Renaming a bunch of files on Linux
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635 days ago
The great thing about Linux is that whenever you want to do something, there is bound to be a tool for it. I just mistakenly scanned about 500 slides from Fiji, and forgot to change the name setting in the scanning application. The were called newfoundland-intertidal-001-500 when they should have been called fiji-diving-001-500. Fortunately, there is PrefixSuffix which is a way cool file name management utility available from http://prefixsuffix.sourceforge.net/ . PrefixSuffix is a GUI application that renames batches of files by changing the beginning or end of their names.
This was in the Ubuntu repos, so a quick search on Synaptic found it and in a couple of minutes I had my files all renamed and a nice utility for my future stupidity.
file management ubuntu scanning slides 35mm linux windows nikon coolscan5000
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Scanning 35 mm slides
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634 days ago
I started taking pictures in the early 1970s. I worked almost exclusively with 35 mm film, Kodachrome whenever I could afford it or didn't need speeds above ASA 64. Photographing on land and underwater, I amassed a collection of slides that filled three filing cabinets and overflowed into bookshelf and cupboard. Please note that all pictures are clickable to view the larger version.
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Around two years ago, I acquired a scanner for a project that I was working on, with the intention of also scanning my slides and making them all available under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license. Of course I was always too busy to do it, so I tried hiring a student to do it. That did not work out, as it needs me to do the scanning since I am the only one who can make sense of my slides. So here is how I did the scanning in case there is anyone else who wants to attempt something as crazy.
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The scanner
The Scanner is a Nikon Super Coolscan 5000. The one great thing about this scanner is that it uses Applied Science Fiction's Digital ICE technology, which reduces the impact of dust and scratches on the film.
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The software
I tried using the scanner with SANE on GNU/Linux, but I did not get satisfactory results. I had to set up a PC with the dreaded Windows operating system in order to run sofware that came with the scanner. An updated version was available from Nikon's website, which improved considerably the quality of unmounted strips. But running Windows is a mission, especially given its native Crash-Freeze-Reboot technology designed to excercise your reset finger. I am now used to having to reboot the PC 15-20 times a day, but am grateful that this is not my main PC or it would drive me to drink fizzy drinks.
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Slide preparation
I use a small blower brush from a cheap camera lens cleaning kit to brush dust off the slides. Older slides often have more firmly attached dust and even some fungus as well. For those, I rub them with a lint-free dusting cloth, the sort that you can buy at a supermarket. This seems to remove all but the hardest dust, but without scrubbing the slides in this way, it is impossible to get them clean enough to scan decent pictures.
Study in chaos
DUring this exercise, my study at home (which is a large room, the former master bedroom) was covered in slides. Because there are so many different mount types and thicknesses in my collection, I had to separate them into different lots, Kodachrome with cardboard, Kodachrome with thin plastic mounts, other film with thin plastic mounts, thick plastic mounts, very thick plastic mounts, glass mounted slides. In addition, I had a fair number of unmounted strips, cut to strips of 4-6, and several cut to individual slides but not mounted. The former could use the film scanner adapter, but the single ones had to be mounted. All of this was going on at the same time, so semi-orderly chaos reigned.
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Problems
There were few problems encountered in the scanning process. The biggest problem with with paper mounted slides such as Kodachromes. It was rare for a whole 50 slide batch to scan without 1-2 jams. The paper mounts are often bent, they also come in different shapes such as rounded corners, straight corners, etc. I found that it is best to do paper mount slides while you are nearby to attend to jams. The scanning software invariably crashes on retry after a jam, sometimes requiring the machine to be rebooted. The best way to avoid this is to exit the application and restart it.
The results
The results were generally good. Some of the slides are quite nice, and you can see them on my Flickr photostream at:
http://flickr.com/photos/dkeats/
I am glad I went through this exercise (I guess I have about another month to go before I finish completely) as it has allowed me to recover quite a lot of nice pictures that would otherwise have been lost forever.
scanning slides 35mm linux windows nikon coolscan5000 ice diving newfoundland crazy
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