Hi James!
Yes, there is a problem with Kodachrome that we are working on. You should
really try some of your own images. We are not absolutely sure why some
Kodachromes are affected while others are not. It is usually the very dense
parts of the image. I'll tell you what I do when I scan Kodachrome. I scan
it with and without Digital ICE and compare the results. What usually
happens is that detail is lost in dark parts of the scan (in a recent image,
a man standing in the shadows was wearing a dark hat with lettering on it.
The lettering on the non-Digital ICE scan was a little clearer, so I
sharpened the Digital ICE image and I was satisfied with results. In an
other case there was a black bill board with red lettering, with the entire
image being probably two to four stops under exposed. The negative was very
badly damaged (actually a dog had gotten a hold of it!) and there were
defects all over it. I put the Digital ICE scan on a layer in an image
editor in front of the non-Digital ICE scan layer and painted through for
the lettering on the bill board. Almost all of the defects were gone and the
detail on the bill board was very clear. If I had tried to remove the
defects from the entire image I would have spent several hours (if not days)
getting the same result I got in a few minutes of work.
So to answer your question, yes there is a problem with some images, but
they are quite easy to work around in most cases. I think you'll be happy
with your choice.
Jack Phipps
-----Original Message-----
From: James Schenken [mailto:jds@ifx.net]
Sent: Friday, July 13, 2001 7:34 PM
To: Jack Phipps
Subject: RE: filmscanners: Cleaning slides using Digital ICE
At 09:15 AM 06/18/2001 -0500, you wrote:
>I will only list the consumer products (there are many "digital minilabs"
>that use Digital ICE).
>
>ACER 2740S
>Minolta Dimage Scan Elite
>Nikon Super Coolscan 8000 ED
>Nikon Super Coolscan 4000 ED
>Nikon Coolscan IV ED
>Nikon Super Coolscan 2000
>Nikon Coolscan III
>
>Not really in the consumer catagory is the Durst Sigma.
>
>I use a Digital ICE enabled scanner frequently for my own photographic
>projects and I wouldn't consider a scanner without it. Good luck with your
>scanning. If you have any out-standing examples, please consider sharing
>them with others on our web site (include before and after examples).
>
>Jack Phipps
Jack,
Thanks for you informative reply. I think I've reduced my choice to the
Coolscan 4000 ED.
One last question. I've just read a review that is extremely favorable
() but mentions in
passing that the Digital ICE technology doesn't work with Kodachrome.
True???
Any suggestions on handling Kodachrome? This is not a deal killer but is
inconvenient.
Most slides I'm going to process will be Ektachrome as I mentioned in my
prior e-Mail..
Thanks again,
James David Schenken
jds@ifx.net
