claudio_coltro_coltro

Jana,

Have a look in my site www.claudiocoltro.com under the murales section. The wall was very interesting.

Regards

Claudio

Matt,

Your questioning it is not completely clear to me either. It might be that you share my disapointment when comparing what I see as the output of the scanner on a screen and the same slide projected or on the lightbox with a good loupe.

The visual impact of a slide cannot be matched by either prints or screens.

Regards

Claudio

www.claudiocoltro.com

Jim,

If you go to Costiera Amalfitana do not miss Paestum for its Greek Temples and the Museum. I tend to agree with some answers that parking may not be easy in places like Positano.

Considering that the distances are not long, I would stay in Sorrento all the time and drive up and down whenever you want. It is a good base for Capri, Pompeii Ercolanum, Vesubio, Napoli, etc.

Regards

Claudio

www.claudiocoltro.com

Jim,

In most of small towns that draw in turists, even if you stay in modest hotel without internet, you are likely to find little internet shops where you can access. In the larger cities I have not seen many internet shops but likely the hotel where you stay will provide wifi or PC access proper.

Regards

Claudio

Ellis,

I went to see and basically nothing available.

Any other url to check?

Thanks

Claudio

www.claudiocoltro.com

Dear All,

I got used to buy Fuji Velvia/Provia in 100 feet rolls.

I got some from Adorama in May, now only Kodak seems to be available.

If you still do, where do you buy your Fuji slide film in tins?

Thanks in advance

Claudio

Joel,

Did you ever try to profile your scanner?

I think this could fix your problem.

If you have Vuescan pro version and get the slide targets according to the film you use.

I have used the same scanner for 5 years now and I notice an improvement when I profile it, thing I do every year approx.

If you go to www.hamrick.com instructions, it will tell you how to do the job.

Regards

Claudio

www.claudiocoltro.com

Claudio

Matt,

I hope to be on time. Veneto is a very beautiful area in the north of Italy. I would point out the smaller towns like:

Bassano del Grappa

Castelfranco Veneto

Stra and other Brenta River Villas

Treviso

On the sea you could visit on top of Venice, Chioggia, Comacchio (two little Venices) and Portogruaro.

Not precisely in Veneto, but not far from Vicenza is Mantova and Sabbioneta, two unmissable gems.

If you go to Venice take the vaporetto to Burano, a place that will amaze you by its colours.

Regards

Claudio

www.claudiocoltro.com

As many people mentioned I would get the Vuescan PRO version.

This is very important as it will allow you to profile the scanner according to the type of color slide brand you use. You will notice important improvements when you profile.

I use Wolf Faust references for profiling.

Welcome to the tedious and long process of scanning, a good audio system nearby in my studio helps! Now is on Carmina Burana...

Regards

Claudio

www.claudiocoltro.com

Dear All,

I just built a web site and the more I look at it the more I get disappointed

about the picture quality respect to what I see in my slides when projected.

This is my workflow:

a) I scan the slides at 1000 dpi in jpg format (I could scan at 4000dpi raw)

b) Edit them very lightly with Picture Window Pro, I have to admit that I am

not an expert on this matter, just extend the range, a bit of saturation and a

bit of sharpening

c) Compress them down to 72dpi (800x600 or 600x400 pixels) with a weight of

80KB average.

I would like to hear what is wrong with the workflow and what to do in your

opinion to improve it to get better web picture quality.

Regards

Claudio

web site: www.claudiocoltro.com

Keith and Bill

Thanks for your comments.

I fixed the entrypage problem.

Regarding the random picture selection for the index page, it is a very good idea.

But how do you do it? I use NVU and did not see how such a thing could be done.

I will add the number of pictures in each gallery.

The writting will come later, but as I am not a native English speaker it will be slow.

Thanks again

Claudio

Dear All,

I just finished putting together a web site www.claudiocoltro.com

with some pictures from many years of traveling.

Comments and suggestions for its future rel 2.0 are welcome.

Thanks in advance

Claudio

Fayek,

I would encourage not to preclude the avenue of buying stuff from US stores. At least for me considering the premium of the Euro over the USD, it is well worth trying to do some numbers beforehand.

I live in Italy and recently bought film from Adorama.

The total expense is the published price for the goods + the cost of shipping (usually 44$) all this times 1,2 to consider the VAT and then there are extra 21Euros, fixed cost for handling fees with customs. I got everything in 4 days. So you can do your math...

If you buy enough items you can amortize all the fixed costs (shipping + handling fees) it is not that bad and the choice is very wide.

Regards

Claudio

Thanks for the answers,

I already do multiscan blending in Vuescan and I see the benefits, specially when scans with high exposure are mixed to recover detail from the darker areas..

I checked alignment and I do not see double images.

I did not get the advantage of using Photomatix over Vuescan for multiscan blending.

Regards

Claudio

Marco,

I think if you use Astia underexposed 1/3 of a stop you can get the saturation and contrast you miss on this otherwise excellent film for portraits.

Regards

Claudio

Dera All:

I have a Canoscan F4000US of which I am pretty happy.

The only concern I have is that it does multipass multiscanning, for speck

removal, for getting better S/N and to get more details in the dark areas of

the slide, and understand that the final scan result is strongly coupled to

having the whole machinery perfectly aligned.

How can I check if the multipass multiscanning process is working well aligned?

Has anybody had this problem serviced at Canon?

Thanks in advance

Claudio

My pesonal strategy is to buy what I absolutely need. If I can wait I wait, technology is going beyond me and competition between camera vendors put time on our side.

I only buy FF lenses by the way, for film/APC digital (whenever I will make the move) compatibility and for the inevitable day in which Nikon will go FF digital and I will suscribe inmediately.

Regards

Claudio

Just another perspective. I have got one and it is as tight and smooth as an original lens, no play whatsoever. Double check with owners of the teleconverter to understand if this situation is common or one off.

Regards

Claudio

From looking at MTF tests done by independent magazines in general Nikkors are way better than Tamrons/Sigmas/Tokinas equivalents.

There is nevertheless one lens, the Tamron 90/2,8 macro, that has a stellar performance better than any short tele or macro from Nikkor.

Looking at my own pictures, I have all Nikkor primes plus the Tamron 90/2,8, the Tamrom produces the crispiest images. It is relatively inexpensive, it cannot be missed independently of the camera body maker.

Regards

Claudio

Jonathan,

I used to have a similar zoom, and I am very happy to have it changed for an 85mm/1.4, same focal lenght as yours plus the 180mm/2.8 EDIF.

Same weight to carry around on your shoulder, much lighter on the camera, far much more flexibility, more handeability and less shake, the 85mm is great for portraits and for low light street photography. The 180mm is a telephoto gem 700gr against probably twice as much on the zoom and optically flawless.

Regards

Claudio

Consider also the Canonscan F4000US. It works very well and it is repairable by Canon (important considering what a sophisticated piece of opto-electro-mechanics is). I had mine needing service after 10000 slides and had no problems having it back hopefully for the next 10000.

Regards

Claudio

It is a great lens. It is a joy to use it for street photography with low light, it balances very well on the F90X.

Nevertheless in the last months there is an option for people looking at this type of lens, the Zeiss 85mm/1,4 which seems to be better than the Nikkor from the optical perspective, see photozone.com. Depending on your preferences there might be some limitations respect to the Nikkor, it is that is fully manual (focusing and metering).

Either one should give you plenty of satisfaction.

Regards

Claudio

As yourself, I am happy user of film photography with a gems' collection of prime lenses that I bought over more than 15 years. And with a slide scanner, I have a Canonscan FS400US, we all have available the bridge to digital edition and printing.

My real problem is that I do not enjoy looking at pictures in prints, and even less on a screen, I love seeing pictures through a slide projector (Pradovit/SuperColorplan) on a large surface. Nothing can match that viewing experience. Projection also helps in editing pictures, everything is so big, 2,x1,5m or more, that all defects stand out.

So I cannot escape from film due to the quality and the awsome experience of slide projection that could probably be matched by a very large investment in a digital projector, an expense that I am not ready to take.

I wish I could switch to digital though, I have no doubt that if one looks at the pixels, a D200 produces much better quality images than a scanned Velvia slide. And most importantly (for those who do not look at pixels) film purchase and development are getting more expensive. Nevertheless I am using some tricks to reduce the bill, by purchasing slide film in bulk you can get down the cost of a 36 exp roll down to 4 euros (Provia 100, Kodak 100VS) and development at 4,5 euros is sizeable but still manageable. I believe these prices will go up in the longer term.

So let's see for how long the maths hold up for film and how the cost of digital projectors dive in the future.

For the time being I see no reason to change.

Regards

Claudio

Lee,

As said above I would go for a scanner straight away.

I continue to use a Canonscan F4000US, which at full resolution (4000 ppi) produces sharp scans with very good DoF files OF 100MB.

I bought it at 700$ 5 years ago, I guess you can buy second had for peanuts these days. You may try it before making up your mind.

Regards

Claudio

Dear All:

I have been shooting for years slide film from 30m (100 feet) bulk roll film.

These days this type of packages are not available anymore in Italy, everything

is digital, even in pro stores.

I would like to try buying from other countries and having them sent over by

Fedex or UPS.

Questions:

Where should I try, URLs of shpos selling Velvia 100 or Kodak 100VS.

Is there any tax to pay when buying from foreign countries?

Any bad experience with X ray fogged film?

Thanks in advance.

Claudio