Newbie to scanning wants to scan Kodachrome with Coolscan 5000 ED

I am about to embark on a project to scan 6,000-10,000 of my 35mm

Kodachrome slides. Most (85%) are Kodachrome 25, but there is some

Kodachrome 64.

 

After reading this forum for some time, I have decided to buy the

Nikon Coolscan 5000 ED (LS-5000).

 

Accurate color is critical and I have questions on color management

and the decisions it drives for scanner software. I have been a

digital SLR user for some time so the topic of color management is

not new to me, but I have not used a color profiled scanner before.

 

I have an IT-8 35mm Kodachrome Q60 target. I understand that Nikon

Scan can not use an IT-8 target to profile scanner and build an ICC

profile.

 

An ICC profile can be built using other programs (some free like

IPhotoMinus/ICC Profile Generator from www.coloraid.de (see

www.photographical.net/scanner_profiling1_2.html). What others

should I look at (free or not)?

 

Do the ICC profiles built with other programs work WELL with Nikon

Scan? Does it just make more sense to bite the bullet and spend $300

to buy Silverfast Ai that has profiling built in (I know Vuescan can

profile scanner as well but I have eliminated it as a canidate due

to no ICE4)? Am I correct in thinking that I can use ICE4 with

Silverfast? Quality is the only concern here.

 

Are there other specific advantages that Nikon Scan or Silverfast

have for Kodachrome? I am aware of some of the difficulties of

scanning Kodachrome well

(www.marginalsoftware.com/LS8000Notes/ls9000_scanning_kodachrome.htm

and others).

 

Any other specific advice for use of the Coolscan 5000 ED on

Kodachrome would a appreciated.

 

I plan to use ProPhoto RGB as my working space. I profile my monitor

with a GMB Eye One Display2.

 

Thanks.

Digital Ice4 "dust and scratch removal" (not ROC or GEM,) is applied with a lower power (and lower effectiveness) in NikonScan when Kodachrome film type is selected.

 

Older scanners, like the Nikon 4000 ED, used Digital Ice3. If Ice was applied to Kodachrome with that set up, details are obliterated and a halo effect is noticable around areas of adjacent high contrast.

 

Ice4 in combination with the Nikon 5000 ED is much more Kodachrome friendly... but it's not perfect.

 

I have noticed the following issue with Ice 4 using NikonScan and Kodachrome, scanning at 2000 DPI (these issues might disapear with higher resolution scans.)

 

With Kodachromes showing people at a distance from the camera, in bright sunlight, often squinting, the Ice can perceive the black slits of squinting eyes as film surface defects and try to remove them. The results are not pleasing. When I see this happen, I rescan that slide without Ice. That condition seems limited to sunlit images.

 

With the newest verion of Ice and NikonScan, you MUST set the film type to Kodachrome, when scanning Kodachrome. Otherwise the artifacts of Ice, like detail obliteration and halo effect will be as bad as they are for Ice3.

 

Ice is less effective at removing film surface defects when the film type is set to Kodachrome.

 

Hopefully none of your 10,000 Kodachromes have the dreaded fungus.

 

When you get your project started, I'm sure you'll be writing again for tips about the SF-210 feeder.

For profiling, you should be able to disable autoexposure and all corrections and output a raw scan using Nikonscan. Then assign the scanner profile you created using other software in Photoshop and voila, color managed files.

A second to what Roger says, if you use NikonScan. SilverFast AI6 and perhaps VueScan can use IT8 profiles directly.

Hi,

 

I discovered this thread by searching for "fungus & kodachrome".

 

I also have a lot of ageing KCs, and, unfortunately, due to past carelessness many of them are contaminated with fungus. But there is a way to deal with this, that may answer the other points.

 

If you use a Minolta Dimage Scan MultiPro, and use the Scanhancer (http://www.scanhancer.com/index.php?art=10&men=10), you can scan KCs with ICE3 enabled, with no loss of definition, and, incredibly, this combination is effective at "cleaning" even quite bad fungal marks.

 

I had actually forgotten that the Scanhancer enables one to use ICE on KCs, and yesterday, having scanned a slide, then painstakingly tried to clean it use Photoshop patch and spot healing, and ran it through again with the Scanhancer - and it came out spotless. My jaw hit the floor.

 

(Minolta DimageScan Multi Pro + Silverfast Ai Studio + Scanhancer 5LE)

 

David.