FWIW, I wrote the repair info posted in Jan 03 by Thomas Maugham, he was
reprinting my earlier post. About the front surface mirror cleaning, all of
the info is included in this post. What you need to know is to use
denatured alcohol, use a tissue to swipe it across the mirror with no
pressure, and do not let it touch plastic parts because it will dissolve the
plastic. The source of this information is Bill Crispian, presently the
oldest Leica factory trained repairman in the world (and my next-door
neighbor). I have been doing this every month or so for a couple of years,
my scanner works great, I don't need to sharpen my scans because the mirrors
and lens have no fog or dust on them. Scanners accumulate haze on the
surfaces, even when they are brand new they have some on the mirrors.
Last weekend, i posted about scanning Kodachrome, however the post did not
go through, so I am re-posting now:
For Kodachrome scanning, I would like to recommend (with some reservations)
the old Polaroid SS4000. I have used this for several years. I read the
numerous discussions of this group and others about the Polaroid vs Nikon
when these came out, and since 95% of my scanning is for Kodachrome I picked
the Polaroid.
POINTS IN FAVOR OF POLAROID FOR KODACHROME:
DEPTH OF FOCUS: The Polaroid uses a brighter light and smaller aperture
lens, so depth of focus is greater. Of course the DOF of any scanner may be
insufficient for warped slides, but still the Polaroid is better. There is
general agreement on this point by most people who have posted on the
subject. If your slides are badly warped, you will need to use a glass
carrier with any scanner.
DIFFUSION OF LIGHT SOURCE: The Polaroid uses diffuse light, which minimizes
dust and scratch marks on the base side of the film. The Nikon uses
collimated light and this accentuates dust on the base side. Of course the
Nikon has the automatic dust removal, however that does not work with
Kodachrome because the film is opaque to IR light.
EASE OF MODIFYING FILM HOLDERS: The polaroid is easy to use glass in. I
make high quality scans, mostly from fifty year old kodachrome slides.
Often these are very warped. I remove the film from the mount and tape one
edge in the holder. Over that I place an anti-newton glass removed from a
German slide mount. My scans have tack-sharp grain from corner to corner.
Many of the slides are great to begin with, having been shot with Leicas on
tripods, and the resulting scans can be enlarged quite a bit.
COLOR ACCURACY: The Nikon uses light emitting leds, which are reputed to be
narrower band light sources, and the result is less favorable to Kodachrome
compared to E6 film colors. I cannot personally vouch for this, but it is
often mentioned.
I am putting up a tutorial about scanning kodachrome, and two pages are done
so far. The first is how to date Kodachrome slides, and determine which
ones were varnished in processing:
The next page is how to remove the film from the mount here:
The next two pages will be done soon, they show ultrasonic cleaning of the
film, and mounting in a Polaroid holder with glass for scanning.
One thing to keep in mind is the condition of the scanner. There are many
mirrors and lenses inside to get dirty. Any scanner that has been left on
the counter for a number of months will likely have quite a bit of fog and
dust. This means you may have to sharpen your scans. I clean all mirrors
every month. I have never needed to sharpen a scan in order to get a good
13x19 enlargement (unless the original slide is soft, that happens from time
to time). Use denatured alcohol on the front surface mirrors. And cover
the two openings with duct tape whenever you are not scanning.
Good luck
Tom Robinson
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