iQsmart3 workflow questions

[EH21]

Hi All,
I'm just getting started with an iQSmart 3. Michael Streeter was super helpful and spent a generous amount of time with me over the phone - great guy! I tried to buy a few things from him but he suggested I get going on the scanner first and then come back. So far so good - I've already cut up my own mask for 120 film strips with mostly 6x6 frames and the scanner is busy working away on now. I'm curious to hear from people who have experience using this machine on:

Do you ever use DT mode and then colorneg to invert the image - if so when and why? I tried this and got decent results for color and ok results for black and white but don't have a film profile in colorneg for b&w that I like.

I take it no one uses the sharpening in oXYgen software, but then what do you use for sharpening later? Most sharpening routines these days were developed for digital not film - I've tried the sharpening in LR, and NIK Define, and also just smart sharpen in photoshop. What's good for high res scans with film grain?

Michael told me a lot of users were taping their negs to the bottom of the mask emulsion facing down toward glass, and to experiment, but manual says to tape on top with emulsion down. I've just tried this twice but it seems that it's better on top. What do you all do? And what kind of tape do you use? I'm using a 1/4 inch thick blue removable masking tape right now - seems okay particularly for the mask but probably there's better option?

What res are you scanning different films - I just found that T-max 400 at 5000 had more detail than 4000dpi but Delta 400 did not have enough detail to scan at even 4000 dpi, and the machine is running a batch of Portra 400 now which looks like 4000 dpi is overkill. I will find out what works in due time but just curious if the collective users have some guidelines out there?

My machine is pretty slow - about 40 minutes per 6x6 frame at 5000dpi and 9 minutes per 6x6 frame at 2400 dpi with dedicated PowerMac 3,1 system so just wondering if that is about normal and if there is any way to help it go faster?

Anyone out there have the wet mount kit for this? Is it worth it?

Thanks,
Eric

[Jim Andrada]

I have an IQsmart 2 so "only" 4300 dpi. I scan at 4300 for anything under 4 x 5 film and sometimes for 4 x 5 and 5 x 7 as well - I think it's overkill and I usually cut the resolution in Photoshop - I think downsampling reduces the noise so it isn't neceessarily bad to scan at max resolution, just (as you've noticed) SLOW!, My "workflow" if one could call it that is to load the machine up at night, start scanning, and go to bed. In the morning Santa has dropped of a dozen scans or so ready to load into Photoshop, where all the real work happens. I usually just tape the negs to the scanner glass, although I do have a mask for 4 x 5.

[EH21]

Jim,
Thanks for the reply. I haven't seen much noise? But definitely grain yes.
I did my first scans by taping to glass - I guess if I do that more I will use very thick tape to avoid some of the flare. The mask that I made is a bit of a PIA since you can't really get the edges of the image always inside the mask. But on the other hand with the mask, I don't have to worry about getting the negs straight.

[Jim Andrada]

I don't worry too much about flare - I don't see much if any difference between masked and not masked. Of course, my wife also says I wouldn't see a bear if it were sitting at the table with us, either.

[walla]

This is an old thread so I don't know how much use this information will have to the OP, but I just received my "new" iQSmart 3 yesterday and have been looking for similar tips and tricks.

For tape and mounting, I use the Aztek AZ-SMT Scan-Mounting Tape. It's residue free, and can also be used for taping down negatives for fluid mounting without dissolving. On my iQSmart I've only mounted my negatives on top of the mask as the instructions call for, it seems easier to line things up that way.

I'm new to the Oxygen Scan software, I haven't quite figured out DT mode and its ins & outs, but I have had early luck scanning a negative as a positive and taking them into Photoshop using the CFSystems ColorPerfect plugin. It has profiles for many, if not all, popular films, and I have had great results that way. There is also the Negative Lab Pro Lightroom plugin that converts linear negative scans to positive inside of Lightroom. I personally prefer ColorPerfect but the Negative Lab Pro plugin has produced acceptable results.

I may post more here as I get more familiar with this new scanner and software, in hopes of providing some additional tips to future users.