Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2006/05/28

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Subject: [Leica] RE: scanning old Kodachromes and inkjet resolutions
From: hoppyman at bigpond.net.au (G Hopkinson)
Date: Sun May 28 17:06:34 2006

Thanks Don and Tina for comments on longevity & scanning issues with the
Kodachrome.

I think that makes an executive summary of:
The original slide is likely very close to it initial colour, so the
Restoration of Colour component of the ICE3 software is actually
oversaturating the image.
Dust & scratch removal MAY not work with K64

Out of general interest, no K64 sold in Australia for some time now, I
regard that as one of those historical significant photographic milestones
that make me sad. There are many more

Almost impossible to purchase the Nikon scanners anywhere here now either. I
bought my Coolscan V after speaking to six dealers and the Nikon distributor
to try to buy the 5000. Same story of months of backorders everywhere.
 



Steve,
I found a German slide show on color loss and color restoration.
Specifically for Kodachorme at Arizona temperature you would lose about half
the life of the slide assuming humidity at 80%.  Color loss was pretty
linear with a small cyan crossover so reds would increase somewhat.  In a
practical sense you would lose saturation.  A key point though is humidity
is a necessary catalyst up to a point.

In summary, if your slides were taken on old Koadachrome stock they should
look unchanged for about 35-40 years in un-air conditioned space assuming
old Arizona climate before everybody watered the lawn and put in swimming
pools.

Don
don.dory@gmail.com



>Anyway I was surprised to see that the ICE3 Nikon Scan software would work
>at all on Kodachrome.
>
>Perhaps only the dust reduction doesn't work on K & B&W emulsions.
>
>Hoppy,

Hoppy -  I'm using the Nikon LS5000 to scan Kodachromes, some very 
old and some not so old.  The ICE will work with some Kodachromes but 
not with others.  If you look at the emulsion side of the slide and 
can see raised areas, like bas-relief, ICE will probably not 
work.  It sees the silver content of the Kodachrome as dirt and tries 
to remove it.  The same with B&W negatives.  I usually do not use ICE 
for Kodachromes and B&W negatives because I'm usually batch scanning 
and don't want to find out later that it didn't work.  For those 
slides and negatives, I use Polaroid's Dust and Scratch Remover which 
works as a Filter under PSCS2.  It does a remarkably good job and you 
can fade it if it gets too aggressive.

Hope this helps,

Tina

Tina Manley, ASMP
www.tinamanley.com
http://www.pbase.com/tinamanley/dimes_for_hunger 





Regarding the lens resolution, digital image resolution v inkjet resolution,
they are not at all comparable.

Lens resolution expressed as line pairs per millimetre is quite different
from the 300 Pixels per inch (for example) that you might save your digital
file as to print from (whether sourced from a DSLR or scanned from film).

Then the quoted figures for output from an inkjet might sound much higher.
My Epson, for example can lay down ink dots at up to 5760 Dots per inch in
one direction and 1440 in the other. But those dots are up to eight ink
colours, OVERLAID many times, different sizes and densities. All of those
dots represent the colours and simulate the continuous tone appearance.

The links that Tina provided are excellent reading and you may also like to
visit Erwin Puts for a wealth of Leica info plus the lens resolution
subject.
http://www.imx.nl/


Cheers
Hoppy 
Google is your friend

Message: 23
Date: Sun, 28 May 2006 15:58:42 -0400
From: Tina Manley <images@InfoAve.Net>
Subject: Re: [Leica] Clarification of "Lens Quality . . . "
To: Leica Users Group <lug@leica-users.org>
Message-ID: <7.0.1.0.2.20060528151650.022b1058@infoave.net>
Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset=us-ascii

At 01:52 AM 5/28/2006, you wrote:
>1. The reason I might use a loupe is that I have a print and I want 
>to read some detail in that print. So the question becomes how much 
>detail is available before it turns into grain or dots. Surely it 
>matters about the enlarger, etc, vs. merely printing a digital file, 
>and surely it matters how many dpi are put out by the inkjet printer 
>(and the resolution of that system... If you paper resolves 25lp/mm, 
>that is 600+ lp/inch, I am not sure what 1400dpi means in terms of
resolution).


This article explains resolution and sharpness and what we can and can't
see:
http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/sharpness.shtml

Here is an interesting article comparing 35mm digital to medium format film:
http://www.luminous-landscape.com/reviews/shootout.shtml
And it was written in 2003.  Enormous strides have been made in 
digital since then.

A more recent comparison between 4x5 film and digital backs:
http://www.luminous-landscape.com/essays/back-testing.shtml

Tina

Tina Manley, ASMP
www.tinamanley.com
http://www.pbase.com/tinamanley/dimes_for_hunger 






Replies: Reply from don.dory at gmail.com (Don Dory) ([Leica] RE: scanning old Kodachromes and inkjet resolutions)