After having so many difficulties scanning negatives and
transparencies on my Epson 1200U scanner, I discussed one of the
problems, posterization, with a SilverFast tech. He suggested
that the problem could be beyond the capabilities of my scanner
and to make some scans with a higher quality scanner. Upon his
suggestion, I asked the owner of a local photo service company to
scan a particularly difficult negative (2 1/4" X 2 1/4")on his
Sytek scanner (perhaps an overkill to the tech's suggestion). The
comparison of his scan and the best I could do on my scanner is
depressing, to say the least. While the color was a good bit off
(it was a raw scan), there was no posterization and I was able to
adjust the colors to within an acceptable range in Photoshop. The
image was razor sharp.
The photo service has been in business for almost thirty years and
has made the transition from film to digital imaging. He has two
printers - one very large format inkjet and another large format
printer that exposes the image, via a laser scan, on to
photographic paper. The images are breathtaking - some billboard
size. While he still has one E-6 line operating, does some black
and white work, and still uses a Deardorff copy camera for copy
work, over 90% of his business is digital. It was interesting (to
me, at least) that he does not use ICC profiles. His finish work
is all done within his in-house loop and image scans are given to
the customer as raw TIFF files. He uses both PC's and Macs in his
facility.
An even more interesting observation is that the scan he made for
me was done to produce a 20" X 20" image at 300 dpi. That is well
within the capability of the 4000 dpi Polaroid and Microtek
scanners and the Minolta Scan Multi II. The Sytek does have a bit
higher OD (advertised 4.1 Dmax) but I believe that the scanners
just mentioned could come very close to the same result. All have
42 bit image data internal (I think).
The visit to my friend, Cecil Isbell, his company, Quality Photo,
was an eye opener. While a good medium format scanner is probably
beyond my justifiable reach, I fully appreciate Polaroid and other
manufacture's interest in producing quality scanners for medium
format at a price within the reach of serious amateurs and small
business professionals. Things just keep getting better.
Jim Sims
====================================================================
The filmscanners mailing list is hosted by http://www.halftone.co.uk
To resign, <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> with UNSUBSCRIBE FILMSCANNERS in the
title, or UNSUBSCRIBE FILMSCANNERS_DIGEST if you are reading the Digest.
