[twobjshelbys]

I'm earnestly into my image scanning project (see below). I'm locked on a slide film right now since the cataloging is easier. I put them in 2x2 slide sheets (with 36 exposure rolls back to back). I haven't decided how to deal yet with the thousands of envelopes of negatives and prints - still looking for a storage solution.

One thing I can say is that the Kodachorome slides just have so much "punch" that even on some 35+ year slides, they still look great, and (independent of age) the colors are so much more saturated than any Ektachrome.

Scanning Kodachrome is difficult. The normal dust and scratch removal doesn't always work (contrary to what they say, it does work to some degree most of the time).

The project:
I have been seriously taking pictures since I was in college. I earned a fair amount of spending money taking wedding photos and, like CPR, go into "wedding mode" when I shoot. It's automatic to do the sequence. Anyway, because I had pro equipment (starting with a Nikon F2 and a Hasselblad clone) I have an equal mix of 35mm and medium format (6cm x 6cm) medium, and within that, a rich mix of negative and positive film. I estimate I have in excess of 10,000 images that I've located and I know there are slides and prints in boxes I haven't pulled yet, including 4 Grand Canyon trips that are still in slide trays.

The choices for scanning these for archival purposes are: (1) Spend up to $5/image to have it done on a drum scanner, which also involves removing slides from mounts or (2) a Nikon Coolscan 9000. I bought the Coolscan last spring and recognizing the magnitude of the task put it aside to winter. I'm getting about a roll a day done. I even get up at night to feed the scanner. It can take up to 20 minutes per image. The 35mm slide holder holds 5 slides, the negative holder up to 12 - 2x6 image strips, but most photo finishing places cut them to 4 although all of my developed/cut are in 6s.

I'm absolutely amazed at the quality of the Coolscan scans. I'll post up a few later.