Kodachrome and Minolta Elite 5400 scan

  • Thread starter Thread starter GD
  • Start date Start date
G

GD

I'am encountering problems scanning Kodachrome slides with an Elite
5400 scan.
The pictures are rather dark and sometimes the colors saturated
In fact, the scan is of poor quality vs what I can see on the slide
I'm very surprised as I had no problem with negative films where I had
only to use automatic correction in Photoshop; With the slides I have
to change the gamma to high levels and I am never really satisfied
with the result ...

Who had encountered this kind of problem? Thank you for help!
 
GD said:
I'am encountering problems scanning Kodachrome slides with an Elite
5400 scan.
The pictures are rather dark and sometimes the colors saturated
In fact, the scan is of poor quality vs what I can see on the slide
I'm very surprised as I had no problem with negative films where I had
only to use automatic correction in Photoshop; With the slides I have
to change the gamma to high levels and I am never really satisfied
with the result ...

Who had encountered this kind of problem? Thank you for help!
Click to expand...

There is something weird about Kodachrome.
Unless the scanner has a special setting for Kodachrome, you usually get
off colors. I don't know why, because to the eyes it looks just like
Ektachrome. There must be some kind of UV filter coating that affects
the transmission of certain visible wavelengths. I tried to make digital
copies of Kodachrome slides with a Nikon 4300 and a slide copier.
They came out way too orange. Ektachrome was fine.....Go figure.
I was able to fix the Kodachrome images in Photoshop but it took a lot
of fiddling around.
Maybe someone else knows the precise explanation for the Kodachrome Anomaly.
 
Kodachrome has more Red, Ektachrome favors blue

Bob said:
There is something weird about Kodachrome.
Unless the scanner has a special setting for Kodachrome, you usually get
off colors. I don't know why, because to the eyes it looks just like
Ektachrome. There must be some kind of UV filter coating that affects
the transmission of certain visible wavelengths. I tried to make digital
copies of Kodachrome slides with a Nikon 4300 and a slide copier.
They came out way too orange. Ektachrome was fine.....Go figure.
I was able to fix the Kodachrome images in Photoshop but it took a lot
of fiddling around.
Maybe someone else knows the precise explanation for the Kodachrome
Anomaly.
Click to expand...
 
I'am encountering problems scanning Kodachrome slides with an Elite
5400 scan.
The pictures are rather dark and sometimes the colors saturated
In fact, the scan is of poor quality vs what I can see on the slide
I'm very surprised as I had no problem with negative films where I had
only to use automatic correction in Photoshop; With the slides I have
to change the gamma to high levels and I am never really satisfied
with the result ...

Who had encountered this kind of problem? Thank you for help!
Click to expand...

One of the generic answers for this kind of question is to ask
if you've tried to use VueScan with it (hamrick.com). It's good
software for a very reasonable price (esp for those of us who bought
it a zillion years ago and still using the "forever upgrades for free"
policy. Also works with most scanners, not a one-scanner software like
silverfast.

So... if you haven't tried it (think its got a Kodachrome as one of its
listed film modes), give it a try -- trying is free, or used to be anyway. :-)

If you succeed, please post results here. I've been thinking about getting
one of those scanners and probably 20% of my slides are Kodachrome (although
that will be declining as Kodachrome seems to be on it's last legs).

Mike
 
There is always a problem with Kodachrome, whatever scanner you use.
Kodachromes are far denser and have a different colour balance to
other slide films.

What you have to do is scan and adjust manually until you get the
right setting. Then save the settings as a job. Use that job each
time, but make sure you check each slide before committing a save. I
love Kodachrome as a film (especially the reds which come out as
almost 3D) but I've switched to Velvia for this very reason.
One of the generic answers for this kind of question is to ask
if you've tried to use VueScan with it (hamrick.com). It's good
software for a very reasonable price (esp for those of us who bought
it a zillion years ago and still using the "forever upgrades for free"
policy. Also works with most scanners, not a one-scanner software like
silverfast.

So... if you haven't tried it (think its got a Kodachrome as one of its
listed film modes), give it a try -- trying is free, or used to be anyway. :-)
Click to expand...

No, don't try it with a Minolta. Vuescan just doesn't work with the
Scan Elite.
 
Back
Top