Post your drum scans (aka the first official Drum Scanners thread)

An example of an old ORWO 6x6 negative - 2000 dpi scan.

11000242086_ef8ccbd2d0_o.jpg
 
Well, things are looking up, I moved the scanner and took it all apart cleaned it out and after putting it back together again managed to get a 2100dpi scan from a 5x7 negative. I used an aperture size of 2 as you suggested Margus and it seems to have helped.

HP5+ taken on Canham MQC with a circa 90 year old Wollensak Velostigmat WA Series III 6.25" f9.5 lens at 1/10th Sec @ f22. Processed in divided Pyrocat HD.


5x7 Ernesettle & Tamar Valley @ 2100 dpi by Ed Bray, on Flickr

Full size is a biggie.
 
Ed Bray said:
Well, things are looking up, I moved the scanner and took it all apart cleaned it out and after putting it back together again managed to get a 2100dpi scan from a 5x7 negative. I used an aperture size of 2 as you suggested Margus and it seems to have helped.

HP5+ taken on Canham MQC with a circa 90 year old Wollensak Velostigmat WA Series III 6.25" f9.5 lens at 1/10th Sec @ f22. Processed in divided Pyrocat HD.
Click to expand...

Very good detail in the center of the image, some distorion in the corners but pretty normal from lenses of that age.

Aperture no. 3 could work well as well.


jzagaja said:
Epson has a problem with 6x6 negs (focus) but VueScan helps. Again difference is in grain aliasing.
Click to expand...

While there's less grain in Epson is because there's a hell lot more detail with SM11K - see the ropes and mechanisms etc, even scanning such an old grainy negative. Plus the drum scan has a lot more "straight-look" or "reality" in it, Epson looks like someone has applyed digital blur on the image. You've obviously scanned with very small aperture (1-2?). I'd run through bigger apertures (try something between 3-5 at around 2000ppi range) and later add wider radius sharpening in PP, that should tame some of the grain without losing too much fine details.
 
I haven' experimented with aperture because scanner cannot calibrate white (aperture calibration needed in diagnostic mode) and can't find aperture selection in CQ for Windows. We have to make this terminal cable 🙂
 
Good shots!

jzagaja said:
Do you know where is aperture selection in CQ for Windows? Preview yes but for scan?
Click to expand...

Don't know anything about Windows CQ but check the user manual, I'm pretty sure it's situated somewhere.

jzagaja said:
Another shot slightly blurred - probably at full aperture.
Click to expand...

Could also be a bad focus. Sometimes AF doesn't work out, and sometimes I put one frame emulsion side down (this way when normally doing AF just once works out on everything on the drum), but the other frame accidentially emulsion-side up and one is in perfect focus the other is not - so even with film thickness scales the focus can be wrong 🙂
 
tsiklonaut said:
Good shots!

Could also be a bad focus.
Click to expand...

Thanks - not as interesting as yours 😉

I always do focus cal. before scanning. Here it's obvious we have full open lens and I really like soft look of chromes. I don't know why but I like scanned film very much especially on drum.
 
tsiklonaut said:
Very good detail in the center of the image, some distorion in the corners but pretty normal from lenses of that age.

Aperture no. 3 could work well as well.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the suggestion Margus.

The distortion in the corners of the image are mainly down to the fact I tilted the plane of focus to try to get the maximum sharpness across the image, this took in the lower foreground and the houses and distance areas, but unfortunately left the higher foreground out of focus, on 5x7 the lens is actually very sharp across the format as it was originally designed to cover 8x10 where the corner sharpness does drop off a bit.

Looking again at the two similar images I actually prefer the 35mm version as it has an almost arty feel such as might be achieved with a pencil sketch, the large format version looks a bit too clinical for me.

Getting back to the scanner, the maximum I seem to be able to get out of the scanner is 4000dpi with a 5"x7" negative but this is more than sufficient for me giving a 1.67GB file to be worked on.
 
We use an Aztek Premier and DPL to scan for our clients. I can't imagine life without DPL. It's a real professional tool. It handles everything very well, including negatives. I also remember Phil Lippincott. He was quite a guy!
 
jzagaja said:
How does Digital Photo Lab handle negatives? Good interface? I remember Phil Lippincott - very nice person.
Click to expand...

I'm the author of the image itself, I didn't produce the scan. But all my film scans (C-41, E-6, and B+W) have been produced on the Aztek. John Weldon, Chip Leavitt, and Kevin Pontuti have produced scans for myself and many of the better known artists in the LA area and elsewhere. Although Pontuti has since closed his shop (he is teaching at the University of Wisconsin the last I heard.)

I have spoken with Leavitt (who owns Lumiere and who started up the digital division of A+I in LA) about the Aztek. A few years ago he produced all the scans for William Eggleston's book "5x7" (http://www.vincentborrelli.com/cgi-bin/vbb/101829.html) from C-41 5x7 negatives (including a few B+W.) Some of the negatives were in poor condition. He did a brilliant job using the Aztek and its software. His only 'issue' with the software (DPL) is that it runs on PC only (his shop is Mac based) and the UI is a bit 'funky.'

Lippincott was indeed a skilled individual and his family is doing a great job of keeping it all alive. I'm very comfortable having my scans done on the Aztek and by an experienced operator.
 
Good operator - aperture matches grain very well, nice tones. Interface for negatives always suffers in most programs. I'm asking because 10 years ago I used to write PS plugin for handling negatives then made a brake and now I'm back 🙂
 
I don't know what's happened but the scanner seems to be working fine now. I managed a 9000dpi from a 6x6cm negative and found out how to manipulate the tonal control of the scanner (helps to RTFM), but things are progressing nicely now.


LNER Thomson B1 61264 by Ed Bray, on Flickr
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom