Kodachrome Slide Scanning

Having been scanning slides for over eight years I don't get very excited any more, but this last week has been out of the ordinary. Ever since we started Kodachromes have been an issue. The first big order we got was 800+ photos (did them on a flatbed, took two weeks) and the second was a large batch of Kodachrome slides for a client in Scotland.

Ever since the results with Kodachrome slides have been less impressive that we've got from any other material - even Ektachrome 35mm slides. The two main problems have been an excessive blue colour cast in the scans, and the inability to apply Digital ICE which removes dust and scratches. So we've been forced to ship overly blue and dusty scans.

Of the two issues the blue has worried me the most. I've tried various methods to beat the blues, using Photoshop and latterly Aperture to speed up the re-balancing of the images. So we whip through slide scanning and then hit the buffers on that colour cast. Although Kodak called all that product Kodachrome, in reality there were many different recipes for that slide material, 20+ as I recall. Finding a single preset to catch them all defeated me, you need to adjust each frame and that takes an age.

So, this weeks excitement is this. We can now scan Kodachrome slides - 35mm Kodachrome slides and m/f - without the blue cast. I ran through 200 last week, taken from several batches both my own slides and slides supplied by clients, and in every case the blue cast was removed. Importantly for us as a slide scanning service it was done by our new software, at production speeds.

I also tackled the issue of no Digital ICE with Kodachrome. Yes, breathtaking, we can now apply dust and scratch removal to Kodachrome. The results amazed me, I'd got into the mindset that this would never be possible, but yes we can now do it. I have to say a bit of a word of caution, this process still needs a bit of tweaking, but compared to where we were before there's no comparison.

Next week we have some more work to do, the process to automatically number slides as we scan them is flawed so that needs tweaking and setting up a batch takes much longer than is the case when we use Nikon's software. When we've beaten those issues we'll be able to offer clients a whole new dimension in Kodachrome slide scanning. Then you can be excited too.

Kodak. More Than Oops.

So, once proud Kodak has filed for protection from its creditors. For people of my age Kodak, like Coca Cola, Pepsi, Ford and so on, was one of the names we grew up with and as I've said many times it's a company that owns photography. So it should, it invented most of it.

I wish Kodak well, particularly those we've had contact with in their photo scanning division. Kodak is needed, not just by this business, but by everyone who has ever picked up a camera. Let's hope this tactic will give them the time they need to pull through.

Although I wish them well I have to say I think they're on the wrong track. Kodak IS images, not printers and certainly not flogging off their patents, which seems to be the plan of the current top man. Why, why, why are they flogging themselves to death advertising printers when surely the evidence of their own eyes must prove that nobody is bothered about printing.

Yesterday I was in a branch of PC World. Yes they had a cute display of Kodak printers, curiously at ankle level. Nobody taking any interest. People were congregating by the large displays of cameras, still and video, an area where once Kodak would have dominated. Nikon, Olympus, Leica are all great names from the past who have somehow pulled through to the other side. It would have been nice to see a Kodak credit on some of those cameras.

Best of luck Kodak, hope you make it, but you might have to forget those printers before it happens.