Identifying slide film type

Greetings -

I'm considering a project to scan my family's 40 years of slides. In
considering whether ICE or FARE features are important on the scanner I
purchase, I have to figure out if any of the slides are Kodachrome film. The
photographer doesn't remember if the early ones were Kodachrome or not, and may
vary roll to roll. I've pulled a couple from the slide mounts and cannot find
any info outside the frame. Is there any way to tell without pulling the
slides from the mount?

I've got one crazy idea, but I would need someone with a known Kodachrome and
non-Kodachrome slide, a video camera, and a TV remote.

Any help or ideas greatly appreciated
ziphius

Here's a very simple way. View both sides of the slide by reflected light
(to see how smooth the surface is). Kodachrome slides have a slight
"etched" effect (the surface is not smooth, but has ripples in it that match
the outlines of objects in the picture). Ektachrome and its relatives are
smooth.


"Ziphius" wrote in message
...
Greetings -

I'm considering a project to scan my family's 40 years of slides. In
considering whether ICE or FARE features are important on the scanner I
purchase, I have to figure out if any of the slides are Kodachrome film.
The
photographer doesn't remember if the early ones were Kodachrome or not,
and may
vary roll to roll. I've pulled a couple from the slide mounts and cannot
find
any info outside the frame. Is there any way to tell without pulling the
slides from the mount?

I've got one crazy idea, but I would need someone with a known Kodachrome
and
non-Kodachrome slide, a video camera, and a TV remote.

Any help or ideas greatly appreciated
ziphius

First of all, don't let a predominance of Kodachrome slides dissuade
you from a scanner with Digital Ice. ASF (now part of Kodak) never said
don't do it. They just caution that there may be a slight loss of detail in
images with a lot of cyan dye. I've scanned many Kodachrome slides with a
Minolta Dimage Scan Elite with Digital Ice. I've tried it with and without
Digital Ice. I haven't noticed a loss of detail. I have noticed a huge
improvement in the elimination of dust and scratches.
It is still worth identifying Kodachrome and Ektachrome slides since
you may want to set up a separate profile for each one. As Michael Covington
pointed out, Kodachorme slides have a prominent relief image (he referred to
"ripples in it that match the outlines of objects".)
Many of the older slides in my collection are labeled as Kodachrome or
Ektachrome on the mount, but I've found enough misidentified slides that I
still check for the relief image.

--
Ron Andrews
http://members.hostedscripts.com/antispam.html
"Ziphius" wrote in message
...
Greetings -

I'm considering a project to scan my family's 40 years of slides. In
considering whether ICE or FARE features are important on the scanner I
purchase, I have to figure out if any of the slides are Kodachrome film.
The
photographer doesn't remember if the early ones were Kodachrome or not,
and may
vary roll to roll. I've pulled a couple from the slide mounts and cannot
find
any info outside the frame. Is there any way to tell without pulling the
slides from the mount?

I've got one crazy idea, but I would need someone with a known Kodachrome
and
non-Kodachrome slide, a video camera, and a TV remote.

Any help or ideas greatly appreciated
ziphius

Thank you both for the great information ! The slides I've checked are
definitely Kodachrome.
Hard to imagine getting good information without getting flamed, or starting a
3 week long argument though.
I think I'll go ahead with trying ICE, since a fair amount of the slides I've
looked at had scratched, fingerprints, etc. on them. The ROC looks especially
useful since some of them show significant fading. The clock is ticking !

Thanks again !
ziphius

I'm interested in your comment about faded Kodachrome slides. Most the
Kodachrome slides in my collection (which includes my grandfathers work
dating back to the 40's) show no fading. There are two rolls that are quite
degraded. One has a heavy yellow stain, the other has a magenta dye loss.
I'm guessing there were processing problems with these two rolls. They were
stored in the same box with many other slides.
What do your faded slides look like?

--
Ron Andrews
http://members.hostedscripts.com/antispam.html
"Ziphius" wrote in message
...
Thank you both for the great information ! The slides I've checked are
definitely Kodachrome.
Hard to imagine getting good information without getting flamed, or
starting a
3 week long argument though.
I think I'll go ahead with trying ICE, since a fair amount of the slides
I've
looked at had scratched, fingerprints, etc. on them. The ROC looks
especially
useful since some of them show significant fading. The clock is ticking !

Thanks again !
ziphius

I'm going from memory, since I don't have the slides with me and it was about
18 months ago that I viewed them.
It seemed to be individual shots that showed lack of much of any of the
original color. Almost like being very overexposed. The ones I'm remembering
are from late 60s. They may have been somewhat overexposed to begin with, but
some of them I know had more color when they were last viewed probably 15 years
ago.
The slides have been kept in boxed carousels in a bedroom closet, 65-85
degrees.

I have a couple of good samples here, and just looking at them with a lamp they
show fairly rich color. There are very distinct greens, blues, and pinks in
one for example. I'm probably not a good judge of some of the more subtle or
individual color shifts unless they are pretty dramatic.

As an aside, it does look like the Kodachrome issue is not as critical as I
first read. There are some slides that may have trouble with the ICE
processing. Overall it sounds like the problems have been overstated and don't
warrant a blanket statement like "ICE will not work with Kodachrome."

For those who care, I'm leaning towards biting the bullet and getting the
Minolta Dimage 5400. I only want to do this project once in my lifetime, and
who knows what may happen to the slides before someone else takes a shot at
them. Might as well get all I can out of the images now.

ziphius


I'm interested in your comment about faded Kodachrome slides. Most the
Kodachrome slides in my collection (which includes my grandfathers work
dating back to the 40's) show no fading. There are two rolls that are quite
degraded. One has a heavy yellow stain, the other has a magenta dye loss.
I'm guessing there were processing problems with these two rolls. They were
stored in the same box with many other slides.
What do your faded slides look like?

"Ziphius" wrote in message
...

For those who care, I'm leaning towards biting the bullet and getting the
Minolta Dimage 5400. I only want to do this project once in my lifetime,
and
who knows what may happen to the slides before someone else takes a shot
at
them. Might as well get all I can out of the images now.

You will enjoy having a good scanner. It will also be your darkroom! Take
some time to get to know Photoshop and your inkjet printer. Then you'll be
able to make custom prints of any slide or negative, black-and-white or
color.

I have a roll of Kodachrome 200 from about 1988 that is really faded quickly.
(Always stored in the dark). The colors are now all bleached out. This is the
only roll of Kodachrome that I have ever seen this with. My guess is that it
wasn't processed correctly.

Ross -


Ziphius wrote:

I'm going from memory, since I don't have the slides with me and it was about
18 months ago that I viewed them.
It seemed to be individual shots that showed lack of much of any of the
original color. Almost like being very overexposed. The ones I'm remembering
are from late 60s. They may have been somewhat overexposed to begin with, but
some of them I know had more color when they were last viewed probably 15 years
ago.
The slides have been kept in boxed carousels in a bedroom closet, 65-85
degrees.

I have a couple of good samples here, and just looking at them with a lamp they
show fairly rich color. There are very distinct greens, blues, and pinks in
one for example. I'm probably not a good judge of some of the more subtle or
individual color shifts unless they are pretty dramatic.

As an aside, it does look like the Kodachrome issue is not as critical as I
first read. There are some slides that may have trouble with the ICE
processing. Overall it sounds like the problems have been overstated and don't
warrant a blanket statement like "ICE will not work with Kodachrome."

For those who care, I'm leaning towards biting the bullet and getting the
Minolta Dimage 5400. I only want to do this project once in my lifetime, and
who knows what may happen to the slides before someone else takes a shot at
them. Might as well get all I can out of the images now.

ziphius

I'm interested in your comment about faded Kodachrome slides. Most the
Kodachrome slides in my collection (which includes my grandfathers work
dating back to the 40's) show no fading. There are two rolls that are quite
degraded. One has a heavy yellow stain, the other has a magenta dye loss.
I'm guessing there were processing problems with these two rolls. They were
stored in the same box with many other slides.
What do your faded slides look like?