flatbed scanners for film

[FrankS]

In spite of the slight favouring of the Epson, I've decided to go with the Canon. If there is a problem, it will be much easier/convenient for me to exchange or return, and it is a more fiscally responsible choice.

Will leave in 1/2 hour or so. Hope to post a scan by this evening!

I won't be using this scanner to produce digital files for printing, only for web posting and evaluating images to choose the best for traditional darkroom printing.

 

[johne]

Frank:
For what it is worth, I sent my last two books to the printer with scans at 300 DPI as a general rule. These were photographic histories by Arcadia Publishing. If the original picture is small, scan at more resolution. These were scans of prints, not negatives.
Johne
Sent an entire book on two CDs [more than 200 pictures on one and over 150 on the other].

 

[Iskra 2]

I purchased one of the first 4870's. Constantly feel remorse, am unfulfilled in my photographic pursuits and commiting heresy every time I use it.

Here's a scan of an old Kodachrome.

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It improves considerably with 6x7's and 4x5's.

Consider manufacturers provided software and warranty first. I've heard the 4990 is much better than the 4870.:angel:

Regards.

 

[enochRoot]

Hear my word, I'm a Digital Signal Processing engineer, I'm not talking out of my ass like most people who talk about scanners :/

for some reason this reminds me of ali g saying "hear me now". hehehe.

 

[Wayne R. Scott]

I have been reading this thread with interst. I finally bit the bullet and ordered a scanner last Sat. I went with the Epson 4990, mainly because I wanted one that would scan medium format and large format negatives up to 8x10. I may eventually buy a dedicated 35mm scanner, but right now I can not convince myself that a 35mm scanner is justified.

I know nadda about scanning so this will be learning experience for me. Fortunatley I have very little hair left to pull out so it should not be a very painful experience.

Wayne

 

[enochRoot]

I won't be using this scanner to produce digital files for printing, only for web posting and evaluating images to choose the best for traditional darkroom printing.

i'm actually looking for the same thing frank, and have considered all of the scanners mentioned here. since you are looking only to this scanner for proofing/web posting...i'm anxious to hear how it works out for you and see some results! keep us posted!

 

[planetjoe]

Slightly OT.

Slightly OT.

+ Scan at 4800dpi JPEG 8 bits
+ Do the color/level correction in PS correction layers
+ Convert to 16 bits in PS
+ Flatten the layers
+ Reduce the size to 3200 or 2400dpi
+ Sharpen
+ Remove the odd dust
+ Convert back to 8 bits
+ Save as JPEG again

I like this list, Buze.

As it turns out, my PS batch workflows contain the up-sampling step as well, but I'm embarrassed to say that I've forgotten why I do it. (I'm an aerospace engineer, but DSP has never been my strong suit). At the risk of going OT, does this pad the bitwise "words" with zeros in order to do the boolean math?

In any case, I do the up-sampling before adding correction layers, which I finally flatten before doing dust removal and sharpening.

(Unfortunately, FrankS, I use a film scanner, so I can't contribute at the moment to the flatbed discussion - not that it helps, but I'd been looking at the Epson v700 lately.)


Cheers,
--joe.

 

[Glenn2]

For 35mm I found that my flat bed (Epson 3200) was just not up the quality that was wanted, much too soft. It did a decent job on the larger formats though. Ended up buying one of the lower end Minolta 35mm film scanners and used it for a while until upgrading to the Nikon CS-5000. For 35mm the Nikon does a great job and saves a lot of dust spotting on colour negatives thanks to ICE4. I'll do some comparison scans of 35mm on both machines when I get a few minutes and post 100% crops so you can see the differences. The ICE4 is truly amazing! I ran an old negative through that was badly reticulated and had the emulsion breaking down , results were much better than I would have expected. Unfortunately ICE does not work on conventional B&W film. It does work on the silverless stuff that gets developed in C41. The latest offering from Epson (V750) supports wet mounting with a special fluid which should help eliminate the dust problem.

Just found those negative scans with the reticulation. Will attach a couple images one with ICE4, the other with it turned off.

 

[Glenn2]

I couldn't seem to attach both images in the last message??? Here's the one with ICE4...

 

[visiondr]

Wow, that Digital ICE4 is amazing!
"Ice, Ice baby..."

I too am pondering the purchase of a flatbed. I've had a look at the Epson V700 and it may be the one for me.

Ron

 

[FrankS]

Here's my first attempt with B+W negs. I only had the option for colour neg, but I can convert later right?

 

[FrankS]

Ha, ha, ha! THAT's not what I wanted! Be patient please.

 

[w3rk5]

My jaw dropped when I saw your "first attempt with B+W negs". I thought you were for real until I scrolled down a little more.

 

[FrankS]

There was a sliding bar option to set the quality level when saving to your computer. I thought it said quantity so I changed the 90 setting to 1.

I started a new thread with the results: http://www.rangefinderforum.com/forums/showthread.php?p=359888#post359888

 

[Buze]

that was a good laugh anyway; lets hope someone from Canon doesn't find this

 

[Glenn2]

Here's the comparison of Epson 3200 flatbed with Nikon CS-5000. Grabbed the first negative that came to hand, a friend on his Tahiti ketch..... First the Epson showing most of the frame and then 100% of face area. No tweaking with software. What is noticeable is that the grain is not resolving at this resolution of 3200 dpi. File size of the TIF is 39.7 Meg.

 

[Glenn2]

Now the Nikon scan at 4000 dpi. Grain is resolved. I had ICE turned on for this scan so no dust to spot. TIF file is 52.1 Meg. As you can see it's very easy to fill up a hard drive scanning at high resolution. I've gone to a 200 Gig SATA drive in a plugin bay to hold all the stuff.

 

[leica M2 fan]

Thanks Frank

Thanks Frank

Colour changed. Thanks for looking, Leica M2 fan.

Thanks, you are a scholar and a gentleman.