Image Capture won't straighten crooked APS 25mm Prints.

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zc2000 Author

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Image Capture won't straighten crooked APS 25mm Prints.

I'd like to scan in my old prints with Image Capture, but the
edge-detect and straightening only happens when the image is a
standard 35mm print (it works fine then).
Remember the old APS 25mm film format? I've got a
ton of prints from that format (which are wider than 35mm prints), but Image Capture refuses to detect
the edge of these to correct any crookedness.
Any idea how I can get it to automatically recognize the edges and
straighten the capture window accordingly??

Mac OS X (10.6.2), Epson Scanner

Posted on Jan 3, 2010 8:54 PM

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Answer 1

Jan 4, 2010 3:29 AM in response to zc2000

Any chance you can cheat and make a physical mask for the photos that would provide a straight line? You could then crop out the mask after the image is straightened.

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Answer 2

zc2000 Author

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Jan 4, 2010 3:53 PM in response to zc2000

I could always draw a box around each photo (using the Overview Scan) and then scan it, but I'm looking to use the feature of Image Capture to do that for me automatically (to speed up the process).

Did you think that the edges of the actual prints weren't straight? That's not the case. I'd just like the ability to throw a few pics on the scanner, press a button and let Image Capture straighten out any pictures that weren't perfectly square with the sides of the scanner bed (I've got too many photo prints to scan to do otherwise). Image Capture can do that with 35mm prints, apparently, but it can't seem to handle the odd (rectangular) size of the old APS prints. I've tried it with an APS print and a 35mm print at the same time, and it located and straightened the 35mm print but not the APS size.

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Answer 3

Jan 5, 2010 3:19 AM in response to zc2000

I think I understand, and I think that it is probably the reason that my scanner has a special adapter for slides and other small film, so that in addition to keeping things straight it knows where the edges should be and its software can do its thing. For example, my slide adapter has 9 cutouts. You place 9 slides on the scanner and scan them all at once.

My suggestion was more along the lines of making such a mask with cutouts in it for the prints, say out of a piece of light cardboard that you can lay on the scanner bed, and then place the prints into the cutouts for scanning. If everything is straight on the physical mask all you have to do is swap out the film after each scan.

Out of curiosity, have you checked with the scanner manufacturer for such an adapter?

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Answer 4

zc2000 Author

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Jan 5, 2010 8:06 PM in response to zc2000

I really think this is a problem with the software and not the scanner. The software is the thing that can find the edge of a 35mm print, but not a 25mm APS print.

Strangely enough, I've found that it can also find the edge of a CD insert, Christmas cards of various sizes, and other assorted garbage on my desk, but it never, not once, found the edges of the 25mm prints in the several dozen attempts I made (even when I put a 25mm print and something else on the scanner at the same time, it only found the the edges of the other item).

Here's one of countless examples... http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/452646/screen-capture.jpg

So, I'm baffled on this one...

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Answer 5

zc2000 Author

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Jan 5, 2010 8:14 PM in response to zc2000

Here's another with a 25mm print and a manual for toy I bought for my boy...
http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/452646/screen-capture-1.jpg

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