IH filmstrip archive update....

[Absent Minded Farmer]

Thought I would drop in for a minute, wish everybody a happy New Year & let everyone know that I've been chugging along copying the IH filmstrips & records to YouTube. It's a slow process. Just when I think two of them should be done in no time flat, four hours or more have passed. My method of copying the images requires near darkness for my small table top screen, so I'm relegated to working after sundown. My darkroom just isn't big enough for this setup. I've tried several different scanner programs & they don't like the movie frame format. The scanner does fine, until I look at what was scanned & find that it missed half of the images & some of them that did work have an odd crop to them. There is a good scanner out there on the market, but I'm looking at spending several thousand on it & THEN buying the editing software. So, that will be something I purchase off in the future. Another problem I'm facing with these strips is vinegar syndrome. It's a slow degradation of the acetate film base. It causes the image to lose sharpness, the film warps, sprocket holes can tear.... & then there's that tell tale vinegar smell. Then everything is in red scale. A hallmark of early Ektachrome film. With this being a late 50's, early 60's 53xx internegative film, I'm not surprised it's as bad as it is. There's only one film that doesn't have any issue & it's the one I've had in my collection for ages. No VS & you can faintly make out the green in the hay & blue in the sky.

The audio is done with Audacity. I have years of experience with that program, so it's easy for me to use. Which is good. With the exception of two records so far, all the other ones skip in numerous spots. Fortunately, I have a few small tricks up my sleeve to remedy that problem. Only had to haul out the big guns once & rehab a record with Elmer's wood glue. Worked slicker than snot like it always does. Then it's cut 'n' paste time with Audacity. So far, so good there.

Anyway, I'll leave a link to the playlist below for those of you that don't have a YouTube account or did not save it. All my videos are ad free, as they should be. I'll post back when I reach the halfway mark. I'm going to put together a short intermission type video, featuring some of the equipment I'm using & whatever else I think to throw in.

Regards & happy viewing!

Mike
IH Filmstrips....

 

[SVcummins]

I really like those filmstrips thanks for posting

 

[quefan]

Thank you for your efforts,
just viewedd the brass tacks of twine.

 

[Bret4207]

Thank you!

 

[RBnWA]

Thank you for doing this. I love the old ads. RB

 

[brooktre]

Thanks for all the work Mike. Im enjoying the filmstrips!

 

[55 50 Ron]

Thanks, Thanks, Thanks! It would be interesting to learn from you on the aspects of these transfers. I have 100s of color slides that I had planned to put on video. Bought a Wolverine scanner and did one or two slides and seem to have lost interest. (Story of my life!)

I believe you farm too. It always amazes me to know the hobbies of farmers.

Thanks again for a great service.

 

[Absent Minded Farmer]

For scanning slides, I use a Canoscan (Canon) 9000f MkII. It's been my workhorse for some time now. The program that comes with it is relatively simple to work with. My uncle has a Wolverine that I borrowed to try something different for the filmstrips & that did worse than the Canon. Then I went with a Optex telecine. I project through that with a Kodak Ektagraphic III A slide projector that has a filmstrip adapter in place of the usual projection lens. On the other side of things is my Kodak S-1 Micro 4/3 camera with M42 adapter & a Zeiss 50mm f2.8 Tessar Vorwahlspringblende lens in Exakta mount. I used that camera setup for my first two filmstrips. The image was unsharp so I switched out the lens to my Zeiss Ultron 50mm f1.4. That's one of my razor sharp lenses. No difference. Finally I tore the telecine apart to give it a good cleaning. Turns out the matte glass & viewer lens are plastic. The matte glass also has two either small indentations or air bubbles in it that were driving me up a wall! Soooo.... I had to find something else. A standard projection screen wasn't going to cut it. Even a new one isn't very flat. Dug around & found a rear projection Technicolor tabletop viewing screen. Been using that since. My lens was changed up again to a Zeiss Skoparex 35mm f3.4 so the camera isn't a mile away from the screen. Been using that setup since. All the pictures that come out of the camera are unadulterated. The camera itself puts out a good clean image & the lens itself is known for excellent image fidelity. If you have a digital camera with an interchangeable lens system, I would recommend going with a slide copying setup with a macro lens. If you don't, you may want to look into the same scanner that I use. You can usually find a nice used one for cheap on eBay. An Epson V600 would be another good one & about $230 new. Both options would be great & you could crank out 4 slides @ 9600dpi in just a couple minutes. Going with 4800dpi would be faster if you don't need the sharpness. You also have to remember, most slides are not razor sharp. So the highest resolution may not be necessary. That's not to say either option will make scanning more fun, but it will make your work load a lot easier to work with. Any other questions, please feel free to ask.

As for hobbies.... I got too many of them. Lol! My usual winter hobby is model railroading. I'm taking a break from that this winter to save money. That will get directed into the farm equipment come spring. My other big hobby is film photography which includes the study of as well as developing, enlarging & collecting equipment. The collecting part kind of died off over the last couple years due to the prices of gear beginning to skyrocket. Figured my hobby was secure as a quiet, inexpensive past time that nobody else was into. So much for that. At least it kept fresh film on the market, Fuji from dumping their film line completely, new film getting created as well as the occasional new camera. Currently looking into a new 8x10, now that there's Ektachrome being offered in sheets again. Ilford & Adox are offering a good B&W selection to compliment Kodak & their Tri-X.

Glad you enjoy my copy work. There will be more to come. If my local, former IH dealer can find his old filmstrips, there will be a lot more.

Thanks again for watching!
Mike

 

[Absent Minded Farmer]

I'm glad you enjoy! Thanks for tuning in!

Mike

 

[Absent Minded Farmer]

I'm glad you like them. There are plenty more to come.

Mike

 

[Absent Minded Farmer]

You are most welcome! Thanks for signing on in YouTube.

Mike

 

[Absent Minded Farmer]

You're welcome! The twine filmstrip is one of my favorites to watch & was the biggest bear to copy. The film itself was ok. The record was trashed. Thank goodness the same track is pressed into both sides & didn't skip in the same spots.

Mike

 

[Absent Minded Farmer]

I'm glad you enjoy! Sorry I don't have any on the New Look tractors or any other John Deere equipment. Once I'm done with these, I'll be on the lookout for any brand. As much work as it is, the challenge is good & that has made it quite fun.

Mike

 

[55 50 Ron]

Thanks Mike,

You just made me have a "red face" as I realized after reading your instructions that I have a Canon CanoScan 8800F scanner with all the attachments to scan slides. I bought it to use for the paper scanning and never paid attention to its other uses. How dumb or forgetful can I be? I'll have to get busy and learn how to use the slide attachments. Thanks for filling the blank in my memory. Probably could sell or give away the Wolverine.

 

[Absent Minded Farmer]

Glad I could help, in a round about way. :vD The 8800 is another good scanner from Canon. I still have my old one. The program for it is simple to use & turns out a good image. If you get rid of the Wolverine, list it on eBay. For what they are, they're decent & you should be able to get some of your money back.

Mike