35mm slide scanning workflow with slide holder

[DarthurB]

Hi
I have a simple requirement to scan many 1000s of old 35mm transparencies using the 12X slide holder for the Epson V700 scanner. I want to obtain a suitable compromise between quality of the scan and the time taken. I have spent many hours reading this forum and trying out various approaches using SFSE+but I cannot find any way to accomplish what I need. I like the idea of the sophisticated scanning and software control in SF but I have found it almost impossible to find a workflow to fit my needs.

For example, I have many Kodachrome 64 slides, so the dedicated 'Kodachrome' scanning in SFSE+ looked good. But, in my hands, this gave very slow scans ~9 minutes per slide and many artifacts in the shaded areas. The 'frame finder' works well with the slide holder, but trying to make adjustments seems to require a tedious new scan each time an adjustment is needed. I have come to the conclusion that the Silverfast does not easily support this type of multiple slide scanning.

At this stage, I am ready to give up and turn to the easy-to-use, but less sophisticated EPSON scan software. However, I post this just in case someone has developed a workable approach to solve the problem I have. If anyone has managed to successfully scan say 5-10,000 slides I would be interested to hear how it has been achieved and how much time is needed per 1000 slides.

Kind regards
Dave

[LSI_Ketelhohn]

Dear Dave,

If you want to use the same settings for multiple frames you can use the "copy settings to all frames" option from the frame menu.
In case you are getting artifacts in dark areas check if you are using iSRD. The Kodachrome emulsion blocks the scanner's infrared channel. Especially in the denser/darker areas. You can try lowering the iSRD correction strength. For very dense film iSRD will have to be deactivated.

Kind regards
Arne

[DarthurB]

Thanks Arne
I have switched off iSRD for my Kodachrome scans, but I still have artifacts which are purple colourations in the dark areas. I guess it is the high dynamic range of Kodachrome and I just have to live with this. I can see that the SF 'Kodachrome' setting does indeed deliver better dynamic range with the Multiscan ME setting but this is not quite enough to cope with the dark areas in my slides.

The 'copy settings' I have found useful where there are similar exposures in a batch of slides. However, I ideally i would like to quickly optimise settings for each frame from the prescans. With SFSE+, each time I go to check an individual frame a new scan is done. This makes it very slow to go through 12 frames. Is there any way to achieve instant access to each pre-scan to make adjustments without invoking a new scan? Possibly this type of more streamlined functionality is available in a higher version of SF?

A final question- do you have a recommendation for Epson V700 dpi setting for Kodachrome. I would like to retain as much detail as possible from the slides. In my test scans 3200 dpi seems to give better resolution than 2400 dpi but I see several posts in this forum saying that 2400 dpi is the maximum useful resolution with the V700. Do you (or other users) have any comments on this?

Thanks in anticipation of your response.

Regards
Dave

[LSI_Ketelhohn]

Dear Dave,

I am not sure what the artifacts could be without seeing them. Could be noise or even damaged parts of the emulsion.
If you click and hold the auto adjustment button you will get a list of different correction types. Maybe test if the shadow cast one helps.
The more advanced Ai Studio can help with many specialized issues. But it depends on the exact issue if and how this is possible.

The resolution depends on the scan mode you are in. The SilverFast resolution slider will always offer the physical resolutions available. Only the highest setting is interpolated.


Kind regards
Arne