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Hi there!
I've been pulling my hair over this plustek scanner for a few weeks now. This is my main problem:
I can't get a decently flat scan out of the scanner. 95% pf the time I get either some info in the highlights, or info in the shadows. I've tried several negs of various density, and sure, the one with lower density are easier to scan. But in comparison with my ancient Epson 4990 the dynamic range is minimal. With the 4990 it is rare that I come across a neg that is so overexposed and/or overdeveloped that its range surpasses the scanners Dmax. With the plustek it's the opposite.
With the Plustek I'm fiddling with the exposure slider in VueScan Pro all the time. I have to set it manually or the scanner just blows out the highlights completely.
I have many years of scanning experience, from Nikon Coolscan (sold...) to rented imacons and my main workhorse the Epson 4990. So I'm not a beginner.
The only workflow that is silghtly successful is to scan as 'Raw' scan in Vuescan and set the exposure manually but doing prescans and increase/decrease exposure in steps to try to get as much info in the scan as possible. For some negs it works, for others I have to muck around with multiple scans with different exposure and try to combine them in Photomatix or Photoshop. That is a pita, and it's not exactly easy to get it to look good.
Forgive me if I'm venting a bit. Very frustrating this.
So, what I'm asking is this: are all Plusteks like this? I would consider a more recent model of their OpticFilm line, but not if this is what to expect. As I live in Sweden I can't really buy a new Plustek and return it if I'm not satisfied (which is possible in the US I believe).
I attach two scans of the same neg.
Plustek 7300, scanned raw in Vuescan at exposure 10 (one from max) as a positive. Opened in Photoshop, assigned Gamma 1.8 profile and pasted the histogram.
The other is Epson 4990, scanned as 16 bit HDR (which is a raw scan) other procedures as above.
I've been pulling my hair over this plustek scanner for a few weeks now. This is my main problem:
I can't get a decently flat scan out of the scanner. 95% pf the time I get either some info in the highlights, or info in the shadows. I've tried several negs of various density, and sure, the one with lower density are easier to scan. But in comparison with my ancient Epson 4990 the dynamic range is minimal. With the 4990 it is rare that I come across a neg that is so overexposed and/or overdeveloped that its range surpasses the scanners Dmax. With the plustek it's the opposite.
With the Plustek I'm fiddling with the exposure slider in VueScan Pro all the time. I have to set it manually or the scanner just blows out the highlights completely.
I have many years of scanning experience, from Nikon Coolscan (sold...) to rented imacons and my main workhorse the Epson 4990. So I'm not a beginner.
The only workflow that is silghtly successful is to scan as 'Raw' scan in Vuescan and set the exposure manually but doing prescans and increase/decrease exposure in steps to try to get as much info in the scan as possible. For some negs it works, for others I have to muck around with multiple scans with different exposure and try to combine them in Photomatix or Photoshop. That is a pita, and it's not exactly easy to get it to look good.
Forgive me if I'm venting a bit. Very frustrating this.
So, what I'm asking is this: are all Plusteks like this? I would consider a more recent model of their OpticFilm line, but not if this is what to expect. As I live in Sweden I can't really buy a new Plustek and return it if I'm not satisfied (which is possible in the US I believe).
I attach two scans of the same neg.
Plustek 7300, scanned raw in Vuescan at exposure 10 (one from max) as a positive. Opened in Photoshop, assigned Gamma 1.8 profile and pasted the histogram.
The other is Epson 4990, scanned as 16 bit HDR (which is a raw scan) other procedures as above.
