plasma181

<p>Portra 400 takes pictures every bit as good as your Kodachrome 64. The only difference is that nobody ever wrote a song about Portra. </p>

<p>A guy at work had an old Maxxum 7000, the first commercially available auto-focus SLR. It wasn't working, so he gave it to me. I saw one of the batteries was deformed, so I changed them and it worked fine. It came with a 50mm and a 70-210mm zoom. I bought a 4000 AF flash on eBay, ( what you people call "The Auction Site" ), and I was good to go. <br>

Though it's old and used, it works great. The Japanese really knew how to build in those days. I think I'll buy a zoom; maybe the 35-70 or 35-135. </p>

<p>Are these Kodachrome slides, or duplicates of Kodachrome slides?<br>

What are they duplicated on? </p>

<p>That might be the best way to go. The program decides when it wants to allow transfer between the modes and when it doesn't. <br>

Have you come across any good plugins that correct skin color? That seems to be the toughest correction for me. If a flower is off color, it might be an improvement, but that doesn't work with human skin. </p>

<p>Keith :<br>

I'm working my trial version of Paintshop Pro to see how it functions. It's a little tricky moving from the ADJUST mode to the EDIT mode. Sometimes the picture you are working on transfers from one mode to the other, and sometimes it closes. Paintshop doesn't seem to have a panorama mode, but I guess I can keep my old Elements 7 for that. </p>

<p>Glen : I have actually uploaded the trial version of Paintshop Pro X6. It competes directly with Elements. The problem with elements is that there are stupid little things it can't do that would have been easy to put in. It can't batch convert 16 bit tif's to 8 bit tif's or jpg's. It can't do simple corrections on 16 bit. The biggest advantage to Paintshop is that the people who write it aren't trying to drive you away from it so you will buy some $1,000 program. The people who write Paintshop actually want you to buy it. ( What a concept! ) </p>

<p>It seems like there was a very lively discussion about the Adobe Application Manager on the Adobe forums last year. </p>

<p><a href="http://forums.adobe.com/thread/1070249">http://forums.adobe.com/thread/1070249</a> </p>

<p>Now I will have to check my computer at home to see if I have this on there. </p>

 

<p>Though the review is now several months old, there is a review of Photoshop Elements 11 over at Amazon where the reviewer claims there is some fairly aggressive "spyware" built into the program. I use PSE 7 and was thinking of upgrading to 11 or 12. Has anyone heard of these intrusive programs? Are they something I / we should be concerned with ?</p>

<p><a href="http://www.amazon.com/review/R3UWKJLJ5UCASC/ref=cm_cr_pr_viewpnt#R3UWKJLJ5UCASC">http://www.amazon.com/review/R3UWKJLJ5UCASC/ref=cm_cr_pr_viewpnt#R3UWKJLJ5UCASC</a> </p>

<p>If the reviewer is correct, I may have to try ( gasp! ) Paintshop Pro. </p>

<p>For several years, I used a Nikon Coolscan LS-2000, which worked very well. Then about a month ago, my hard drive cashed and I had to buy a whole new computer. I didn't want Windows 8, so I bought an old stock Windows 7 computer from Walmart. This computer could not take my SCSI card from my old computer, so I couldn't use my LS-2000.<br>

I sold my LS-2000 on eBay ( what you people call "the auction site" ), and bought a Coolscan IV, also known as the LS-40. This uses a regular USB connection. The seller sold it cheap because he thought it was defective. The scans were "grainy". I guess he didn't know that film has grain, and that Vuescan can reduce it somewhat. </p>

<p>I just bought a Nikon Coolscan IV on eBay ( what you people call " The Auction Site" ). The guy selling it made it sound like it was busted because the scans were coming out grainy. I was able to get it cheap. I think a little grain smoothing in Vuescan will take care of any grain. </p>

<p>I use Portra, mostly the new 400 ( no VC or NC ). It scans very well. The store I usually but it from doesn't refrigerate it though. Still seems to work fine. </p>

<p>I can't say much about your specific problem, but I use Vuescan with my Coolscan, and I have very few problems. I tested the results of Vuescan agains the Nikon software that came with the scanner, and Vuescan was able to retrieve more detail of the negative. </p>

<p>Much of my portfolio is film images scanned with a Nikon Coolscan LS-2000. I bought it used off eBay. The Nikons are very good with color negative film. </p>

<p>I bought some Kodak High Definition 400 on eBay seveal months ago. ( Did I break some protocal by typing "eBay" rather than "the auction site"? ) It was expired by about 2 years. It worked fine. I have my own scanner and can correct most color deviations, but these prints looked good right out of the lab. </p>

<p>Film will be dying for 1,000 years. </p>

<p>Include a grey card in some of your shots. If you shoot in sunlight, clouds and shadow; you will need 3 shots with cards. This will help you adjust your scanning. </p>

<p>My niece had her junior prom 2 weeks ago. She wanted me to take pictures of her in her prom dress ........... and she wanted me to shoot film. They came out very well. </p>

<p>I have used Ultramax 400. It's not bad and it scans well.<br>

I used to really like the Kodak High Definition 400, but they don't seem to make it anymore. </p>

<p>I am coming into the discussion late, but I have a similar story. A guy I work with had a Maxxum 7000 that wasn't working. He told me I could take it. If I could fix it, I could keep it. It turns out there was a bad battery in there. I changed them all, and it worked like a charm after that. </p>

<p>I use a lab in Worcester, MA. They do a very good job. It's Wheaton's Camera on Park Ave.</p>

<p>I have had very good luck with HD 400. I have a lab develop it, then scan it with my Nikon Coolscan LS-2000 film scanner. I can make the brightness and contrast anything I want. I have found that VueScan can bring out more detail than the NikonScan software that comes with the scanner. I can regularly get better results from the negatives than the lab. </p>

<p>Negatives don't "lay" flat, they "lie" flat. One trick that might work is to put the negs between plastic wrap, put them on an ironing board, cover them with a paper towel, and place a warm ( not hot ) iron on top of them for an hour or so. Obviously, test this technique with negatives of low importance first. </p>

<p>I take my film to a pro lab in Worcester, MA. No nonsense there. </p>

<p>I have a Nikon Coolscan LS-2000 dedicated film scanner I bought off eBay. ( Did I violate a sacred principal by not calling it "the auction site"? ) Most of my portfolio was scanned with it. I use VueScan software which I think is better than NikonScan. </p>

<p>I shot 2 rolls of Portra through my FM3a at my nephew's high school graduation. That was about 2 weeks ago.</p>

<p>Film will be dying for a thousand years.</p><div></div>