Super quci vuescan/7600i question.

[redstarjedi]

Ok, while scanning black and white on vuescan with the plustek 7600. What should i set bits per pixel to for max quality. I am scanning to a TIFF file and i have bits per pixel set to 64bit RGBI

Is that unnecessary? Also if it were toned down would i get faster scans?

 

[Murchu]

16 bit greyscale, I imagine. The I in RGBI is for infrared I'm guessing, for which there would be no point with b&w scans, as the infrared dust removal only works on colour images.

 

[cabbiinc]

The bits per second won't make much difference. The DPI will. Scanning to the size you need, rather than the maximum size, would speed things up a bit. Also if you have any multi-exposure or multi-sampling turned on that will be a second scan, so eliminating that will halve your scan times.

 

[Bob Michaels]

Your scanner will always scan your film with a Red channel, a Blue channel, a Green channel and possibly an IR channel, all to 16 bit precision regardless of settings. When scanning a b&w neg, the Red, Blue and Green channels will be very similar since you were scanning something with no color in it. All scanners just work this way.

The scanner will then either merge these channels into gray if it has that ability and is directed by the driver or it will send these 3 or 4 channels of data back up through the USB cable to the scan driver (Vuescan) resident in your CPU(s). Vuescan can then manipulate these 3 or 4 channels of similar data and save them as 64bit RGBI (16 bits red, 16 bits blue, 16 bits green and maybe 16 bits IR, total 64 bits). Or, Vuescan can average the Red, Green and Blue channels (remember they are very similar) with emphasis on the green and create one 16 bit grayscale file. This much smaller file saves and loads faster but has essentially the same true data.

I always save scans of b&w film as 16 bit grayscale files.

 

[redstarjedi]

Wow, thanks every one for your input. I'll scan to 16 bit greyscale tiffs now.

 

[Rogier]

Don't forget to change the setting under "Output" Tiff to 16 Bit gray as well ;-)

 

[useless generation]

I always scanned them as regular 48bit files then I could adjust WB after I clicked black and white in Lightroom.

Will the 16bit grayscale files work better?

 

[brbo]

...Or, Vuescan can average the Red, Green and Blue channels (remember they are very similar) with emphasis on the green and create one 16 bit grayscale file.

Or, you can tell Vuescan which channel (R, G or B) to use for 16bit B&W. Some people know/test which channel will give them the best results (generally), others scan to 48bit and decide later (what works best for particular picture) or leave it to their editing software to handle the conversion for them.

I don't shoot much BW so differences for me are hardly noticeable (others find noticeable shadow detail, sharpness etc. differences between R, G and B channels). That said, I still scan into RAW with 48bit depth (64bit on color film if I scan with the scanner that has IR) and archive that file so I have everything that is on a negative in digital format. No need for me to touch that negative ever again (unless I buy a better scanner)...

 

[Rogier]

I always scanned them as regular 48bit files then I could adjust WB after I clicked black and white in Lightroom.

Will the 16bit grayscale files work better?

I played with both can could not see the difference other than a significant difference in file size..