Settings to scan slides from 1950s/60s on Epson V370?
 

I have an Epson Perfection V370 scanner that I can use with a macbook air or windows7 laptop. I want to scan slides from the 1950's and 60's. I have scanned some slides, guessing at the settings, but the results were not very good. I have read a lot of information on here, but I am still confused.

Should I be able to get decent scans with this scanner?

If so, can you assist me with the proper settings or direct me to a source for assistance?

Do you know whether this scanner has ICE? It has option for dust removal...is that ICE or something else?

Also, the slides have dust, lint, and some have fingerprints on them. What is the best way to clean them?

Any assistance is greatly appreciated!

Hi kcmom. Welcome to the world of image scanning. In order here are some tips that will help with your scans.

The best way to remove lint and dust from slides or negatives is to use an air blower. One can be had for between $10 and $20 at a variety of online stores. I'm partial to the Giottos AA1900 Rocket Air Blaster, but any air blower will do. Canned compressed air is highly discouraged for use on slides or negatives.

To remove fingerprints from slides or negatives a chemical called PEC-12 is recommended. Apply a small amount of this chemical to a lint free PEC-pad and carefully wipe away the fingerprints.

While it may not be possible to remove every single speck of dust from your slides, following these steps will remove a significant amount of lint and dust particles. As a result, you will have less work to do once your slides have been scanned.

Open Open Epson Scan. You should see a window that looks like this. At the top right corner of this window there is a a drop down menu. Click on this drop down menu and select "Professional Mode." Then match the settings in Epson Scan to the image below. It is best not to enable automatic dust removal in the Scanning Software as it doesn't always work well. For best results dust removal should be done manually in a photo editing program.

http://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/atta...1&d=1553272468

Scanning at 2400 dpi will result in an image that will appear sharp at sizes of 8"x10". If you need to make prints that are larger than this size, increase the dpi to a higher setting. Next click on the small square shaped button in the bottom right corner of the window. I've circled it in red.

http://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/atta...1&d=1553272653

Choose where you plan to save your scanned images and give them a name. I recommend saving your images as TIFFs. A TIFF will result in a large file, but will give you the most flexibility in an image editing program such as Photoshop or GIMP. After you've cropped unnecessary borders, removed dust, and color corrected your TIFFs, you can save your edited images as Jpegs.

Thank you for the information and screen shots! It is very helpful. I gave it a try today and it all seemed to go well.:) I really appreciate your helpfulness! Now I must get busy and get it done.

The next more expensive model, the Epson V600, achieves a real-world resolution of about 1560 dpi (they scanned at 3200 dpi to get that result) which translates to about 3.6 megapixels from a 35mm slide. Maybe you will get that from the V370 also. So it isn't great for archival purposes but good enough for sharing photos on social media.

The next step up would be a dedicated film scanner such as the Pacific Image PrimeFilm XA or XAs (in the USA), or the Reflecta RPS 10M (in Europe). These will achieve about 4300 dpi which comes to about 24 megapixels. But these scanners cost upwards of $500 each.

If you have a good jeweler's loupe or a microscope, you could compare the slide with its scan from the V370 and to see if the scan is as sharp as the slide, then decide if it's worth the price for a dedicated film scanner or to send your slides to a scanning service such as ScanCafe mentioned here.

Thank you. I will certainly keep this in mind. If I find some slides that are really special, it will be something to consider.

Does digital ice work with kodachrome slides? (I think I have read both that it does and doesnt)
photographs?

V600 is probably one of the best scanners. And one of the few I've found that does well with slides, even better than some negatives scanners.

No ICE on Kodachrome with any scanner using ICE.

That's actually quite a bargain compared to the "benchmark" Nikon Coolscans.

When I scan slides on the Epson 370, it tries to default to unsharp mask being on. Can you tell me what this does and is it better to have it on or off? The pictures seem to look slightly less blurry when it is on, but is this something that needs to be done at a later time? The slides I am currently scanning all say they are kodachrome.

I have attached a couple of the slides that I saved as jpeg after scanning them as tiff with the unsharp mask off. There are a lot of scratches, but we love having these pictures of my 90+ year old in-laws anyway. :)

If I scan them at setting of 2400 dpi, do you think it would be possible to get a decent 8x10 print?

It looks like I will be looking up tutorials on Gimp to see if I can figure out how to remove dust and fix scratches, but one thing at a time!

Thank you, KPmedia! I was given an Epson 370 so I am trying to use it. Since the slides I am scanning now say they are kodachrome, I guess I won't be as sad that I it doesn't have ICE.

It's simply a digital filter to sharpen the image. It's something that can be done later with e.g gimp if needed, so I would suggest leaving it off.