OVER 2 YOU 180 (11/05/04)

NEGATIVE SCANNER

I have a large number of old black and white negatives, mostly 2 ½ x 2 ½ or 3 ½ x 2 ¼, which, although they are mostly over 50 years old, are in good condition and clearly defined.  They were taken before 35mm took over the world and I am trying to find a photo scanner, which will convert them on to my PC. So far all enquiries have led to 35mm only negative scanners, can anyone suggest a solution?

Tom Livingston

I needed a scanner to copy some black and white glass plate negatives and I found that Epson do a couple of scanners in their "Perfection" range that have negative (and slide) scanning facilities built in. The top of the range "Epson Perfection 4870 Photo" comes with several negative carriers and can be bought for under £300, which might sound a lot but my 450 negatives would have cost around £2000 to be printed at a lab. The 4870 will also perform the usual print and document scanning and comes with Adobe Photoshop Elements 2.0 SE, Siverfast scan processing as well as Epson software. My glass plate negatives did not actually fit any of the carriers directly, so I cut a simple mask to hold them in one of the supplied carriers.

Rob Kerss, Wallsend

I very successfully scanned black and white negatives from 1930s using a basic flatbed scanner with no special photo attachment into PaintShop Pro. If he wants to make prints,
chose Enhance Photo > Negative Image and hey presto.

Carolyn Freeman, via email

I had this problem last year. My solution was to set the negatives individually on a light box, with the surrounding area masked off, dim the room lighting to ensure good contrast, and re-photograph with a digital camera, using a close-up lens if necessary. I found a 2-megapixel model to be adequate. Of course I then needed to invert the image in a photo-editing program; I used Ulead Photoimpact, though most similar programs have an identical facility.

Unfortunately this doesn't work with colour negatives, the colour caste in the original is too far from natural, and I haven't been able to get a realistic colour balance (yet).

Peter Gee, via email

One possible solution is the Konica Minolta Dimage Scan Multi Pro, which will scan 35mm and up to 6cm x 9cm, negatives and transparencies in black and white or colour.

Philip Chopping, via email

When Mr. Livingston has finished scanning, he should make sure he keeps the originals.  Scanning, and even analogue (photographic) reproduction techniques are improving all the time.  In a decade's time, he will probably be able to buy vastly superior scanning technology to todays for a similar price.  Many film and photographic archives made the mistake of destroying the originals after producing preservation dupes in the 1960s and 70s, with the result that they are now left with vastly inferior copies to those which could now be produced if the original were still preserved.  In addition, the evidence we have today suggests that, whatever its imperfections, film is likely to outlast any digital storage medium yet devised.  Film likes cool and dry storage conditions: not easy to provide in a domestic home.  An unheated cupboard is probably best.
Dr. Leo Enticknap, York

My Genius Colour Page HR7X Slim Scanner does both, 2 1/4 x 2 1/4,and 2 1/4 x 3 1/4 negatives plus 35mm prints and transparencies. Go to www.geniusnet.co.uk for more details and the address of your nearest dealer.

John Pike, via email

There are a few scanners available for roll film (up to 6x9 cm) and sheet film (5x4”) from suppliers such as Jessops (www.jessops.com). The only problem is that these formats are now only used only by professionals and serious amateurs, and come at correspondingly professional prices...

The alternative is to find a lab that has such equipment. My local shop has a 6 x 9 cm scanner and charges £1.5 per scan (which includes supplying the results on CD). If there are a large number of negatives, I would print them onto 10 x 8” paper the old-fashioned way, then digitise them with a flatbed scanner. 

Tony Etheridge

CALENDAR GIRL

I would like to create a calendar of my wife's watercolour paintings. We have PaintShop Pro 7, and I bought the Calendar Constructor program but I cannot find out how I can get the two, to work together. I really would like to print the calendar in A3 format, which of course I cannot do at home, but I would like to try and build as much of it as I can on a CD before trying to find a printer to finish it of for me. Has anyone managed to do this or can pass on any helpful tips, advice or recommendations?

Irvine Young, via email  

Mr Irvine Young has a resource problem. We in India are always faced with lack of resources, mainly due to their high cost compared to our earnings. Hence, I would follow a slightly laborious but low-cost workaround to do this task.I would print all twelve pictures on A4 pages in landscape format. Similarly, the monthly calendars would also be in landscape on A4 sheets. Both these should be scaled to be slightly smaller than A4 to provide due margins. Now comes the labour, I would paste these on A3 sheets and make colour photocopies. Or, if the work is neat enough and if only one copy is needed, the sheets with these printouts stuck on them actually become the calendar. In this case, coloured sheets for background can also be used which would otherwise cost extra to copy or print using the colour cartridges involved.

Group Capt Kapil Bhargava (Retd), via email

Although getting on a bit I have found Ulead iPhoto Express V1.1 to be one of the more versatile programs for calendar production. Alternatively ACD FotoSlate 3 has similar options but it is not quite as flexible.
I. M. Tasker, via email

I produced an acceptable calendar by constructing it with the aid of Tables in Word and then inserting, in the space left for the picture, photographs from my Paint Shop Pro collections of birds taken with my digital camera. 

Bill Hall, via email

Over the years I have tried various programs but never found a complete solution. However like many problems the answer had been in front of me for many years, namely Microsoft Excel, this worked very well, I found I could compose the date section very easily by dragging numbers and days, text and pictures could be inserted with very little problem using text boxes, it also covered very well page sizes and margins.

T. E. Wright, Bingley 

CAN YOU HELP?

I want to make a comprehensive inventory of the contents of my home for insurance purposes, I would also like to know what I have and what it is worth! Can anyone suggest a program or web site for such a purpose and is there a resource that can calculate average values for ordinary personal and household articles, such as clothes, DVDs, cutlery etc.?

Allan McRae, via email

Our local church is looking to set up a simple system for ensuring that regular maintenance and inspection is carried out on the fabric of the building as well as obvious services like water and drainage, gas, electric supplies, central heating, and the general security and state of the rest of the property. Does anyone know of any commercial software that might help?

Mike Jackson