Over the last four days we've been getting more familiar with the latest version of Kodak's new software. We're very impressed and noticed some major changes in the way the scanner / software combination operates.
As photos are fed through the image is automatically rotated. This means if you put in a photo the "right" way round it will instantly appear in the thumbnails looking upside down. It's only a small matter to turn the batch the best way round and I've only forgotten to do this a couple of times. In practice this goes a long way to overcome the partial banding we'd been experiencing in areas of blue sky. Kodak's suggestion was that these shots should be fed in inverted, and it worked. Now all photos are fed in inverted and the software rotates it instantly. Certainly we haven't noticed sky banding this week.
The auto rotate function was one we really felt excited about. So we've been playing with it and it works pretty well. Today we had a great photo of what looked like a French chateau, with its reflection gently shimmering in a lake. It was (almost literally) a mirror image. I was greatly impressed that the new software got it right even though I fed the photo in all ways round. That's a big tick to Kodak.
Just to end, a subjective thought. We continue to use the batch re-touching function and I think it produces a better result than before. It would be difficult to prove, but I have been pleased with the results we've been getting this week.
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Monday, February 22, 2010
New Software - In Use
We installed the new software earlier today and gave it a run with a batch of photos that came in this morning. They were monochromes so not the best test.
Opening the new version you'll notice immediately that the clients name gets entered before the date / time stamp which makes it easier to find clients files, like that. Then you'll get into a new set of control settings, which includes the scan to CD, DVD or other storage device. That corrects a major gap in the functionality of the s1220.
Gee does that DVD burner work well, I love it, it's going to be my favourite Kodak feature for ages I'm sure.
Other features - scan as monochrome, adjust dpi settings in flight, add auto sharpening (with different levels) plus all you'll remember from your previous version of Scan the World. And auto rotate.
I haven't quite puzzled out how this operates. It seems to be trying to orientate each image as its scanned then you have the option to auto rotate at the end. I scanned just over 200 ancient (back to 1920, nothing later than 1958) monochromes and fed each one the wrong way round. Batch auto rotate did a fair job at getting the orientation right; but for some reason almost identical images resulted in one right answer and one wrong. I'll be interested to see how this does on more recent colour images.
And on an entirely subjective basis I'd see the colour restore function works better.
We I'd have loved to play more but we also got our new photobooks function online so I had to dedicate time to that. But thanks Kodak, this is a big step forward.
Opening the new version you'll notice immediately that the clients name gets entered before the date / time stamp which makes it easier to find clients files, like that. Then you'll get into a new set of control settings, which includes the scan to CD, DVD or other storage device. That corrects a major gap in the functionality of the s1220.
Gee does that DVD burner work well, I love it, it's going to be my favourite Kodak feature for ages I'm sure.
Other features - scan as monochrome, adjust dpi settings in flight, add auto sharpening (with different levels) plus all you'll remember from your previous version of Scan the World. And auto rotate.
I haven't quite puzzled out how this operates. It seems to be trying to orientate each image as its scanned then you have the option to auto rotate at the end. I scanned just over 200 ancient (back to 1920, nothing later than 1958) monochromes and fed each one the wrong way round. Batch auto rotate did a fair job at getting the orientation right; but for some reason almost identical images resulted in one right answer and one wrong. I'll be interested to see how this does on more recent colour images.
And on an entirely subjective basis I'd see the colour restore function works better.
We I'd have loved to play more but we also got our new photobooks function online so I had to dedicate time to that. But thanks Kodak, this is a big step forward.
Sunday, February 21, 2010
New Software
Kodak have today put out a couple of press releases highlighting a couple of areas that will be important to s1220 operators. The one that has caught my attention is the announcement of new software - version 3.6.2 - promising some major new features. If these work well it will save us hours.
First, content based auto rotation. If this delivers it means we'll be able to feed in photos any way round and the s1220 software will take care of correcting orientation. On Friday afternoon we scanned 750 photos and it took ages to flip through putting each the right way round. Leaving this to Kodak would be a delight.
The second area that will help us is described as scanning to CD / DVD. I was amazed when we first ran our s1220 to find the software didn't include a facility to burn a disc with the images. So we've been using Nero for this. It works but its fiddly and time consuming. I'll be pleased if we can burn a disc straight from Scan the World.
All in all this release could be the biggest step forward in s1220 scanning. I'm looking forward to Monday and loading the new software.
First, content based auto rotation. If this delivers it means we'll be able to feed in photos any way round and the s1220 software will take care of correcting orientation. On Friday afternoon we scanned 750 photos and it took ages to flip through putting each the right way round. Leaving this to Kodak would be a delight.
The second area that will help us is described as scanning to CD / DVD. I was amazed when we first ran our s1220 to find the software didn't include a facility to burn a disc with the images. So we've been using Nero for this. It works but its fiddly and time consuming. I'll be pleased if we can burn a disc straight from Scan the World.
All in all this release could be the biggest step forward in s1220 scanning. I'm looking forward to Monday and loading the new software.
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Video - Kodak s1220 in Action
We use Kodaks s1220 scanner for both our paid-for photo scanning service and our free photo scanning service.
We've just put up a video of our Kodak scanner in operation - here you can see our scanner working its way through a stack of photos. We've called it Scanning - the movie.
We've just put up a video of our Kodak scanner in operation - here you can see our scanner working its way through a stack of photos. We've called it Scanning - the movie.
Monday, February 1, 2010
Gentle Handling
Someone on the Google image scanning news group asked for recommendations for high volume photo scanning. When you have thousands of images to scan, believe me, nothing comes close. As you'd expect various other suggestions were made, mainly by people who I'm sure had never faced the task of scanning thousands of photos per day.
One post I found particularly disappointing as it came from someone who professed to have been a Kodak s1220 owner. One aspect of the complaint about his experience with the s1220 was the suggestion that the combination of gravity and rollers in the scanner causes track marks on prints. I was surprised, I had never examined the prints we scanned that closely but felt sure I would have noticed.
Since that post I've looked very, very closely at the front and the back of the prints we've scanned for 1Scan and our free photo scanning service. Nothing, no marks or any sign that the photos have been anywhere other than in their warm padded envelopes.
One post I found particularly disappointing as it came from someone who professed to have been a Kodak s1220 owner. One aspect of the complaint about his experience with the s1220 was the suggestion that the combination of gravity and rollers in the scanner causes track marks on prints. I was surprised, I had never examined the prints we scanned that closely but felt sure I would have noticed.
Since that post I've looked very, very closely at the front and the back of the prints we've scanned for 1Scan and our free photo scanning service. Nothing, no marks or any sign that the photos have been anywhere other than in their warm padded envelopes.
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