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Scanner tips & tricks?

MrSlezak

New member
Hi all –

It looks as if I am going to be the family scanner for images, and I’m looking for some good resources to read , tips and pointers. I have access to a Nikon Coolscan V ED, and it looks like over forty-years of B/W & color negatives, Ektrachrome and Kodachome to scan.

I think I’ve got a workflow laid out and I know a good portion of the work will come post scan in both color correcting images from the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s and for the b/w images from the 50’s and 60’s, adding contrast as well as trying to nail down relevant metadata for the images from my parents and in-laws.
I’ve got three major question areas:

How best to clean old source material
In some cases, the negs and chromes have been well taken care of, but at a glance there are number of mildewed images that I’ve got little idea how to clean. I’ve ready PEC-10 is good, but then I’ve read rubbing alcohol is ok. I’m not at all clear on my options – if any. My thinking for slides was to strip the cardboard mount, clean the image and remount in a glass-less plastic mount for the real ‘keepers’ I might find…. For negatives I was going to get some carriers from Light Impressions or something to store them in.

Just where does one buy a scanner today
I was thinking I would just bite the bullet and get a Nikon Coolscan 9000 but I can’t find one in stock anywhere. So looking at other scanner options it seems as if just about any model I can find a decent set of specs on it on back order, or else discontinued according to the manufacturer’s website. I’d love to think there is a wave of new scanners coming out, but I’m guessing my best bet is to stick with the Coolscan V I have access to – I can’t find much wrong with it, other than it seems to be a middle-of-the-road scanner.

Color correction – plug-ins, or manual?
Playing with some of demo plug-ins from Kodak’s Applied Science Fiction they seem to do a great job without much twiddling, yet other times they miss completely. Any suggestions on plug-in’s, or should I just rely on setting the white-balance?
I’m sure none of these are simple or even straight forward answers, but after spending time in a couple different search engines I’ve not found anything good advice wise to work with so am hoping someone here has some pointers/suggestions…

Thanks!

-- M.
 
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