wlaidlaw Posted September 12, 2009 Share #1 Posted September 12, 2009 Advertisement (gone after registration) I have a whole bunch of family glass slides from the end of the 19th century to scan. They had been lost for many years and only turned up recently following the death of an elderly uncle in a box of other family documents. The last time I did some of these, I used my Canon 1250UF scanner which had a 4 x 5 sheet film attachment. It only had a Windoze driver so I used to use it on my 1998 vintage Sony 10" laptop. I got the scanner out today and it is dead - totally Norwegian Blue Parrot. Any suggestions folks for a scanner which would do this job and has a Mac (preferably OS 10.6) driver. I have two Canoscan LIDE's, a 35 and a 600 with 35 mm scanner attachment and neither of them are any use. The slides are 3¼ × 4¼ inches or 83 × 108mm in size. I don't want to spend thousands for pounds to do this (M9 to pay for next week). Wilson Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Advertisement Posted September 12, 2009 Posted September 12, 2009 Hi wlaidlaw, Take a look here Scanner for glass 1/4 plate glass slides. I'm sure you'll find what you were looking for!
giordano Posted September 12, 2009 Share #2 Posted September 12, 2009 How about doing what we did before there were scanners: put the slide on a light box (masked all round) and point a camera at it. The M9 should do it perfectly with a BOOWU at the A6 setting. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
earleygallery Posted September 12, 2009 Share #3 Posted September 12, 2009 Wilson, the Epson flatbed is very good (sorry can't recall the latest model number but I have a 4870 which scans 35mm up to 10X8 negs), but you could try copying them with your camera first as suggested. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
wlaidlaw Posted September 13, 2009 Author Share #4 Posted September 13, 2009 Thanks for the suggestions guys. When I found the first box of these slides (sadly mostly bought in commercial slides unlike the latest box which actually relate to the family and the factories they owned), the first thing I tried was to use my light box and Digilux 2 to copy these. The results were very poor. I went and talked to one of the curators at the Brighton Museum and he said I would probably find a scanner gave very much better results, especially used with the slides emulsion side down and then mirror switched in PS. I bought the UF attachment on eBay for the Canon 1250 scanner that I was not otherwise using, having switched to Macs and the 1250 had no available Mac driver. With the Canon FARE technology and then some tidying up in PS, mainly using lab colour and then the spot healer and clone stamp, the results were a country mile better than using the D2 and lightbox. I will look for a S/H Epson 4870 on eBay. Wilson Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
StS Posted September 13, 2009 Share #5 Posted September 13, 2009 Hi Wilson, if the scans are needed only for the family pictures, my suggestion would be to use the service of a company. Please find the link to the price list of a local lab below, in case you are interested to get a feeling for the prices of a professional service - please go to page 5, caption Trommelscan, which means 'drum scan'. VAT needs to be added. http://www.jankopp.de/web/uploads///pdf/Netto_Preisliste_2009.pdf I guess it is a matter of taste, my personal preference is to hand over such tasks to someone who owns a frightfully expensive machine and has learned, how to use it. If you prefer to do it yourself - for MF and LF scans, the names Epson 700 and 750 come up regulary, but I don't have experience with either. Stefan Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Bernd Banken Posted September 13, 2009 Share #6 Posted September 13, 2009 Glass negatives on a drumscanner, mmhhhh...... Please search at flickr for Epson 700/750 or 500 scans, this damily of flatbed scanner are the key for MF photographers who don't like to pay for a Flextight or other top shot high end scanners. Here a link to a guy from Nantes who I met two weeks ago at the exhibition of this mechanical animals: Collodion - a set on Flickr He used a wooden field camera and coated the glass plates by himself in front of his subjects. A nice guy you could ask how he managed the transfer to his hard disc. Cheers Bernd Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
rob_x2004 Posted September 13, 2009 Share #7 Posted September 13, 2009 Advertisement (gone after registration) Novel idea I know but maybe slip them into an enlarger? Given to someone who really knows what they are doing, you get one wall hanger for the family and pass it round I reckon you will be famous. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
wlaidlaw Posted September 13, 2009 Author Share #8 Posted September 13, 2009 These will be printed by me to A3+ or A2 if I my HP B9180 does die, which it looks as if it is seriously thinking about (I keep getting "ink pump stall" messages) and I buy an Epson 3800. The prints will be going on permanent show at a local museum in the north of Scotland. I have about 130 slides and the museum will be choosing which 10 to 15 ones they want printed large from the A5 proofs I will send. Getting it done professionally would be expensive. The museum has little money to spare and I have agreed that they will only have to pay for the mounting and framing. Although I am prepared to fund this to a limited extent, given that it is a fun project for me over the winter, I am not going to sink thousands into it. Professional scanning of glass slides is expensive (about £15 per slide). When I first tried this some years ago, I had friend with a wonderful MF/LF darkroom, which sadly did not survive his divorce. We did have a couple of goes with his Durst enlarger but the problem is that these slides are positives and the whole process did not produce great results, by the time you scanned in a negative print. They came out very orthochromatic. I am currently bidding on a S/H Epson 4870 on ePrey. I do have Vuescan, which I hope will improve the process. Wilson Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
wlaidlaw Posted September 13, 2009 Author Share #9 Posted September 13, 2009 Just missed out on the 4870 but at the moment maybe just as well. As far as I can see virtually none of the slightly older scanners currently have OS 10.6 Snow Leopard drivers for the moment. When I get back to the UK, I can use them on my dual G5 PowerMac, which is not upgradable to Snow Leopard. Wilson Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snakepottery Posted September 13, 2009 Share #10 Posted September 13, 2009 I have scanned 1/4 plate and other (MF) negs on my Epson V750 with great success. However it was quite an expensive beast so unless you have an awful lot of negs or plan to do a lot in the future it may be best to go to a commercial company and get them scanned in. Not looked at Ebay to see if there are any 2nd hand epsons around recently so maybe that too could be a solution. I found a load of my fathers old glass plate negs from the 40's, it was great scanning them in and seeing them for the first time!b 20mins in PS and they looked even better! Have fun! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
pgk Posted September 13, 2009 Share #11 Posted September 13, 2009 I have had to carry out a similar operation on pix from the whaling station on South Georgia (also family images - with some broken plates) and ended up copying them on a 5D - results from RAW files are very good indeed. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
wlaidlaw Posted September 13, 2009 Author Share #12 Posted September 13, 2009 Another non-Leica friend of mine suggested making up a slide carrier to fit on an outside window and using either north light or light on a bright but overcast winter's day to provide a wider spectrum source than the cold light of a light box (my Jessops one uses four low voltage fluorescent tubes). If you take in RAW, then you can easily correct the colour temperature. There are a few colour slides in the collection, which don't look to be hand tinted, so they may be autochromes. Most of the B&W ones are either sepia tinted, cyanotypes or platinotypes. Not many are pure greyscale. I do want a better 35mm scanner anyway, as my Canon LIDE 600 is hopeless. It is no good having 6000 dpi when the slides or film strips are not in accurate focus. I might go for a S/H V700 or 750, depending on what finances look like later in the year. Post M9 purchase, they are looking a bit dire at the moment. Wilson Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
pop Posted September 14, 2009 Share #13 Posted September 14, 2009 I used the Epson Perfection scanner for this very purpose, both with Windows and Mac. The only thing which did not work as expected: I had to scan the plates as transparent 'color positives'. Scanning them as 'grey' produced ghastly results. Copying them off a light box using a digital camera also works very well. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
wlaidlaw Posted September 14, 2009 Author Share #14 Posted September 14, 2009 I used the Epson Perfection scanner for this very purpose, both with Windows and Mac. The only thing which did not work as expected: I had to scan the plates as transparent 'color positives'. Scanning them as 'grey' produced ghastly results. Copying them off a light box using a digital camera also works very well. Philipp, I had exactly the same experience. I wonder why greyscale doesn't work? Wilson Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Bernd Banken Posted September 14, 2009 Share #15 Posted September 14, 2009 A German member @ zebra introduced his way to scan negatives: Pls. scroll to the end of the thread, he made a very interesting mechanism for his negatives and slides: http://www.l-camera-forum.com/leica-forum/leica-kundenforum/93930-dias-und-negative-digitalisieren.html Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
wlaidlaw Posted September 14, 2009 Author Share #16 Posted September 14, 2009 A German member @ zebra introduced his way to scan negatives: Pls. scroll to the end of the thread, he made a very interesting mechanism for his negatives and slides: http://www.l-camera-forum.com/leica-forum/leica-kundenforum/93930-dias-und-negative-digitalisieren.html Bernd, Thanks for that link. With their absence of live view, neither an M8 or M9 will make a great copying camera. I might see if I can borrow a Visoflex and a 65mm Macro-Elmar. I wonder if I might be better using my Ricoh GX200. Wilson Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
wlaidlaw Posted November 28, 2009 Author Share #17 Posted November 28, 2009 I have finally plumped for an Epson V700 scanner. The scanner is just fine but I am finding the supplied Silverfast SE 6.6 software a bit of a trial. One of their tutorial videos shows that you can select multiple areas for batch scanning but it does not seem to work in SE. I suspect they want you to upgrade to the full version, at a considerable cost. I do have the latest version of Vuescan Pro. That too should be able to scan multiple areas but the instructions to this are somewhat cryptic. Apparently I should click on the batch button but this has been rather carefully hidden. I will have to go through every screen carefully from top to bottom to find where it is. The scans so far are pleasing, considering the very poor condition of the slides. They are very faded or very dark and with many cracked and scratched. Here is one of the local town crier. I would guess from the hair styles and the length of the ladies' skirts, taken during WW2. Wilson Welcome, dear visitor! As registered member you'd see an image here… Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members! Link to post Share on other sites Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members! ' data-webShareUrl='https://www.l-camera-forum.com/topic/96535-scanner-for-glass-14-plate-glass-slides/?do=findComment&comment=1133629'>More sharing options...
gyoung Posted November 28, 2009 Share #18 Posted November 28, 2009 I have finally plumped for an Epson V700 scanner. The scanner is just fine but I am finding the supplied Silverfast SE 6.6 software a bit of a trial. One of their tutorial videos shows that you can select multiple areas for batch scanning but it does not seem to work in SE. I suspect they want you to upgrade to the full version, at a considerable cost. I do have the latest version of Vuescan Pro. That too should be able to scan multiple areas but the instructions to this are somewhat cryptic. Apparently I should click on the batch button but this has been rather carefully hidden. I will have to go through every screen carefully from top to bottom to find where it is. The scans so far are pleasing, considering the very poor condition of the slides. They are very faded or very dark and with many cracked and scratched. Here is one of the local town crier. I would guess from the hair styles and the length of the ladies' skirts, taken during WW2. Wilson I have been using the V750 for large format film negs with success, the Epson software seems to work well, i haven't bothered with the Silverfast. Gerry Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
pop Posted November 28, 2009 Share #19 Posted November 28, 2009 Philipp, I had exactly the same experience. I wonder why greyscale doesn't work? Wilson I have found part of the answer to that one. It turned out that the problem was not with the grey scale but with the POSITIONING OF THE TRANSPARENCIES. The first half inch or so of the flat bed apparently is used by the scanner for calibration purposes. You can see that all negative holders leave a window free in that area. Place your plates not flush with the edge of the glass of the scanner but roughly half an inch away from that edge, and you will be fine. Also, scan at a color depth of 48 bits (16 bits per channel) and raise the gamma value right at the beginning, and you'll get very passable results. Also, obviously use a program for PP which actually handles 16 bits per channel. I found Krita very useful for that purpose. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
wlaidlaw Posted November 29, 2009 Author Share #20 Posted November 29, 2009 I have found part of the answer to that one. It turned out that the problem was not with the grey scale but with the POSITIONING OF THE TRANSPARENCIES. The first half inch or so of the flat bed apparently is used by the scanner for calibration purposes. You can see that all negative holders leave a window free in that area. Place your plates not flush with the edge of the glass of the scanner but roughly half an inch away from that edge, and you will be fine. Also, scan at a color depth of 48 bits (16 bits per channel) and raise the gamma value right at the beginning, and you'll get very passable results. Also, obviously use a program for PP which actually handles 16 bits per channel. I found Krita very useful for that purpose. The pic above was scanned in B&W on the V700. It was when I was trying to use my previous scanner, the Canon LIDE 600F, that I could not get decent results from B&W, when scanned in B&W but only when scanned in colour and then converted back.I will follow Gerry's advice and give the Epson software a go. Wilson Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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