Silverfast SEplus, Plustek, Kodachrome help

[Hellashot]

I just got a Plustek 7500i SE film scanner, though I did get some advice to get a Nikon 5000 instead.

Scanning 200 speed film negatives went fine and got comparable results to my dead Minolta Dualscan 4. But trying to scan slides is a different story. SF has an exposure adjustment for negatives but no real help for slides. And every kodachrome slide I try to scan looks very dark with the histogram always against the left side.

I've selected "kodachrome" in the "general" tab and under the "Pos/Neg". There's many different "scanner" selections but the one that seems best is "SFprofK (Plustek OpticFilm7200i. Gamma is left at 2.0 I can adjust the histogram/curves but it seems to have the result of pushing the exposure by a stop or so. And my kodachrome looks very good when projected.

My old Minolta Dualscan scanning software had either auto exposure for slides or manual, yet there's no option for either with Silverfast. I don't have any calibration targets but I didn't need that with my Minolta scanner.

Is this a Silverfast issue that I'd also have if I got a Nikon 5000 or is it a Dmax issue of 3.5 (plustek) vs. 4.8 (nikon) though someone posted on here a while ago that only some Velvia slides can have Dmax approaching 4. And I used my dead Minolta Dualscan 4 saving files in 8bit not 16bit all without blocked shadow issues. Does using 8bit lower your Dmax ability?

[marke]

I'm in the same boat as you. I just got back 25 rolls of Kodachrome form Dwaynes, and the exposures look right on. I have a plustek opticfilm 7200. I have the same problem with no exposure control in the slide setting, and all my slides come out as very dark, even though they project just fine.

I wish I had an answer, but we're going out for the evening and I probably won't be able to get back to working on this until late tomorrow. I hope someone else can chime in, as I am comepletely new at scanning slides and have no answers to your questions.

[Hellashot]

Well I'm boxing up my less than week old Plustek scanner and am sending it back for a refund. It just doesn't expose slides for an appropriate amount of time without any control to allow for it. It's Dmax is listed as 3.5, but in one of their movies they say the scanner can only get a Dmax of 3.25 when using HDR setting with it's natural Dmax being only 3.08 !

I'm now trying to get a used Minolta Dualscan 4 off Ebay since it and its software allowed for good slide scanning unlike Silverfast and I also tried VueScan (which many people say they prefer over Silverfast yet it horribly lacks controls and graphic user assisted tools.

3.5 years ago I bought a Minolta Dualscan 4 for $225 shipped. An Ebay auction last night, a 4 year old model with 3,000 to 4,000 scans went for $250 plus $30 shipping. Out of this world. I only wished my deal model of it could have kept going for years. I'm not interested in paying $1,000 for a nikon coolscan V that doesn't come with silverfast (a nikon software) and the unknowing how its software scans slides.

[kevinkar]

The NikonScan software is not entirely horrible. It's not entirely intuitive either but no image software every really is (unless you are a total math-head and really understand the complex math behind image processing!)

There is still a good review of the LS-2000 and the version of NikonScan that came with it here:

http://www.imaging-resource.com/PRODS/LS2K/LS2KA.HTM

I know NikonScan is now at version 4.x or higher but, as far as I know, they have not really changed it that much so this review should give you a good idea of how the software works.

I will say this - NikonScan worked well for me with basic scanning for quite some time before I decided to upgrade to a more powerful solution (SilverFast 5.x) which wasn't so much a mistake as it was a whole other level of complexity that made it *harder* rather than easier. I'm used to SilverFast now so it's not that big a deal. It's still daunting when some scans are tough to adjust.

I still recommend spending the money on an LS-5000ED as you can still find them new or refurbished albeit at the price point you don't want to reach!

Sorry to hear the Plustek was not a good solution.

[marke]

Well, I'm still commited to my plutek since I've had it for a couple years and can't afford anything else right now.

Last night I tried to scan a couple slides as a color negative, then inverted them in PS. The results were considerably better. I wonder if the D-max changes in this mode. I just don't understand what Silverfast figured when they included Kodachrome as an option.

[kevinkar]

I'm still working with LaserSoft on my Kodachrome calibration issues (as well as some Ektachrome problems) and am at least on my way to determining if the calibration routine was actually successful.

The process is to calibrate and then compare the output to the reference file using the L-A-B values reported in the Densitometer for each of the color and gray scale patches. If calibration worked, the values should coordinate.

Once that calibration profile is used, the output should be correct though the RAW data clearly is much darker. Applying the correct profile and gamma gradation value changes the output to what the calibration should deem "correct" and that is the case as far as I am seeing.

Is it possible you are not applying the proper corrections to the output before saving it and your results are just not being properly modified resulting in dark images?