Re: [APML]: Digitizing Slides. Help!

[aa6g@aa6g.org (Chuck Vaughn)]

I see Robert Reeves mentioned Photo CD so I'll skip that.

>Do any of those little $1000.00
>slide digitization hardware packages work for astrophotographs, i.e.,
>can brightness and contrast be adjusted?

I have a Polaroid SprintScan 35 and it does a very good job as long as the
density doesn't go past 3.0. That's probably not a problem for astro slides
but sometimes it is for Tech Pan negatives. A new version of the SprintScan 35
is supposed to handle densities of up to 3.4. There's also the Nikon Cool Scan.
It seems that the Polaroid and Nikon models have similar features and
specs. The prices, depending on model, range from around $1300 to $2100.
Almost everything can be adjusted before the scan. The scanner software
operates as a plug-in to Photoshop so you need that too which certainly raises
the price of the system.

Microtek has a slide scanner that is <$1000 but I don't think it's as good as
the others.

Everything on my web pages was scanned with the SprintScan 35.

Chuck Vaughn
<aa6g@aa6g.org>

http://www.aa6g.org/astro.html