[filmscanners] Re: Aztek Premier 8000 dpi scan.
I think a better comparison would be the Aztek against a dedicated film scanner, not a flat bed. It is clear to me there is a focus issue with the Epson. R. Jackson wrote: I thought some of you might enjoy seeing this. I went down to Petaluma today and Lenny Eiger introduced me to scanning with a drum scanner. http://www.eigerphoto.com/ I essentially got a crash course in the practicalities of drum scans from someone with a lot of practical experience in making them. I've been all ripped-up this week about my cat having liver failure (I buried her last night) and I'd mis-read Lenny's email about bringing something *not* too challenging for a first scan. I glanced through some boxes of 30-year-old Ektachrome quickly last night and brought along a slide taken inside a van. There's a window on the verge of being blown out and an interior that was so deeply in shadow that it was almost black. Something taken in a band vehicle a long time ago of a drummer napping. Before I left this morning I'd scanned the slide at the 6400 dpi setting on my V700. Lenny scanned it at 8000 dpi on his Aztek. I've uploaded both a lossless .jpf and a jpeg. The jpeg actually looks pretty close to the same as the jpf and it's one meg instead of seventeen, just FYI. You can see them here: http://homepage.mac.com/jackson.robert.rex/ These are 100% crops. The V700 on top, obviously. I scaled the V700 scan up to the 8000 dpi so it would be the same size as the Aztek scan. It's amazing how much more detail the Aztek pulled out of the slide. And this was a ratty old Ektachrome 400 slide. I can hardly imagine what well-exposed 6x7 or 4x5 would yield under the right circumstances. One of the most telling things to me is the etched printing on the window. You can almost read it in the Aztek scan. And see the area on the right side of the window frame? The Epson scan has some kind of strange artifact going on. The edge of the window all the way down through the curve at the bottom looks very strange. On the Aztek crop it looks very natural and smooth. It's amazing, really. Almost too much detail. Lenny is a gentleman with a genuine enthusiasm for what he does and a great wealth of knowledge and experience to guide him. You couldn't ask for a better demo of the technology. I'm really happy to know he's just down the road. -Robert Jackson Unsubscribe by mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED], with 'unsubscribe filmscanners' or 'unsubscribe filmscanners_digest' (as appropriate) in the message title or body
[filmscanners] Re: Aztek Premier 8000 dpi scan.
On Jul 20, 2007, at 11:23 PM, gary wrote: I think a better comparison would be the Aztek against a dedicated film scanner, not a flat bed. It is clear to me there is a focus issue with the Epson. Yeah, the Epson's problematic at best. I put up crops from the Epson here: http://www.pbase.com/rrjackson/comparison You'll notice that the 100% crops at 2400, 3200, 4800 and 6400 dpi look almost identical. I have a hard time believing that the Epson really resolves more than about 2000 dpi, despite its claim to resolve 6400 dpi. A more interesting comparison, if someone were to do scans strictly for the purposes of comparison, would be the Epson against a Nikon or Minolta film scanner. I'd actually find it pretty interesting to see how the Epson and a Nikon equipped with Aztek's Nikon wet mount holder would compare. Just to see where the juice is in the consumer market. Of course, that's still comparing a $2000 film scanner to a $500 flatbed. -Robert Jackson Unsubscribe by mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED], with 'unsubscribe filmscanners' or 'unsubscribe filmscanners_digest' (as appropriate) in the message title or body
