filmscanners: Re: Slide feeder, was: You have several hundred thousand transparencies to scan...

["Jules" <jules@popmonkey.com>]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Alan Shaw" <alanshaw@alanshaw.com>
To: <filmscanners@halftone.co.uk>; <jules@popmonkey.com>
Sent: Wednesday, April 11, 2001 10:18 AM
Subject: Slide feeder, was: You have several hundred thousand transparencies
to scan...


> Jules wrote:
> >
> >
> > i find my SF-200 (LS-2000 slide feeder) to be foolproof, but it took me
> > a long time to get it that way.  the primary reason for jams is the
> > mount being too rough surfaced or placed incorrectly causing two slides
> > to be fed into the scanner at a time.  i found, for example, that one
> > particular type of plastic mount (i forget the brand) would work fine in
> > one direction, but would cause jams in another (you can test this by
> > putting two slides together and sliding them around.  if they can slide
> > to the right, that's how you put them in).  the mounts i use now, thin
> > gepe when machine mounted, the thicker ones when hand mounting (the
> > thicker the mount the less jams you'll get) work exceptionally well.  i
> > haven't experienced a jam in over a year (at least a thousand scans and
> > all in the feeder).
> >
> > ~j
>
> Well, that's the thing, Jules:  you've told us before how well the SF-200
> works for you, and I'm envious, but still dubious about it for me.
> Your post appears to mean that the SF-200 won't behave well with the
"regular"
> cardboard-mounted slides I get back from my lab.  So the feeder
convenience
> must be balanced against the trouble of mounting my own slides.

yeah, well that sucks for you.  i actually had a choice of three labs that
all did good processing and all 3 offered plastic mounts.  i chose the one
that was closest to the gepe mounts that work well for me.

> I do mount my own 120 slides, but that's much lower volume...
> Can you talk a bit about machine mounting at home?  Like cost and time?

i looked into this a few weeks ago and ran against walls and wallet killers
only.  for example, a true automatic slide mounter costs at least $US 3K.  i
just have the lab mount everything, my chromes and my negatives although i
do some at home as needed.  if i had more time, i'd do everything by hand
tho.  i can do 1 roll every 15 minutes (assuming at least 1/2 throwaways).

~j