[filmscanners] RE: [film scanners] Re: Scanning old Lantern Slides

["Laurie Solomon" <laurie@advancenet.net>]

You have made a few assumptions that may not hold up completely.  You
assumed that it would be copied to true B&W film; but the original
discussion which gave rise to the idea of copying the lantern slides to film
suggested copying them to color film, which is what I was questioning in the
statement you quoted.  Second, you seem to assume that scanning silver based
b&W film is without any problems when in fact it can be problematic with
respect to grain and other factors.  Third, you assume that copying with a
35mm set up will be quick, inexpensive and requiring few rolls of film; but
you ignore the fact that one might have to run several test rolls to test
for exposures, filtration, and possible pre-flashing to reduce contrasts.
Unlike 4x5 sheet film like Kodak Pro Copy which is designed to handle
contrast issues among other things in making b&w copies, 35mm camera films
tend to have heel and toes that are not well designed to handle some of the
contrast issues as well as a few other copy issues.  Thus, to do a good job
worth doing, one would have to run test film for various problematic issues
that one might encounter in the various lantern slides.

>Oil (like microscope emersion oil) can do wonders on making cracks
disapear.

Yes it may work for some flaws but not all - especially when they are flaws
in the glass plate itself like air bubbles or distortions.  In some cases,
the application of the oil could result in later damage tot he original -
especially when it comes to wiping or washing it off the lantern slide since
the emulsions on them are generally not hardened and unprotected and thus
susceptible to being scratched or wiped off..

-----Original Message-----
From: filmscanners_owner@halftone.co.uk
[mailto:filmscanners_owner@halftone.co.uk]On Behalf Of Charles Stirling
Sent: Thursday, February 07, 2002 3:38 PM
To: laurie@advancenet.net
Subject: [filmscanners] Re: Scanning old Lantern Slides


** Reply to note from filmscanners@halftone.co.uk Tue, 5 Feb 2002
22:50:47 -0600

> Apart from the probability that the lantern slides from 50 years ago are
> probably in black and white and have a silver based emulsion, copying
> to color negative film is probably a bad step

I assumed it would be copying with true B & W film and since this is then
going to be relativly easy to copy with one of many standard film
scanners you end up with the best of both worlds.  Doing the initial
copying with a 35mm camera setup should be relativly quick and 2 rolls
(or even 4 rolls of film) isn't that expensive.

I assume the lantern slides will be positives so you end up with negatives
which can be printed with standard wet printing if wanted and to any
size.

There had been talk of limited budget, then the price of expensive
specialist large format scanners.  I'm assuming the origionals are probably
something like standard 2 1/4" x 3 1/4" lantern slides.  Oil (like
microscope emersion oil) can do wonders on making cracks disapear.

Regards,





Charles


----------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------
Unsubscribe by mail to listserver@halftone.co.uk, with 'unsubscribe
filmscanners'
or 'unsubscribe filmscanners_digest' (as appropriate) in the message title
or body

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Unsubscribe by mail to listserver@halftone.co.uk, with 'unsubscribe 
filmscanners'
or 'unsubscribe filmscanners_digest' (as appropriate) in the message title or 
body