Creo/Scitec/Kodak Eversmart Supreme

[miesnert]

Hi everyone,

At the moment when I scan my negatives I am doing this in a local photolab where it is possible to rent the Imacon Flextight x5 by the hour.
I now have the possibility to buy a Creo/Scitec/Kodak Eversmart Supreme for €1500 including a macbook, calibration sheets, firewire connection and cable set etc...

Is this a good deal? Will my image quality improve or be equal to the Imacon scans I am getting now?


Thanks for the input,
Sander

[Kimberly Anderson]

It's a good deal. Snag it.

[Thad Gerheim]

I have an Eversmart Supreme and a Tango drum scanner. The quality is close, my bigger problem is getting accrurate color from the Eversmart, which could be from my lack of training.
Getting technical support for the Eversmart can be a problem.

In my opinion the quality of the scan will surpass the Imacon when properly scannned.

[Ari]

Now that that's been answered, can anybody recommend the "Jazz" scanner, also made by Creo?
Would that be an upgrade over the Epson 750 or 850?
Thanks in advance.

EDIT: Never mind, I found lots of information in the archives.

[8x10 user]

Yes, that is a great deal. Let me know if you dont want it and I will buy it.

The X5 is better for 35mm. However, for large format, the scanner has to zoom out where-as the creo scanners are able to scan into multiple high resolution strips which are automatically stitched in the software. If it is good condition then it will out resolve your large format film.

I recommend fluid mounting for maximum quality.

[8x10 user]

Are you scanning chromes? Don Hutchinson has a nice workflow for scanning with Creo scanners on his site. Basically you scan everything into a DT file and than increase the contrast slightly before running your color profiling software on the target of your film type. This will create an extended dynamic range profile. It will be lower contrast then you might like but it will also prevent clipping and makes for a good starting point for the photoshop phase.

When scanning with the creo scanners, make sure to go into the settings and turn off any descreening options. These options are turned on by default and result in a less sharp (optically defocused) image. I would also turn off sharpening; which is better done in post.

I have an Eversmart Supreme and a Tango drum scanner. The quality is close, my bigger problem is getting accrurate color from the Eversmart, which could be from my lack of training.
Getting technical support for the Eversmart can be a problem.

In my opinion the quality of the scan will surpass the Imacon when properly scannned.

[Thad Gerheim]

Thanks! It was with negatives that I had more trouble with. Currently my Eversmart Supreme needs some servicing and I've just been using the Tango drum scanner. I'll keep Don Hutchinson's workflow in mind.

Are you scanning chromes? Don Hutchinson has a nice workflow for scanning with Creo scanners on his site. Basically you scan everything into a DT file and than increase the contrast slightly before running your color profiling software on the target of your film type. This will create an extended dynamic range profile. It will be lower contrast then you might like but it will also prevent clipping and makes for a good starting point for the photoshop phase.

When scanning with the creo scanners, make sure to go into the settings and turn off any descreening options. These options are turned on by default and result in a less sharp (optically defocused) image. I would also turn off sharpening; which is better done in post.

[8x10 user]

Correcting negatives during the scan process is more art than science. Everything must be done by eye so its important to have a calibrated monitor and updated profiles. Old macs us a gamma of 1.8 but you might have better success with 2.2 which is now the multiplatform norm.

Personally I have found the Creo software to work better with negatives than Newcolor.

For service of your eversmart I strongly recommend Ryan Newton. Ryan is a true perfectionist and would trust a Foreversmarts scanner to be of top quality and standards. I will pm you his phone number. Ryan sells and services scanners worldwide.

[SergeyT]

I do not think that anyone have to worry about anything but sharpening when scanning on an Eversmart with DT support (either positive or negative film). The sharpening should be turned off and a scan made into DT at the max optical of the scanner.
The most critical part is to have an accurate input profile, which with Eversmarts is an art of its own.
It is a good idea to start working with the scanner with a scan of a color target, also made in DT, so later it can be extracted into an RGB TIFF for a profile making purposes.
Then the actual scanning becomes a pretty boring process. Cleanup your film, put it on the base glass, mask it and let the scanner scan it into DT (sharpening off). There are no settings to mess up at all. And it is guaranteed to make the best capture the hardware is capable of, as during prescan it measures the image DR, adjusts the lamp intensity and exposure for the final scan to get the best possible shadow detail without overexposing the highlights. All that info is then written into a DT file which is an analog of a RAW file in DSLR world.
Once you have your input profile made, open the DT in oXYgen Scan (scanner should be on when you start the app), apply the input profile, specify the output profile (J Holmes profiles work really great for that), zoom in at 100% onto the image White point, set the eye dropper there, adjust your white point, extract the file into RGB TIFF. Fine tune the RGB TIFF in PS. The beauty of this workflow is that each image scanned into DT contains the best bits the HF is capable off and one can make as many conversions from it as needed (or as experience grows) using different input and output profiles and other oXYgen correction settings. This workflow is especially great for working with negatives as it does not require any special settings , not even specifying that the film type is negative, during the actual DT scanning.

SergeyT.

[miesnert]

Thanks guys for all the answers! Very nice.
I think I will go ahead and buy the unit.