result in files automatically named "Wilson 01.tif", "Wilson 02.tif", "Wilson 03.tif" etc.

 

I don't know if it works with a flatbed scanner, but in the Input tab there's an option to scan all the frames - or you can enter a list of the ones you want. I use this when scanning film strips in my Coolscan V.

 

Steve,

 

Thanks for that tip - very helpful. I have been playing with this all morning and I have come to two definite conclusions. I need a bigger primary hard drive in my PowerMac, as I had not realised how very nearly full it was and with the lack of RAM it was hitting the buffering limit. I have also bought another 2GB of RAM, taking me to 4GB, as well as a new 1.5TB hard drive. The less definite conclusion I have come to, is that the easiest way may be to use the Epson scanning software via PS CS3. The scans are sharper via Epson but the colours are better via Vuescan. I still have to award a file name, as I save each file from PS but that is not too much of a hardship, as it can all be done at the end. The scans at least all run automatically one after another. I am finding that the scans of the Fuji slides I am doing at the moment are coming out very dark, so I will have to have a play with the settings. Tomorrow will be a fun day with swapping drives, cloning etc.

 

Wilson

[stunsworth]

Wilson, in Vuescan I've found scans look very dark if you leave the colour balance in the colour tab as 'none'. Selecting white balance of one of the other options corrects that. Perhaps there's something similar in the Epson software?

 

I've been using Vuescan a lot in the last few days. A friend is writing a book about the Lancashire Coalfield and asked me to scan some film strips and slides for him for inclusion in the book. Most of the frames have scanned ok, with only an occasional adjustment to the colour balance or brightness. Personally I reckon Vuescan was one of my best ever software purchases.

[chris_tribble]

On the Nikon coolscans I really like the software that comes with the kit, but with other scanners Vuescan seems to do best. The revelation for me has been how you can use Lightroom to do final processing on scanned TIFFS. Non-destructive and so flexible. It also means that naming, archiving and managing are greatly simplified. Really worth looking at if you've not tried it.

Best

[wlaidlaw]

On the Nikon coolscans I really like the software that comes with the kit, but with other scanners Vuescan seems to do best. The revelation for me has been how you can use Lightroom to do final processing on scanned TIFFS. Non-destructive and so flexible. It also means that naming, archiving and managing are greatly simplified. Really worth looking at if you've not tried it.

Best

 

Chris,

 

For some reason, Lightroom and my brain seem to be mutually incompatible. The LR3 Beta seems much better and I am hoping, fingers crossed, that my unused M9 code may buy me this in due course. My scanning has been on hold yesterday, while I was installing another 2GB of RAM and a 1.5 TB 7200 RPM main hard disc into my Powermac. Of course, this involved cloning and swapping around the existing internal discs and with hundreds of GB of images, all of which needed to be re-backed up before starting, it took all day. Hopefully now, the old dear will not grind to a halt, with all fans on full take-off thrust, when I have 12 x 4800 dpi images sitting, waiting to be dealt with.

 

Interestingly, as I posted above, the Epson software scans are definitely sharper/better focussed than the Vuescan ones. I know Epson use this dual lens focussing system on the V700 and I wonder if the Epson software handles this better than Vuescan. The colours on Vuescan are better, even uncalibrated with an IT8 target. I think my IT8 target slides (Kodachrome and Ektachrome) are about 15+ years old, so probably not a lot of use for calibration, even if I could find them at the back of the cupboard.

 

Wilson