Slide scanning

[johnridley]

Well, the new scanner is working great, I've got a good start on scanning slides.

I've found one thing out so far. My mom thought the Argus C3 was a great camera. I'm here to tell you, it stunk. It stunk on ice. The big problem is possibly operator error but could be a misaligned focusing mechanism; every single shot taken with it (about 10 years worth) were backfocused by about 5 feet for portraits; the subject is blurry, stuff 10 feet behind is sharp.

The other problem is that the thing must have a completely spherical lens. The distortion away from the center of the fram is abysmal.


(that's me on the right)
As you can see, it's a great photo of the grass 10 feet behind the subject. Over half the photos from this time frame are like that. Also notice that it looks like you're looking through a coke bottle; the distortion is really noticable.



Here's why I don't bother scanning the old crufty slides my family gave me without a digital ICE scanner:
A sample crufty slide without ICE (I'm on the left on these):

Same slide with the "ICE" checkbox ticked:


Closeup without ICE:

and with:

As you can see, it doesn't do complete miracles with really bad problems, but it does do a great job at the vast majority of the little scuffs.

These slides were stored in a damp basement and have a LOT of little mold or some kind of organic looking snowflake type things sitting on the emulsion. It is possible to clean them but it's very time consuming. All I'm doing on the first pass is to lightly brush off loose gunk with a Q-tip.

My plan for now is, first pass: anything with people in it, skip landscape unless it's clearly a family home or a regular vacation spot which gives context to other stuff.
Second pass: Identify, clean and rescan particularly good images.

Comments

[kevinnickerson.livejournal.com]

If the focus problem is consistant, then the range finder was probably misaligned. I wonder if you'll find a time where the photos go from good to bad showing that the camera was dropped.

You might want to get a decent antistatic brush. The ICE works even better if it doesn't have to do anything.

What's the goose?

[johnridley.livejournal.com]

I've got a staticmaster. It's too gentle. The dust is pretty much bonded to these slides. The Q tip does a little better.

The goose is a tourist attraction in Wawa, Canada.

[tceisele.livejournal.com]

Yep, I've seen that goose. I take it that your family did the Lake Superior Circle Tour at some point?

[johnridley.livejournal.com]

No, we just went up into Canada to fish every year. Wawa was about 1/2 way from the Soo to where we went to fish.

[c0nsumer.livejournal.com]

Wow, your ICE example is even better than mine. The examples I'd used were just scratches, and it's nearly impossible to tell where they were:

· ICE Off
· ICE On

[johnridley.livejournal.com]

Yup, if you're looking for really mucked up film, I've got it.
My family was never big on saving negatives, and those they did were just chucked into a box. Lots of the film is folded, dirty, mildewy, stepped on, totally randomized, etc. I've got tintypes, 110, 35mm slides & negs, 120 b/w negs, 126 instamatic, all kinds of stuff. Just chucked into a cardboard box.