Questions:
1) I have been getting unacceptable results from a particular batch of Fuji Sensia slide film, E-6, Daylight Balance, ASA 100; is this batch of film itself corrupted?
2) How powerful is the Auto Enhance tool of a simple imaging program in changing the look and quality of a scanned slide image?

Procedures:
The ID placards for film batch loaded into camera were on plain white paper and with colored marker pens.
The three photo images were first printed from my files on NCR Pro series glossy photo paper with a Lexmark photo quality jetprinter.
Then the above hardcopy items were photographed with identical setup consecutively on two different rolls of film.
I used a pair of Tungsten 3200 Kelvin lights, an 80A blue correction filter, SMC Pentax-A Macro 1:2.8 50mm lens, Pentax ME Super camera body set to Manual Mode, with exposure setting based on an 18% reflectance gray card. That setting was f:8 @ ¼ second. Camera was mounted on gantry above subject, and there was no other light in room except the two 3200 Kelvin bulbs. I used an eyeshield tube to determine the exposures, and a long cable release for the shutter.

First roll of film with the setup was a roll of Sensia 100 from the suspected corrupt batch, acquired from a vendor up from Dallas at a camera show.
Second roll of film with setup was a roll of Sensia 100 purchased this week at a local camera shop in Crestwood, date was fresh.
Both rolls were developed at a trusted lab in the same chemicals, no push no pull.
Representive slide frames were scanned with an Epson Perfection 4490 Photo Scanner. First two rows of images below show the raw scans, resized for uploading but no other tweaking.
Second two rows are the same files, after a single click tweak with ACDSee’s Auto Enhance Tool.

Conclusions:
1) The color difference between the two rolls seems to indicate that the batch of film from Dallas (frozen when fresh, pulled from freezer a few hours before use) was corrupt, probably heat damaged at some point in storage or transit.
2) The simple Auto Enhance Tool of ACDSee goes a long way in changing or even improving a digital image from its original form.

All images are ©2006 E.J.Kowalski