Having trouble scanning Kodachrome, HELP!?

Question

I've shot a few rolls of Kodachrome 200 while filming bears in Minnesota. Looking at the slides, there is lots of detail and the colors are great. When scanning them on an HP 4890 at 1200 dpi the detail is lost and the black bears turn blue! My lab has also been having the same problem lately. Has anybody else had this problem? Can it be fixed? I normally use the slide trays, would putting them right on the glass change anything?

Answer 1

1200 dpi just isn't enough resolution to retain detail. A 35mm slide is about an inch tall by an inch and a half wide, so your image is about 1800 x 1200, which is only about 2 megapixels - not exactly high res...

35mm film has the equivalent digital resolution to about 19 megapixels.

As for the color, you should be able to adjust that with photoshop.

Answer 2

If you think you'll be doing much scanning, get a dedicated film scanner. I have a Nikon CoolScan V-ED and it is awesome. You won't believe how much better it is than your flatbed scanner. It sells for about $600, so be warned, but you won't be sorry once you own it.

I'm using 4000 pixels per inch, for instance. Obviously, there is no comparison withthis and 1200 ppi. You are getting only about a 2 MP scan at 1200 and I've read above that a slide contains the equivalent of about 20 MP in the grain content. Even at 4000 ppi, I'm not pretty much up to the standards of the original slide. (5782 x 4986)

Answer 3

might be a color correction problem.

Kodachrome 200 has more than 1200 lines of resolution so u will lose some detail, that's for sure!

Does your scanner have color correction or "auto color"

Try several settings.

If not try a program like Photoshop and see if you can correct.

Sounds like the scanning light has too much blue in it.

Most projectors are 3400 K if the scanner is doing 5500K then you are getting too much blue.

Most scanners use cold tube which are kelivin deficient in some instances.