mounted vs unmounted slides

I've never shot slide film before so I wanted to try it. I got 2

rolls of Sensia 100 with my last order at Adorama (just ordered today,

so it won't be here for a few days). I was wondering if there's any

advantage to having them mounted vs unmounted. They're destined for

the film scanner, so is there any real reason to get them mounted?

I'd assume that it'll cost me a few extra dollars.

Mounted/unmounted would depend on what your plans are for the slides after the scan.

 

Mounted slides are easier to submit and also makes archiving easier. At least for me.

<p>Mounted slides are easier to edit (i.e. discard) because each frame has its own mount.

 

<p>On the other hand, labs sometimes cut the frames too close to the edge thus "cropping" your slide more than you might want. If you have a roll of slides shot at night, it may be better to mount the slides yourself.

I have scanned lots of film and mounted slides and the mounted slides are much easier to deal with and less likely to get damaged. The film holders crop as much as a slide mount does, if not more. I have not yet had cause to remove a slide from its mount to scan but I have trimmed the holes from negatives in order to scan the edges of the images. For saturated colours try some Kodak E100VS or Velvia 100. Good luck and have fun!

I used to have my slides mounted out of force of habit, until I realized I never project them and am not likely to. Unmounted slides in negative sleeves are less bulky, you can get an entire roll on a single sheet to view on a light table, and they are easier to scan if your scanner has a strip film adapter like my Nikon Coolscan.

Depending on your scanner you may have DOF issues with mounted slides because the mount will cause the film to curl a little. My Minolta 5400 gives me much better results with unmounted film. Also, if you get the right storage pages, you can put a whole roll of 36 in one sheet. The pages are thinner too so you don't need as many binders.

For god sakes have the film UN-mounted if you intend to scan. Mounted slide film is the single biggest reason slide scans are soft and out of focus.

 

Also, how the hell is a pile of 35-6 poker chips easier to handle and view than a single sleeved page of film????? I can hold a sleeved page of film up to a window and judge every exposure and shot. Mounted slides require a trip to a light table, or some other dorky appliance.

 

I suppose you cut and mount your B/W film as well. Chopping a roll of film into little chunks and running it through a mecahnical slide mounter/lettuce cutter is the first and best way to damage film.

Relax Scott, take a deep breath....I was merely suggesting that sliding naked film in and out of plastic sleeves is not exactly healthy either. Then, as soon as the film is removed from a sleeve it insists on rolling up in your hand and the chance of it popping out of the film holder before you get it closed is also very high. At least with a mount you have something easy to handle. So far I have not run into focus problems with a mounted slide.

 

 

The other advantage to mounts is the ability to store the slides in any order you like. You even have the ability to easily edit and throw out the ones you don't want.

 

 

It is different with negatives because you must always maintain a link between the negative and the contact sheet or proofs. Even if you dispose of a proof you are stuck with the neg for life because it is attached to another neg that you want to keep. Cut negs are difficult to retrieve from storage sheets. Yes, as a matter of fact I have often thought it would be easier to mount negs as well but that just creates more organizational problems with respect to the proofs.

 

 

I also fill the frame but I have found that the mount interferes with an image much less than 1 time per 100 shots. As I mentioned, with those few I have to open the mount or trim the negative.

At the risk of adding more fuel to the fire, here's what I see so far:

 

Having them mounted would give them added protection. I intend on keeping them in archival pages, so having them mounted keeps them from touching anything. My scanner (Minolta Scan Dual III) has holders for a strip of 6 frames or 4 mounted frames so I don't see it as too big of a loss.

 

As for John's idea to throw away unwanted slides, I don't like that idea. I have LOTS of bad negatives (bad exposure, bad cropping, or just plain bad idea). Even if it was convenient for me to do so, I wouldn't get rid of them. I see them as a reminder of what not to do. In addition, once it's gone, it's gone. I might decide later that it actually had some value (I'm sure you've deleted files and wanted them back later).

 

As for cropping, how much do the mounts actually take off? I've found that the viewfinder on my Rebel 2K is actually a little less than what the film actually gets anyway.

Do you find that mounted slides make it more likely for scans to have dark corners (looks like vignetting)?

I've been having some problems with this using Provia and a FS4000US and am wondering if the problem could be solved by scanning in strips of reversal film in the negative holder. Any experience is appreciated.

I have not noticed dark corners on my Coolscan IV. I usually scan wide enough to produce black borders and crop later in Photoshop, because the Nikon Scan software's cropping feature is essentially broken.

 

As for mounted vs. unmounted, this might also depend on the software with which you scan. Nikon scan will do strips, but not all the custom settings work right if you do them as a batch, so I find it just as quick and easy to work from mounted slides. This also allows you to presort the slides by color, density, etc. and then do batches of mounted slides with the same gain settings without the need to preview each one.

The only thing I see against mounted slides is that you can't see the number of the slide which lies under the frame.

This answer is two years late, but if anyone still agonizes over whether to mount slides for scanning: Get them unmounted, scan them, then mount them yourself afterwards. Gepe makes plastic mounts that show the entire image without cropping, so you get a better mount if you DIY.

I have a lot more experience now, and the "dark corners" were actually just a problem with my monitor, not the scanner.