Greetings, Duncan, you could very well die from old age or boredom doing these on a scanner, but I suspect that insanity would set in long before that.
I digitize tons of 35mm slides and other trannies using a Fuji S2 and Nikon micro lenses all the time. Results are great and the time saving is tremendous. For 35mm we use the S2 on a Beseler Dual-Mode Slide Duplicator with Schneider enlarging lenses, but a good light box and copy stand will also work very well for 35mm and is pretty much required for other sizes. Here are my suggestions to speed up the process: 1. Set a custom white balance for the light box and make sure that the illumination of the box is even. 2. Depending on the original sizes, find yourself some appropriately sized negative carriers from an enlarger to hold the original transparencies/negatives if possible. 3. For the odd sized ones, cut out two right angles (about 3 or 4 inches wide and 12 to 16 inches long on each side) out of black matte board. These two pieces of matte board will help you quickly frame out the larger originals as you go. 4. Using black to frame out the originals will give you the best results by eliminating glare. Not doing this will cause more reshoots than anything else I've found. 5. Turn off any overhead lights that could cause any color shifting. 6. Use PhotoShop's batch processing features for as many functions as possible in the post-production. For example, if you are using the same sharpening settings for each image then do that in batches. If you are working alone you can batch process images while you shoot some more. 7. If the originals you are shooting have catalog numbers or specific names make certain that you keep decent notes for naming later. Getting similar originals mixed up can be a pain that wastes time later. 8. I have found that setting the camera to aperture priority with the matrix or evaluative metering pattern gives excellent overall results and is easy to use. But, not every original fits into this so things like high contrast images benefit from spot metering. 9. Lenses on manual focus. It's just easier. 10. Coffee. Lots of coffee. Hope this helps some. Regards, Ben Senior Medical Photographer Sinai Hospital of Baltimore Baltimore, MD USA ----- Original Message ----- > I'm faced with the possibility of digitising a large (several > thousand) > images of a historic collection:size varies from 2"sq.to a max. of > circa 10"x8". > Now, I've tried a few on a flatbed with fully acceptable results- > but > there is a danger of dying from either boredom or old age. > I was wondering if the option of using a D10 + macro would give any > problems that I hadn't considered: at these sizes it should give > s/s > repro and it would be much faster, not to mention flexible for the > varying random sizes > > Is it too good to be true? > > Any ideas most welcome. =============================================================== GO TO http://www.prodig.org for ~ GUIDELINES ~ un/SUBSCRIBING ~ ITEMS for SALE
