Pherdinand
the snow must go on
Well.
First of all - this scanner is GOOD. It's damn good i'd say. I would buy it again, if i had a choice. However, being so good, it shows me how a lousy photographer I am.
Scanning in hi-rez is faster than I thought. I've read all kind of horror stories on the Web about long scanning times etc. I guess those are written by busy professionals who have to scan 100 pics or more a day for a living. I don't, luckily.
A few things I did NOT like:
-in bright light, the inner side of the glass window already seems to have some fogging. Come on, it's a brand new scanner!!! can't be because of outgassing! But i can/t see its effect on the images, true. It also has a rather large, visible dust spot, also in the inside, but it's exactly off the scanned transparent area for 35mm and MF film 😀
-the machine is HUGE.
-the Epson scan software can do batch scan in Pro mode but screws up the auto frame recognition with medium format film. There is NO way i can tell him where the frames begin and end, manually.Practically on a sdtrip of 3 6x6 frames one is okay and two are cut. It works well with 35mm strips, though.
-the Silverfast SE software does not screw up with the frame recognition...but it's IMPOSSIBLE to do batch scanning. If it is possible please tell me how - i managed to draw several selection areas on the scan area and use different scan settings for these, but still, at the final scan it scans only ONE frame which means i have to sit there and wait and do a few clicks between each scan, in every 1-3 minutes.
-generally, Silverfast SE is a bit dumb and non-intuitive.
-the ICE feature is working okay, but it takes TWENTY times longer to scan a frame when it's on "quality". When it's on "speed" it does not do much to the frames...
-the MF filmholders are weird. I put the film in and have to press VERY strong at the edges to make it click in. Maybe it's new that's why, but i'm afraid to break the flimsy plastic. Then, when it's in, the film is NOT FLAT, It's buckled, depending on the film also, a bit or alot. Good point ghough, that i did not see any sharpness difference due to this, between the central and edge regions of the frames.
-apparently Epson did not solve the tagging-with-profile issue. I've read that previous scanners also come with good scanner colour profiles but they are never attached to the image when saving it, so you have to do it yourself when opening in PS, unless you don't care and are happy with approximately ok results. Well, it still saves without any profile, no matter if I tell him to scan+save in epson or in sRGB or whatever profile. Frankly, it is totally unclear when you scan a frame, in what colour space it was scanned, and it's not obvious (and time consuming) when you have to assign a profile to each image at loading.
Final remark: The whole colour management theory (and practice) sucks.
First of all - this scanner is GOOD. It's damn good i'd say. I would buy it again, if i had a choice. However, being so good, it shows me how a lousy photographer I am.
Scanning in hi-rez is faster than I thought. I've read all kind of horror stories on the Web about long scanning times etc. I guess those are written by busy professionals who have to scan 100 pics or more a day for a living. I don't, luckily.
A few things I did NOT like:
-in bright light, the inner side of the glass window already seems to have some fogging. Come on, it's a brand new scanner!!! can't be because of outgassing! But i can/t see its effect on the images, true. It also has a rather large, visible dust spot, also in the inside, but it's exactly off the scanned transparent area for 35mm and MF film 😀
-the machine is HUGE.
-the Epson scan software can do batch scan in Pro mode but screws up the auto frame recognition with medium format film. There is NO way i can tell him where the frames begin and end, manually.Practically on a sdtrip of 3 6x6 frames one is okay and two are cut. It works well with 35mm strips, though.
-the Silverfast SE software does not screw up with the frame recognition...but it's IMPOSSIBLE to do batch scanning. If it is possible please tell me how - i managed to draw several selection areas on the scan area and use different scan settings for these, but still, at the final scan it scans only ONE frame which means i have to sit there and wait and do a few clicks between each scan, in every 1-3 minutes.
-generally, Silverfast SE is a bit dumb and non-intuitive.
-the ICE feature is working okay, but it takes TWENTY times longer to scan a frame when it's on "quality". When it's on "speed" it does not do much to the frames...
-the MF filmholders are weird. I put the film in and have to press VERY strong at the edges to make it click in. Maybe it's new that's why, but i'm afraid to break the flimsy plastic. Then, when it's in, the film is NOT FLAT, It's buckled, depending on the film also, a bit or alot. Good point ghough, that i did not see any sharpness difference due to this, between the central and edge regions of the frames.
-apparently Epson did not solve the tagging-with-profile issue. I've read that previous scanners also come with good scanner colour profiles but they are never attached to the image when saving it, so you have to do it yourself when opening in PS, unless you don't care and are happy with approximately ok results. Well, it still saves without any profile, no matter if I tell him to scan+save in epson or in sRGB or whatever profile. Frankly, it is totally unclear when you scan a frame, in what colour space it was scanned, and it's not obvious (and time consuming) when you have to assign a profile to each image at loading.
Final remark: The whole colour management theory (and practice) sucks.
