Scanning Xpan Film Question

[haotong]

Hi, I just bought a Xpan II and love it to die! 😛

however, my local developer jessops said that it would tate 2 weeks to get the film printed!! :bang:

what I own currenty is a Dimage Scan Dual IV, my question is that is it possible or not to use it to scan those 24x65s???


thanks a lot for any reply!!

 

[Kris]

Yep it is possible to use SD IV. That's what I use. You must have Photoshop CS with its Photo Merge function. Just ensure you crop out the black strip on the left/right side before merging the two scans.

 

[anaanda]

Can you cut one of those black bars off on the scanner strip??

 

[haotong]

Can you cut one of those black bars off on the scanner strip??

thanks for posting this question, as I have the same question

 

[anaanda]

Get the epson 4490 scanner for $199 after rebate from BH or Adorama..It scans medium format

 

[Doug]

Can you cut one of those black bars off on the scanner strip??

I think you could cut the plastic divider bar, yes, but would it do you any good? I think it won't. I'm not familiar with that scanner, but doesn't it scan one negative at a time, as you move the carrier along to the next frame for each one? It is a 35mm scanner and cannot perform the function of a larger-format scanner.

Similarly you couldn't enlarge a 24x65mm neg with an enlarger limited to 24x36mm frames even if you cut the negative carrier wider, nor could you project a 24x65mm transparency with a 35mm slide projector...

A flat-bed scanner would be a better answer, as the scanning area is naturally larger.

 

[dermo]

I'd cut the thing yeah. I have a Nikon Super Coolscan 5000, with the FH-3 film strip holder. I cut some of the plastic bits off so an xpan frame will fit. Then I scan the shot in two parts and join them together in photoshop. I don't trust the photomerge tool though. I open one file, then extend the canvas, then open the other file and move it onto the original file with extended canvas. Then bring the opacity of the second layer down to about 50%, nudge it around until it fits, bring the opacity back to 100%, then fix any slight errors with a layer mask. It's important to turn offf autoexposure on the scanner though, so the two halves' level and colour balances will match.

www.dermotokane.com

 

[Kris]

No no! Don't cut the frame on the film strip holder. You just have to do two scans per image: the left part, adjust the film strip, then the right part.

What I meant by crop the black strip was to remove the black strip off the scan (yellow line in example image) because the CCD scans more than the image area.

You must remove the black strip on the right if it's the left part of the image, and the black strip on the left if it's the right part of the image. Otherwise the merging process cannot be done flawlessly.

Sorry can't give you full example as I don't have access to my XPan slides. I'm kind of on the move at the moment.

What I experienced, photo merge in PS CS works much better than me trying to combined the two image together manually. And it does it at shorter time while I enjoy my coffee/tea/hot chocolate. After merging, I can't spot the joint at 100% view, let alone printed images.

 

[dermo]

He he! Cut it ! Don't cut it! Whatever works I suppose.. I think photomerge only deals with 8 bit files as far as I remember, so 16 bit files have to be done manually.

 

[photogdave]

If you can find one cheap - the Minolta Scabn Multi. I have the version II and everything in my gallery is scanned on it. The only bummer is that it has a SCSI connection so I had to hang on to my old G4 to use soley for scanning until I decide I should pay $400 for the SCSI-PCI card for my new G5!

 

[bcool]

When I have Nikon Coolscan 4000ed, I scan two images per shot and merge it on Photoshop. In this case remember to set the auto contrast function to off. Otherwise you have different contrast images sometimes.
After I bought Coolscan 8000ed, everything is all right with glass holder FH-869 GR.

 

[haotong]

thank you all for the reply, I finally ended up with trading in my Diamage Scan Dual for a Canon F9950, it works great!

 

[SHERPA]

Get the epson 4490 scanner
I Use it and scan xpan

 

[anaanda]

I just wanted to let you all know that I bought the 4490 epson for $250 with a 50 dollar rebate. Its a great affordable solution for xpan scanning

It works great. Just put it in normal mode (not thumbnail) and it will scan the whole strip as one. Then crop what you want to scan. The only problem is if you want to make prescan adjustments you'll have to turn your head sideways to look at the image Unless of course the shot is a vertical perspective. I imagine that if you have some scanning software you will be able to rotate it...