>===== Original Message From Hans van Veluwen <HVeluwen@xxxxxxxxxxx> =====
>I haven't tried scanning Kodachrome in my LS-30 yet, but I wonder - which
>slide film is supposed to give the *best* scan results? I found Ektachrome
>64 and Sensia II also more difficult to scan than negative fim - it needed
>more manual correction, with or without Nikon's automatic color management.
>Is there any third party software that cooperates with the LS-30 and has
>built-in film definitions to correct these problems, like that Silverfast
>software that sometimes is sold with the scanner?
>
>
>hnz
Hans,
All slide film by its nature is tougher to scan because the dynamic range is
just larger than print film. These features of Kodachrome just complicate
that fact of nature somewhat more.
I have used three different types of software with the Polaroid SS4000:
Insight 4.5 (the native Polaroid scan software), Silverfast, and VueScan. I
have made exactly one scan each with Insight and Silverfast, and every other
scan I have ever made with the SS4000 has been made with VueScan. There are a
couple reasons for this. I had used VueScan also with my Nikon LS-20. It was
superior to the flavor of Nikon Scan that came with the scanner and basically
added at least a year to the usefulness of that scanner for me. In the switch
to Polaroid, VueScan was a comfort item in the transition.
More significantly, though, both Insight and Silverfast are somewhat
old-fashioned in offering a very big and complex interface, most of which is
redundant in light of what Photoshop can do. VueScan is really designed to do
the necessary things and not much more before depositing the image in
Photoshop.
Does VueScan offer you the correction you're looking for? I'm not sure. The
attention to color is very good. There is a specific color setting for
Kodachrome, a profile for use in PhotoCD scanning which was simply
appropriated from Kodak. Nevertheless, with somewhat darker images, I still
notice a tendency for colors to go a little awry. In general, with slides I
have to open the curves tool in PS and yank it a little to open/brighten the
middle values to my liking. VueScan provides image brightness and image
contrast dialogues which can be used to some degree to hold highlights while
presumably opening darker areas of the scan, but this seems to me to be easier
to manage in Photoshop.
Joel Wilcox
Iowa City, Iowa USA
< This message was delivered via the Olympus Mailing List >
< For questions, mailto:owner-olympus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx >
< Web Page: http://Zuiko.sls.bc.ca/swright/olympuslist.html >
|