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I want to be able to calibrate my scanner. What image reference targets do folks here use to calibrate their scanner equipment? There appears to be quite a few on the market and some quite pricey. This question should have been in the digital hardware section.
Thanks,
Joe
Hi Joe,
I think it depends upon how serious you intend to get! The Hutchcolor targets are reputed to be the best available, and are priced accordingly (see www.hutchcolor.com). If you are intending to sell quality scans then you should probably invest in these, or their equivalents. However for most uses I believe that the targets produced by Wolf Faust are probably sufficient and a lot cheaper (see www.coloraid.de).
David Whistance
As a US alternative, a lot of people use Kodak IT8 targets as sort of a mid-range option between Hutchcolor and Wolf Faust. These are available from CHROMiX as well as other sources.
If you are primarily doing reflective scanning, it is also possible to have an existing (even an old, out of date) reflective target re-measured so that the reference file is updated. If you know anyone with a spectrophotometer, they could even make a custom reference file for you.
-Patrick Herold
CHROMiX Tech Support
You can also buy targets for both Kodak and Fuji films from Silverfast in Germany and the US. The ones I have seen are 6x7 but they may also have larger.
Silverfast has a Kodak target and a Fuji target - the Fuji target is Provia and available as a 4x5. Don't know what emulsion the Kodak target is. They unfortunately do not produce a Velvia target and a Provia profile is not really useful for Velvia.... I have used targets from Wolf Faust and they work great and are relatively inexpensive. You really don't need a large target - even with a 35mm sized target, you will not need to scan it at full-rez anyway.
I have a new, unopened Kodak target if anyone needs it. It's reflective only. I never used it.
you should also make sure that whatever software you're using to make the profile supports the target and especially the particular batch of targets you want to use. I've found that it's worth my time and effort to just get one from the people that make the calibration software.
Seems like there are two kinds of "targets" being discussed here, resolution targets to measure the detail your scanner is capable of, and film targets for profiling software to create profiles which make the scanner more accurate in terms of color and tonalities.