ScanWit 2750i vs Reflecta RPS or other "whole roll" scanners

[Tadeusz]

I'm using ScanWit 2750i with Vuescan for scanning. It has enough resolution for my B&W and occasional colour work. I think it delivers that "full" 2700 dpi (it's 9,5 MP file), the grain is clearly resolved and image is pretty sharp.
What bothers me is that it doesn't scan the whole frame border to border vertically. It's not much that is missing, maybe 1-2 mm, but sometimes it really makes difference. And I'd really like to have that full frame scan with borders.
Another thing is that it scans in 6 frames batches. It does it fast but my dream is to scan whole roll at once (put the film in, little setup and forget about it until it's done).

So I'm interested in buying one of those Reflecta RPS line sanners or smth similiar. I did some research about them but still have some questions.
- Are those scanners able to scan the whole frame? Maybe with extensive borders to crop them later.
- Is it unattended process to scan whole roll ? Like feed the scanner with a film and leave it do its job.
- Will it scan other formats like 24x24 from my Taxona in that automatic way?
- The focus is fixed or auto/manual ?

I suppose IQ would be similar to my ScanWit which is fine for me. Maybe someone here has/had both and could give some thoughts. Thank you 🙂

 

[Tadeusz]

After reading users thoughts here on RFF and other places I really don't know what to think about this equipment. Some people say that roll batch scanning is in reality useless and troublesome, while others state that it's quite ok actually. So I guess it depends on a particular item one gets. Matter of luck?

So one question remains without answer for me. Assuming that batch scanning works 🙂 will I be able to scan 24x24mm frames in automated manner?

And, will the IQ improve much from what I get from ScanWit?

I'm attaching sample files. Straight from scanner, no sharpening, just white point set. Developed in D76 stock - grain dissolving. Third one in R09, but it's strange (lovely) film without grain. Sorry for my english, I hope you understand me 🙂

1. Ilford Pan 400 + D76 stock



2. Ilford Pan 100 + D76 stock



3. Orwo Pf2 @ASA 6 + R09 1:50

 

[FalseDigital]

I'm not familiar with the model you've mentioned but I have a Pakon F135 and a Fujifilm Frontier SP-500. Both of which do whole roll scanning. And, both of which do indeed crop the frame a little bit when scanning. To my knowledge there aren't any whole roll scanners that don't crop the frame a little bit. So unfortunately, you'll probably have to do it manually if you're looking to get the full frame.

 

[Tadeusz]

Yeah, full frame or full roll. That's how this world works I suppose. But that's fine, it would be to easy 😀

I guess I have to answer a question what I want to improve in my scanning equipment. And I think the most important is speed. I'm shooting around 10 rolls a month, but I'd like to shoot more. What stops me is time needed to scan I think. Now I can see seven rolls in the fridge, waiting to be developed (which is really a relaxing activity for me)... but scanning ...is not. It's few hours of precious time, which I don't mind spending in a darkroom, but in front of the computer... blaah.
That Kodak Pakon seems to be the best choice, but it's rather expensive (like 2 months paycheck where I live 🙂 ).

I think that I'll have to make some decisions about how my workflow should look like. Maybe I'll simply go all the way analogue and just scan those better wet prints, since working in a darkroom is what I like the best.
In the beginning I wanted to scan my films to have them archived and to have kind of digital reference of what I want to wet print. But scanning and PP take all the time I have for processing my photo work and my darkroom is slowly dying 🙁 I'm wondering what is better, to have boxes full of wet prints or hard drive full of scans.

 

[rolfe]

For speed, get a Pakon 135+ or Noritsu LS-600. Both are in the affordable range, although the price for the Pakons has been on the upswing for a while now...

Rolfe

 

[Jon Buffington]

Just an fyi, there is a way to get the whole image scan on the pakon without the "crop." I have mine setup that way, there is a slight "hack" in the software. Can't remember the precise setup but that info is on the pakon FB page.

 

[ColSebastianMoran]

With the Pakon F135, using TLX Client Demo (one of the software packages) I get more of the frame, usually a bit of unexposed film, and the scans are 2000x3000 pixels.

With the PSI software (another of the Pakon packages) I never see the unexposed area and the scans are slightly smaller 1960 x 2941 pixels. I think they throw away a few pixels to make it easier for the operator to produce clean prints (no black edge).

Experiment a bit.