"Kodachrome doesn't scan well."

[2F/2F]

Hello,

I have heard several times on these forums that Kodachrome does not scan well...whatever that means.

I have a project coming up soon in which I will need to shoot a lot of transparency film and have it scanned. I think, due to subject matter, that Kodachrome is one of the films I am considering.

So, what does it mean when people say it doesn't scan well?

 

[Pinholemaster]

Kodachrome can scan well, but it requires a different color profile. My Nikon 8000 scanner has a built-in Kodachrome setting in its software to tell the machine that it is not scanning an E6 style film.

It comes down to operators proficiency in matching the scanner to the film.

 

[jd callow]

Get it scanned professionally if you don't have a good film scanner. I've scanned it on Nikons and Imacons and the scans were great.

 

[2F/2F]

Thanks. Good to know that it is, as I assumed, not true.

 

[Yorkhork]

Yeah, you'll need a good filmscanner. But even more important is the software.
When not using the Nikon 9000 you need SilverFast for getting rid of dust and scratches. http://www.silverfast.com/show/kodachrome/en.html

If you want perfect scans, consider buying a special Kodachrome IT8-Target. This is for calibrating the scanner for kodachromes.

 

[PKM-25]

I use a Nikon 9000ED with Silverfast Ai Studio software and the IT8 Kodachrome calibration target. For what it is worth, I have heard the 9000ED is a better scanner in terms of dust and scratches than the 5000ED even with 35mm due to the larger imager and light source.

I did a few scans today from Kodachrome 64 and 25 and it takes virtually no time at all to get a great scan with about 90-95% of the shadow detail properly rendered and with dead on color. As someone said earlier, the software makes a huge difference.

When it comes to larger batches, I group my slides according to density and color casts. It usually makes about 6-8 groups, 4 in terms of density and 2-3 in terms of color casts. This way, if I have a tendency to reduce the red saturation in a heavily tungsten lit shot, I have them grouped. Same thing with blue casts in shadow, greenish in fluorescent and of course light, medium and dark shots.

This speeds things up considerably and allows me to engage in tone specific settings without constantly re-adjusting the sliders for each slide if they were all mixed up. And if needed, more fine tuning is easily done post scan.

But honestly, if you use Silverfast Ai and the IT8 calibration target for Kodachrome with a better scanner, you will have a lot less adjusting to do to begin with.

 

[Jon Harwood]

Kodachrome Doesn't Scan Well

Hi,

I use a Coolpix 5000 and get fine results with Kodachrome.

It may be that some scanners don't do well with it, that some autofocus devices are fooled by the "relief" on the emulsion side of the film or that some scanners have trouble with the Kodachrome color profile.

I have never had a problem with Kodachrome and the coolpix or with my previous Polaroid film scanner.

It has been said that negatives don't scan well either, but I actually prefer to use negatives for scanning. With the coolpix Portra films scan wonderfully.

jh

 

[Pupfish]

The Kodachrome process has had several different iterations throughout the years; K14, the current version, reputedly doesn't retain as much silver in the processed emulsion. But it is this retained silver in older Kodachromes (anecdotally) that causes problems with some scanners that employ an IR channel and Digital ICE to automatically scan defects and dust-- and then automatically clone them out. In scanning for enlargement-quality files, ICE is a significant time saving tool; cloning manually can take ten to thirty minutes per image in 35mm.

Personally, with a body of work containing many older Kodachromes (thankfully post 1976, all K14) that had been in circulation a couple of decades (some being rather beaten up) ICE was a very big deal. I've forgotten which scanners at the time had a bad reputation with Kodachrome, but I ended up buying the excellent Minolta DiMage Scan Elite 5400 v.1. The latest version of Minolta Scan Utility with it's proprietary version of Digital ICE has proven very stable and works as intended with all my Kodachromes, both K25 and K64.

Another thing with K64 is that it can hold a very long dynamic range when intentionally underexposed (Galen Rowell's "Kodachrome 400"). I've actually had better success at digging deep into the shadows with certain difficult slides using this 16-bit MDSE 5400 with 16X multi-sampling, than with Tango drum scans I've outsourced.

 

[BetterSense]

I recently shot a roll of Kodachrome on vacation, and when I scanned it with my Epson V500, the results were rather less sharp than I was expecting. The image is just unsharp, as if it was OOF but it couldn't be, because some shots were taken at small apertures.

My problem isn't color (I can adjust that), but sharpness. Perhaps my camera recently broke somehow. I have had no trouble scanning other transparency films; has anyone noticed a lack of sharpness when scanning Kodachrome on a flatbed?

 

[cooltouch]

I have a lowly 5yo Epson 3170, and have scanned several hundred Kodachrome slides (all K14) with it. This scanner doesn't support ICE and I just use the Epson software that came bundled with it. Color rendition has been accurate, sometimes requiring a bit of color manipulation, but usually not much. However, the scans are not as sharp as I'd like. But that's the scanner's shortcomings, since this is a "feature" demonstrated with all emulsions, not just Kodachrome.

Best,

Michael

 

[mhanc]

I recently shot a roll of Kodachrome on vacation, and when I scanned it with my Epson V500, the results were rather less sharp than I was expecting. The image is just unsharp, as if it was OOF but it couldn't be, because some shots were taken at small apertures.

My problem isn't color (I can adjust that), but sharpness. Perhaps my camera recently broke somehow. I have had no trouble scanning other transparency films; has anyone noticed a lack of sharpness when scanning Kodachrome on a flatbed?

I have had OOF problems with my v500 when scanning mounted slides. Film in strips is fine so I don't have my slides mounted - can always do it later if I need.