Dual Scan IV grain with B/W..investigation

[dmr]

None of the colour versions showed this. Silverfast was the worst of these however showing less detail in the midtone areas than the Vuescan, which in turn was less detailed than the KM software. My conclusion therefore from this mini test was that the KM software does give the same detail or better as the Vuescan at least on the colour neg setting.

Here's a link to a previous thread which has some blow-ups which do clearly indicate that yes, scanning a traditional silver B&W negative as color on the SD IV gives smoother and less apparent grain.

http://www.rangefinderforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=18644

 

[sfb_dot_com]

I think we'd now all agree on that last point. Scanning in colour does give better, albeit initially softer tonality whatever software you use. My feeling is that the final result is then influenced by whatever 'processing' is then done on the file. The Vuescan user guide is poorly written, so is hard to decipher, but it does refer to processing done post the scan. This I'm sure can be switched off, but this does require a good understanding of some frankly very very complicated options when the advanced tab is switched on. I was deeply disappointed with the Silverfast software. It seemed more modern and attractive in appearance than the other two but in reality the interface was muddled and confusing. Vuescan was better, but it does not have the simple facility to make thumbnails of the film strip you have just inserted. The Scan Dual Utility supplied by Minolta does have in my opinion the most user-friendly metaphor, and is therefore easiest to use right out the box as you say in the USA, however it is more limited than Vuescan overall.

My conclusion is therefore that I will learn to use the Minolta software for now, but will probably move up to Vuescan at some point. Purchase of PS Elements 4.0 for my Mac will have priority though as it at last introduces proper colour management.

I'm also going to look at the assembled wisdom from this and the other sources and refine down my workflow to one that works for me.

Andy