slide scanner

[alfbranch]

Originally Posted by Ashleyj

I tried to scan my transparencies a few years ago using a flat bed scanner fitted with a dedicated 35mm adaptor but the results were not very good at all.

What resolution were you using as the default setting can be as low as 300 dpi which for a slide would just about be a decent thumbnail image.
A resoltion of 4000 to 7000 dpi in Tiff or PSD format should be very different.

[Ashleyj]

Originally Posted by alfbranch

What resolution were you using as the default setting can be as low as 300 dpi which for a slide would just about be a decent thumbnail image.
A resoltion of 4000 to 7000 dpi in Tiff or PSD format should be very different.

It was a few years ago so to be honest I cannot remember what settings I used, but from what I do remember I used the software that came with the scanner to do it.

As I said the results were very poor so perhaps I was scanning at too low a resolution. I might try to scan a few with my current HP flatbed scanner to see how they come out.

[KeithT]

I scan mine at 400 dpi outward resolution. That sould give you a fairly decent size to work from in Photoshop, though it isn't massive.

[Ashleyj]

Thanks Keith I'll try your suggestion.

I think the best solution will be to try one and look at it before carrying on. That's the mistake I made last time - I scanned all of them before checking the quality.

[vance99]

Thank you for this post, there is a lot of information for me which is useful and i have learnt from.
slide scanner

[Dagwood]

Originally Posted by OldBoy

You have to use the software, supplied with the scanner, to get the best from a scan. Some allow you to do a basic scan and I wonder if you accepted this instead of getting it to do the full scan?

Whilst the software that comes with a scanner probably does a great job I'm intrigued as to whether anyone has tried specialist software such as SilverFast. I know nothing more than I am reading in the current Focus Guide Photoshop "Revive your old photos". However I have recently noticed whilst trying out my Canon 4400 that the Canon scanner software that came with it, CanoScan Toolbox 5.0, allows a much more limited scanning resolution than if I aquire images to be scanned (and here I should say I am scanning 35mm B&W and colour negatives in the lid adaptor) with the additional software that was bundled with it, ie PhotoStudio 5.5.
It seems that supplementary software might be the answer to some of the frustration experienced by forum members when trying to get good results.
What do others think? Has anyone tried SilverFast software and what results did they get?
Dagwood

[jet_kit]

Senior Member Cathus has recently bought a dedicated negative/transparency scanner.

Ask him how he's getting on with it.