Scanner grayscale

[Q-dog]

I currently use an old Minolta Scan Dual II but I am thinking of buying something newer. One reason is that I would like to scan MF. I am on a budget so I am eyeing flatbeds like Epson V350, Canoscan 8800F, Plustek Opticpro ST64 etc. (If anyone has any experience of these, I am of course interested)

When I compare the specs I notice that all states 48 bit colour but Plustek also 16 bit grayscale. Canon states 8 bit grayscale while Epson does not mention any grayscale spec. (Epson specifies Dmax which the other does not).

What is the significance of the grayscale spec? Will I get better bw scans with the Plustek? I would assume that I could as well use the colour channels on the other scanners and get the same result?

/Ola

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

they all scan in color anyway...the ones that offer greyscale are converting to grey in the scanner software and you can do that yourself in Photoshop.

 

[jlw]

I just bought a Canoscan 8800F for much the same reason you did - I needed a way to scan medium-format negatives. (I'm trying to find time to put together a quick comparo to post on RFF, showing how scans from this scanner compare to ones from my old Canoscan 4000 35mm film scanner.)

I'm not sure about the other scanners, but the specs supplied with the Canon show that it generates files in 48-bit color or 16-bit grayscale. This is an optional setting - you have to switch on 48/16-bit output in a software preference - and Canon's supplied scanning utility doesn't support it, but it IS available when scanning using third-party software such as Photoshop. (I hope a version of VueScan is coming that will support this scanner as well.)

I'd be cautious about buying any scanner based on published specs alone, since there often isn't any standardized way of measuring values such as density range, so it's easy for manufacturers to fudge.

Although I haven't had time to do much formalized evaluation so far, I can tell you that the 8800F makes nice scans from silver-based medium format negatives (although I have to manually turn up the exposure setting to 2x normal to punch enough light through the highlights.)

When scanning with the Canoscan 4000, I often have to scan in two passes (one favoring the highlights and one favoring the shadows) to get a good full-range scan from silver-based b&w films, but so far the 8800F seems to produce equally good results in one pass; this suggests that the 8800F really does cover a greater density range, and/or that its 16-bit grayscale mode retains more range than the 4000's 14-bit grayscale.

As I said, I'll try to post more later. Incidentally, another scanner you might want to consider is the new Epson V500, which uses an LED light source like the Canon 8800F. This doesn't seem to increase scan speed significantly, but it does increase startup speed by eliminating the need to warm up the lamp before scanning.

 

[greggan]

Regarding comparing to Canon FS4000

Regarding comparing to Canon FS4000

I have already done that in my Canon 8600F review!
I compared the 8600F (Borrowed from a friend) with my Canon FS4000 film scanner
and also to my Canon 9950F flatbed.
Read all about it here: http://www.stockholmviews.com/canon_8600f_review/8600fpage1.html

I have also ordered a Canon 8800F and will have a review of that scanner posted
at the beginning of December 2007, you will then find it here:
http://www.stockholmviews.com/canon_8600f_review/index.html
http://www.stockholmviews.com/canon_8800f_review/8800fpage1.html

It will be interesting to find out if the new led light source of the 8800F will help to
improve the resolution in comparison to the 8600F🙄

Regards/ Stefan

 

[ZaphodB]

I hope you have better results than I did with my CanoScan 8400F. It scanned negs ok (when the holder actually held them) but it refused to scan prints unless they were placed right in the center of the glass plate (where it's not exactly easy to keep them straight)... anywhere else and the images were full of horrible artifacts. I took it to Canon, who promptly returned it to me saying there was no problem. This wasn't an easy problem to miss, but somehow they managed it. After trying to reason with them I gave up and just used the scanner for negatives. Until a couple of days after the end of the warranty (of course) when it decided to stop working for no apparent reason at all (except that it presumably wasn't built well enough to last more than a year).

Needless to say I didn't look to Canon for the replacement; I'm now using an Epson V700 (scans 35mm, medium and large format) and am very happy indeed.

OK, sorry, I know Halloween was two weeks ago and it's a bit late for horror stories 😉 ... of course not everyone will have the problems I've had, so I'm not exactly saying "stay away from Canon", but I'd definitely suggest looking at the alternatives. My Epson scans in either 8 or 16 bit grayscale and does a very good job in either.