Re: [APML]: Digitizing Slides. Help!

[Robin Casady <rcasady@scruznet.com>]

Brad Wallis wrote:
> 
> I had a number of scans made from 6x7 color and from 4x5 Tech Pan using the
> PRO quality PhotoCD scans ... the color was OK .. the Tech Pan scans were
> only so so compared to what I could do in a print ... but I am a pretty
> good printer and my criteria might be a bit steep .. a rookie printer
> would probably be pretty happ with what I saw on these PRO quality photo CD
> scans ...

PhotoCD and Pro PhotoCD quality can vary from service to service, and
perhaps, operator to operator, day to day.

> Chuck speaks rightly .. these inexpensive scanners seem to do OK on color
> but they are limited to an overall density range of about 3.0 ( except for
> the LEAF models ) ... and so do fairly poorly on Tech Pan negs ....
> the PRO PhotoCD scans are supposedly better but I was not totally impressed
> when it came to Tech Pan negs ... ( also.. when you scan a 4x5 neg with
> the PRO PhotoCD ( besides needing LOTS of RAM ! ) you end up with coarse
> resolution images ( pixels are ~ 25 microns in such a scan ) .. )...

I have been using a Nikon Coolscan (not the SuperCoolscan) for non-astro
photos. It has its limitations, and is a step down from 35mm film, which
IMHO is a huge step down from 4x5. In large even tone dark areas, such
as a dark blue sky (read heavy use of polarizing filter), very subtle
scan lines will sometimes appear. It varies from image to image. Just
certain colors and tones show the streaks. This is far too subtle to
show up on a scan for a Web site, but can be a problem for output to 4x5
film for printing.

I have not done much B&W with the Coolscan, but net gossip indicates
that some B&W films do not work well. T-Max films are reputably
unusable. On the other hand Ilford XP2 is supposed to work quite well.
This may be true for other slide scanners. I don't recall any comments
on Tech Pan.
-- 
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Robin Casady
http://www.casadyg.com
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