The ideal ICG drum is the one you just put any size trannies in a kind of slot next to the inside of the drum. You can mix any size in a batch. Putting them in and taking them out is very quick compared to lining them up in a Flextight holder. The light evaporating oil then spins up the inside of the drum by centrifugal force. When removed the oil evaporates instantly from the film. Its a bit like clear meths. The big advantage is that time is saved cleaning the trannies after scanning.
Dear Bob
The above would be very nice indeed, however I am most surprised to hear that
the one drum will accommodate a mixture of film sizes. Surely the slots are
designed to match the width of the film, be it 35mm, 120, 4"x5", and on up to
10"x8"? I imagine they use the same fluid we use here or something very
similar because ours evaporates straight off the film...no messy stuff thank
heavens. The thick stuff certainly makes mounting an easier job, but did
not want to use anything involve cleaning and thus a risk to film, and second the introduction of a substance with unnecessary viscosity appeared to have an effect on image sharpness.
Will you notice the difference on poor quality repro. in editorial magazine pictures? In all honesty I very much doubt it!!
With double page glossy spreads I reckon I can see a difference. The biggest difference in hi-end scans IMHO is the attitude of the operator towards grain sharpness. I prefer sharp grain but many seem to like the scan to be a bit soft for on-the-fly USM sharpening.
I think Graeme did say bad repro., so my comment was relevant to that proviso.
As for in-scanner sharpening, many prefer it is not done at the scan
stage...horror stories of photographers being supplied with large levels of this
even when asked not to. We almost always scan without sharpening on unless it
is specifically requested.
Your comments regarding the difference in scans is interesting....the use of in-
scanner sharpening was not the reason we changed to drums from CCD
scanners however.
Best wishes
Richard -- Richard Kenward Digital Imaging...Preparing quality drum scans for professionals. Details in Labs section at www.prodig.org (Or ask for our new drum scanning pdf) =============================================================== GO TO http://www.prodig.org for ~ GUIDELINES ~ un/SUBSCRIBING ~ ITEMS for SALE
