CanoScan 8800f and Silverfast with diapositives

[hanspeter]

Hi

I recently purchased a Canoscan 8800f flatbed scanner and it came with SilverFast bundled for Canon.

Everything works well after installation. However, when I want to scan my diapositives it works with the Scangear from Canon, i.e the separate scanning lamp in the scanner is used, but this does not work withe Silverfast version. With Silverfast I simply get a scan with the normal lamp in use, but not with the additional lamp integrated into the cover of the scanner.

What is the reason for this? Am I doing something wrong.

Thanks for advice.

Best regards

Hanspeter

[LSI_Ketelhohn]

Dear hanspeter,

did you switch to transparancy mode in the general tab?

kind regards
Arne Ketelhohn

[hanspeter]

Dear Arne

thanks for the response. Sorry, took me some time to come back and read and test. Business travelling.

Anyhow, yes I put to transparency and now it works, so the lamp in the cover is now on during the scanning process (that can be easily seen looking at the closed scanner from the side).
However, the new problem is now that I see the four diapositives in the pre-scan, but the Autoframe does not detect the 4 individual dias, but only one, and hence I have to make the process of final scan 4 times individually which is time consuming. Of course I can add all frames manually, but that's again time consuming and gives additionally the next problem described below.

Also, the pre-scan window is very small, so it is difficult to see whether the frame is really exactly positioned about the dia only. The difference to the Canon Scangear versus Silverfast is that the Scangear shows only the actual photo part of the dia, but the Silverfast also shows the diapositive frame, which in turn makes it even more difficult to put the frame correctly around the photopart of the dia with the small pre-scan.

Any ideas how
- autoformat really recognizes all 4 dias on the scanner
- how the pre-scan window can be made as big as the whole computer screen to better enable the framing of the actual diapositive photo (ie excluding the frame of the dia).

Your answers are of utmost importance as I want to start to scan more than 2000(!!) dias and I have a big hope on Silverfast to help me do the job.

Best regards

Hanspeter

[LSI_Ketelhohn]

Dear Hanspeter,

if the autoframe finder does not recognize several negatives you can set up a single frame as needed.
then you can copy this frame by pressing ALT and clicking into an empty (non framed) area.

If you use a filmholder you can set all frames for the holder and save it in the general tab as a Frame-Set.

These Frames then can be scanned in Batch mode.

kind regards
Arne Ketelhohn

[hanspeter]

Hi Arne

thank you again for your reply. I will try your way you proposed.

Unfotunately you did not answer to my second question: the pre-scanned pictures are rather small, it is therefore difficult to set one of the 4 diaframes correctly. Is there a possibility to make the pre-scan window bigger, so you can make the frame as exact as possible to one of the diapositives, and then with your previous suggestion on using ALT and copy the frame to the other diapositives getting all 4 as exact as possible before you continue to scan in batch mode.

Thanks again for your help.

Best regards

Hanspeter

[LSI_Morales]

Dear hanspeter,

If you want to frame the pictures in the frame holder in detail, you should first click on the frame you want to zoom in, then press the mygnifying glass button located in the main adjustment window in SilverFast and voila! you will have a full preview of the desired picture included in the film holder.

Note that pressing the magnifying glass button once more will make a zoom out which will allow you to see the overview of all pictures again. Then you select the next picture and repeat the same procedure until you are done!

thanks for your interest

[hanspeter]

Hi again

some time went by since we "talked" together. Most things work fine for now, but with the latest versions of Silverfast SE I noticed a couple of interesting things.
I have in general only Kodachrome slides I want to scan. If I use the 48 bit colour mode (which does not allow to make any modifications) to TIFF file then the colour is almost as original, but if I use the lower mode (so I can start to make modifications) then the colour for landscape gets unnatural, and I would have to fix all the scanned diapositives, which is time consuming.

Now, in the latest version r4 I noticed that there is a Kodachrome transparency selection in the SE version. I am confused as all your web pages and informations do say that this works only in the AI version. But what is then the purpose of this Kodachrome transparency mode in the SE version. In fact, I would have hoped that this Kodachrome mode would exactly bring the better colours when using the colour mode that allows later modifications, but this is not happening at all, so I see no difference if I use Kodachrome or only Transparency.

Hope again for your good advice here. Thanks in advance

Best regards

Hanspeter

[LSI_Heidorn]

Dear Hans-Peter,
the newer Kodachrome Options should deliver good results if you scan 48->24 Bit or 48 Bit Color, *not* 48 HDR !
The HDR mode still tries to scan images untouched, so no special KC corrections are there.

But a default scan with the other two modes with or without Automatic to compensate individual image problems should be fine !

That still got better with the r5 version out since a few days.
Just give it a try, if unsure about your current settings / default, just delete them via service menu and start out fresh & clean !


Greetings,

Nils Heidorn

[hanspeter]

Hi

based on your recent response from 7th April I followed your procedure, ie I used in the General setup of Silverfast the option "Kodachrome" and the outcome of the diascan was quite OK (Silverfast SE version with Canoscan 8800f).

However, when I now upgraded to the newest version of Silverfast 6.6.1r1 from 24th June 2009, I noted that the Kodachrome selection is not any longer possible (it is greyed out). Any particular reaons for this?
On the other side, when I went to the Options/CMS tab I noticed a number of profiles (Canoscan 8800f, SF-K Canoscan8800f, SF-R Canoscan8800f and SF-T Canoscan8800f and some others with different Canoscan versions). Now, is my assumption correct that SF-K is the profile for Kodachrome slides and SF-T would be the "normal" Silverfast profile for transparencies? If not, please advise the meaning of all these profiles as no explanation can be found within Silverfast nor the manuals.

Thanks again for your reply.

Best regards

Hanspeter

[LSI_Heidorn]

Dear Hanspeter,
you are perfectly correct, those SF_K... Profiles are the ones we need for Kodachrome ( amongst other things ).
It is strange that the upgrade to 661r1 broke your KC menu.
Could you delete your preferences via service menu and start again ?!

best regards,

Nils Heidorn

[hanspeter]

Hi Nils

thank you for your really quick reply. Good news is that my assumption is correct, ie the SF_K profiles are the Kodachrome profiles. I need t check if the outcome of a scan is still the same as in the previous version.

But, it seemed also to you as a surprise that the General Setup and/Pos/Neg did not any longer contain the Kodachrome option (it is still there visible, but greyed out so it cannot be selected. I need to check what happens when deleting the preferences via the service menu according your proposal. I will tell you the result later when I had the time to check this.

However: interesting question comes into my mind: assuming that the Kodachrome option still would exist in the General/Pos/Neg tabe: what would be the difference between the Kodachrome option in the General setup and the SF_K profiles in the Options/CMS tab? Do you have answer for this?

Best regards

Hanspeter

[LSI_Heidorn]

Dear Hans Peter,
if you choose the Kodachrome mode instead of simply selecting it as a profile you also signal other filters & parts of SilverFast that you are working on a KC.
So there are more changes then just the input Colorspace.
The biggest differences is the way that iSRD works when it *knows* that it has to care for a Kodachrome...

best regards,

Nils Heidorn

[hanspeter]

Hi Nils

coming back to your previous response and the proposal to make a deletion of the preference files in the Service Dialog: I just tried this and restarted Silverfast. But in the General Setup the Kodachrome is still greyed out and cannot be used. So the only option is the SF_K in the Options/CMS input box.

Following your response from yesterday this is really sad because as you stated the Kodachrome preference in the General setup has also an influence in the for instance iSRD function and this is important for me as some of my more than 4000 dias are old and may have scratches and dust.

What could be done here, or what is the reason for this? Once again as said before: I have the Silverfast SE version that came with the Canoscanner 8800f when I purchased it.

Thanks again for your support.

Best regards

Hanspeter

[LSI_Heidorn]

Dear hanspeter,
as this seems to be a special case and the forum is meant for general interest topics i will alert our support guys to contact you and to help you out, okay ?

best regards,

Nils Heidorn

[hanspeter]

Hi Nils

yes OK. I appreciate that.

Hanspeter