What flatbed scanner for 4x5/5x7 negatives?

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Originally Posted by koraks

My observations match those of a maximum optical resolution of about 1800dpi, maybe a tad more.

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Your observations tally with our own Nathan Potter's analysis. See his graph, which shows that usable contrast drops below 50% once we exceed 1500 dpi.

One can make the case that the scanner produces higher resolution data - and indeed the chart shows scanning data at resolution up to 2500 dpi - but contrast diminishes accordingly.

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Originally Posted by Bill_1856

I no longer have a darkroom, just about out of Polaroid materials, and will soon need to start making digital prints from my LF negatives.
What moderately priced flatbed scanner do you recommend?
Thanks

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Microtek i900 or its replacement scan the negatives w/o glass between the negative and the scanner light.

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Originally Posted by koraks

I notice no difference depending on which side is up.

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Based on many threads, when dry mounting, it seems the number emulsion side down folks = the number of emulsion side up folks.

Me, I'm a card-carrying member of the emulsion side down party.

Either way, the key point is that you're putting the film (emulsion side up or down) against the etched (AN) surface of the mounting glass.

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Originally Posted by bobwysiwyg

I use, or did use Vuescan. It's an application. Without a compatible driver, Vuescan will never see said scanner.

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You’re mistaken. Vuescan ships with it’s own drivers for a lot of scanners (not all).

This is how they support lots of scanners on Linux (I use my V750 under Linux). And also how they can support the Nikon CoolScans under 64-bit Windows (which is why I purchased VueScan to begin with).


My father taught me emulsion-side-down for contact prints and for enlargers. So I’m in that camp also. But now the Epson V7X0 holders show clearly that the mirror image should face up, i.e., emulsion side up. The native raw data the scanner delivers is also mirrored if emulsion side is down. They even explained this in the manual of the old Expression 1680.

But now for the V8X0, suddenly they have instructions to put the matte side down and the shiny side up.

I'll check into it.

Vuescan updates almost daily. Every time I open it, it asks do I want load the latest version.

The guy is on top of it.

you might get lucky with a epson 4870
i have had one for years and it scans 5x7
you will have to make a negative holder for it ..
(or buy one)

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Originally Posted by Randy Moe

Vuescan updates almost daily. Every time I open it, it asks do I want load the latest version.

The guy is on top of it.

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A duh, moment. I transferred all apps and data to the new system some time ago, including Vuescan, but it never worked, thinking it was a driver issue. The real problem was not having the 64 bit version of Vuescan. Problem solved, thanks.

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Originally Posted by Heroique

Either way, the key point is that you're putting the film (emulsion side up or down) against the etched (AN) surface of the mounting glass.

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I agree; in case you use glass, of course. I use the Epson 4990 stock holder which is glassless itself and suspends the film above the platen, resulting in the film not touching any glass. I understand wet mounting could show an improvement, but I haven't tried that approach yet.

I was given a HP 4890 and it's my only way of scanning 4x5 negs. Unfortunately it doesn't do a very good job, as I've since found confirmed by some reviews. I'm wondering if this is basically a cheap hardware issue, or could good software like Vuescan make a difference. Thanks.