Re: [Leica] Best film scanner for use w/Leica optics?

["B. D. Colen" <bdcolen@earthlink.net>]

Speaking of scanning -

I'm now in the home stretch of my scanning and printing marathon - the
finish line of which is in Glasgow where I have to have 70 prints, most
17x about 12, hanging by the end of Saturday, Sept. 8. Started working
last Thursday a.m. took Sunday off, and it looks like - baring printer
or computer crashes - the last batch will make the 6:30 FedEx pickup at
the neighborhood CopyKop. Some of the prints aren't quite as perfect as
I'd like them to be - "perfect" being the term I am using for the best I
can produce - but TIME is the controling factor here.

This shoot was originally pitched to the client back in July...the idea
being to shoot 8 patients with diabetes in six countries,spending a day
with each, to show that/how, diabetics lead normal lives. Client went
for the idea, the photos to be used for an exhibition at the European
diabetes association meeting in Glasgow Sept 8., "book" of some sort,
and various other promotional purposes.

So far, so good, although time would be tight. Then, for reasons that
are best left undiscussed, three weeks were lost. And noon on the 13th
of August, the folks I work with at the PR agency in NY called and said,
'you're booked on the 7:15 from Logan (Boston) to East Middlands (UK)
because you have a shoot at 10:30 tomorrow morning in Nottingham, UK.
Which meant I had to pack, get last minute junk, get photo equipment
packed and ready, and leave the house by 3:30 to beat rush hour and get
to the airport early enough....

So into a big Domke went M .58 and two .72s, two Abrahamson winders, 21
ASPH, 28 Summicron, 35 1.4 ASPH, 50 1.5 cosina, 90 Summicron APO, Nikon
F100, Nikon 60 2.8, Nikon SB28 flash, and Leica SF20 flash, and Nikon
flash cord that works with both...plus Sekonic 508, batteries, and about
100 rolls of TriX and 20 of Delta 3200. Film, BTW, out of boxes and
plastic containers, and into Ziplock gallon bags...."Hand inspection,
please!" ;-)

No problem going through security at Logan. Get on plane - Business
class, thank God..Take a sleeping pill - literally the first in my life
- - eat dinner, drink a lot of water, and good night...wake up about 1.5
hours out of East Midland. Land, get a taxi, go to the hospital where I
am supposed to shoot a training class for old folks starting to use a
new insulin device. Screw up in signals, all I am shooting is a bunch of
old folks sitting around AFTER the session...Shoot, go to hotel in
Nottingham, shower, change, eat lunch - back to hospital to meet with a
family with a 3-year-old diabetic. Mother has said NO WAY will she let
me in the house as they have just moved. My folks back in states say -
Talk your way in!...I shot some at hospital, and talked my way in...that
shoot set for all day Sunday...Back to hotel, after a roundabout cab
ride looking for a power adapter for my laptop....Next morning take a
train to Leicaster, which the Brits - who can't speak English (pronounce
Lester - go figure) to shoot an elderly Asian woman in her home. Meet
the company rep, find out the Asian woman is Indian. Huh? Oh, she says,
Indians and Pakistanis are Asian. Well, I say, what do you call Chinese
and Japanese? Chinese and Japanese, she says. She then makes the
startlingly insightful comment that what people in a minority group are
called probably has to do with which minority is the majority within the
minority...Follow? In the US, "Asians" are CHinese and Japanese and
Vietnamese, etc., and folks from India, Pakistan, etc., are Indians,
Pakistanis,etc....

Anyway...Asian lady is at home, with husband and two grandchildren, and
Asian lady is wearing a dress sari...in which I have to shoot her mowing
the lawn and working with her "Garden Weasel." :-).....Sooooo....After
the outdoor shoots, I ask her if she and her granddaughter play any
games...Yup..so I shoot them as they play cards and
play...Operation.....

Next morning I go to Nottingham Castle, excited about seeing the haunts
of Robin Hood, the evil Sheriff, etc., only to discover the castle was
sacked in 168? and there are only bits and pieces - and a wonderfully
tacky gift shoppe left....ah well....
FedEx film shot thus far to Images, in Tucson, for processing...

Around 4 p.m. - this is now Thursday - I get a call from NY...Take a
train to Stanstead airport, outside London, you have a room at the
Hilton there...You're on the 7:10 a.m. plane to Billund, Denmark, for an
11 a.m. shoot of an elderly man....Train will take an hour, they tell
me...

Three hour train ride, get into the Hilton around 9:45 p.m....Up at 5 to
leave for the airport at 5:30.....Get to Billund where a nice young
Dane, hired by the client, meets me to provide transportation and
translation....so we drive to a port city on the West coast of Denmark
where the elderly man lives...What a GORGEOUS country....fantastic...I
want to go back....anyway, turns out there are two roads with the same
name in the town in question...2.5 hours later we find the right road,
and the right old man. Who is charming - I guess, I don't speak Danish -
and sits at home - nice home - alone. period. Horribly non-photogenic
circumstances. I shoot him drinking coffee...I shoot him fidling with
his insulin kit. I shoot him walking in his garden. We go to the senior
center where he exercies...I shoot him in the car on the way. I shoot
him walking in. I shoot him working out - in dress slacks and a
short-sleve dress shirt - just like Richard Nixon on the beach in his
suit, or Cal Coolidge dressed as a farmer in highly polished black
shoes....

Take a taxi back to the Billund airport...stay in The Propeller hotel,
up at 5:30, fly back through Frankfort to East Middlands...go directly
to home of a young mother with diabetes...spend the day with her and her
baby and young son...and her husband who comes home early
afternoon....Next day, up at 6 to be at home of family who hadn't wanted
me originally, by 7:30 when 3-year-old gets insulin shot...spend day
with them...living room ceiling starts leaking, husband has to repair
pipe he had accidentially put a nail through day before...friends come
over...we all go to Sunday dinner in a nearby pub....

FedEx film to Images...

Up early Monday to catch plane to Amsterdam to catch plane to Seattle to
catch plane to Portland, OR - 12 hour trip, to spend Tuesday shooting a
diabetic woman in Portland....follow her to the gym - which happens to
be the gym at Nike headquarters - then downtown to pick up a visiting
friend and friend's baby, then to mall for lunch and afternoon....

Malls -- there has been much discussion here of the impossibility of
shooting in malls....Wearing a Domke vest, and drapped with three
Leicas, I followed this woman around - shot her giving herself her
insulin shot in the food court...followed her into stores....The only
place I had any problem at all was in a GAP, where the manager told me I
couldn't photograph. Otherwise, nada, nothing, no problems.

Have lovely dinner at home of Noctilux Rabiner - go to bed...up at dawn
to take plane through Atlanta back to Boston....

Thurday, August 23, turn 55, start scanning negatives that have arrived
from Images...Friday scan and print. Saturday, scan and print. Sunday,
go to Cape and stay with friends. Monday, drive back early and resume
scanning. Tuesdya, scan and print and ship first 32 prints to NY by Fed
Ex. Wed., scan and print and ship 12 prints. Thursday, scan, print, ship
10 prints - yes, the law of diminishing print output is definitely at
work here...Today, scan, print, hopefully send last 16 prints to
NY....Starting tomorrow night, one of the folks at the PR agency will
take the first batch of matted, framed - clip frames, non-glare
plexiglass, 20 by 24 - boxed prints over to Scotland. Next Friday a.m. I
take shuttle to NY, end of day get final bunch of framed prints, and fly
out Friday night...We hang 70 prints on Saturday afternoon, and meeting
opens on Sunday......

So what else do you want to know....:-)



Tina Manley wrote:
> 
> At 11:23 AM 8/31/01 -0700, you wrote:
> >  I wouldn't get Nikon
> > > because of software issues -- some users have no trouble and
> > > others trash their computers (having had an early Coolpix camera I
> > > recall Nikon's ineptitude with software). Nor would I get a Polaroid
> > > for fear the company will go out of business (support? hello?).
> >
> >I think this is a bit hard on Nikon. On the Mac side I've been using their
> >scanning software, actually learning how to make it work, and find it seems
> >to work pretty well. I may try an alternate package one of these times to
> >see how it works.
> 
> I actually prefer the Nikon software to either Silverfast or Vuescan.  I've
> had no problems with crashes.  The LS-4000 does a great job with Leica
> negatives and transparencies.  I have the bulk loader to do 40 slides at a
> time and the roll feeder to do a whole uncut roll.  The ICE, grain
> resolving, and color restoring software features all work as advertised.
> 
> Tina
> 
> Tina Manley, ASMP
> http://www.tinamanley.com