Film Astrophotography Questions

[sheeny]

Can anyone recommend a photo lab that handles astro-photos?

Also can anyone recommend suitable scanner software for scanning negs? I have an old Epson 1250 Photo which does it but the software is a dog to use - very unreliable since I've been on XP (and all the patches available so far can't fix it).

I finished my first film of purely astro photos just recently. Got the film processed OK locally and I have reasonable access to the lab (I can stand beside the person doing the processing/printing and tell them what I want) but these new fangled machine thingies just don't want to see some of the lighter exposures. I've been able to scan a few that were too light for the machine but even my scanner software tries to tell me there's nothing there in manual mode... I can see it! I just want to see it better so I can learn to improve...:rolleyes:

Thanks,

Al.

[[1ponders]]

Hi Al. I tried negative film and gave up when I found the same problem of finding a lab that could process it and print it correctly. They rely on machines too much. I ended up going with positive slide film and then scanning from there. I found I got much better colour. As for a scanner I ended up buying a Canon CanoScan FS4000US which is a dedicated film and slide scanner. I found it does a great job but is not the cheapest scanner :P Last time I looked they were around $800 - $1000. Mind you that was a while ago.

[Jonathan]

Hi Al. You'd probably be better off with a dedicated slide and negative scanner. I currently use the same model scanner that Paul has just commented on. It's a few years old but still does a reasonable job. It's only USB 1 and can be quite slow, about 3 to 4min per frame at 4000 x 4000. I've read good reports on the new Konica-Minolta 5400-II and will be buying one myself very soon. It can scan at up to 5400 x 5400, so it would extract virtually all the information in the slide/negative for you to process and is cheaper (under A$1000) than many lower resolution scanners.
http://www.cameraaction.com.au/products4.asp?sku=160726&dept=52
http://www.cnet.com.au/photography/accessories/0,39028815,40057068,00.htm

[fringe_dweller]

Hi Al, your going against the digital tide there mate - good on ya for daring to deviate from the norm ;) as for scanning 35mm negatives/slides your up against it - I am a scanned (glossy) colour print kind of guy myself :P (very rare!) I believe the observation that prints have a better dynamic range than scanned negatives/slides - despite all the cons with doing it that way - to me personally negative/slide scans look a bit soft in focus. Unless you are scanning medium and large format negs/slides - 4x5 - 6x7 I personally wouldnt bother. The best stuff is from 6x7 format IMO. But i can appreciate the reasons people do it that way. Here is two sites dedicated to film astrophotography (well mostly) first the venerable and ancient APML http://seds.org/mailman/listinfo/astro-photo (the big daddy of them all and the oldest on the net - i think) and http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Filmastrophotographers/ - they are extremely helpful people - not many 35mm people tho :(
Kearn

[janoskiss]

Don't know if this works or not, but this is what I'm going to try with the roll of film I have in the camera now:

Project the negative or slide film image, using a slide projector, onto a cheap A4 document/photo scanner. Do some blanks too to allow for calibration (correct for non-uniform illumination). Very cheap and very high res, but whether the external illumination will give adequate signal-to-noise without too many artefacts I wouldn't have a clue.

[fringe_dweller]

Wild idea Steve! I will be interested to see the results myself :) never heard of that method before.
kearn

[sheeny]

Thanks for the feedback, guys. I think there'll be some time spent studying the links provided - thanks.

Yes I am going against the flow a bit in terms of using film, but I'm working on the principle of making use of ahat I have now to learn what I can before I commit to an astro camera (CCD of course will be the next step). I have thought about slide film, but shied away on the basis that it is less tolerant in terms of exposure, and I don't really have slide gear (like projectors, etc). My plan was to start on negs, then go to slides when I think I've got a good handle on the exposures at least... but I may have to look at going slide sooner than that.

So far I'm finding lots of things to learn and practice, mostly involving more precision than I'm used to in terms of alignment and focusing, but also guiding, exposures, etc.

The biggest thing stopping me from going to a CCD camera now is the lack of a laptop... but I'll get there! :D

Al.

[[1ponders]]

I don't know if its the same with others or it was just me, but for the short time I was playing with wasting film :P I found I had more success with slide film than with negative film. The only real downer was waiting longer for the results to come back from the store. Anything up to 10 days :mad2: