I am now the proud owner of what Jim at Midwest Photo told me is one of the last 100 Microtek 1800f scanners at the Microtek importer in California. It arrived today, Thursday; it was ordered on Monday, pretty quick service. It's quite a hunk of a machine compared to the ancient Epson 2450 it replaces.
I purchased the 1800f for scanning 4x5 black and white negatives. I did lots of reading and consultation before making the decision that it's likely to be superior even to the new 7xx Epsons for 4x5.
Paul Butzi's article on his website makes it pretty clear that Silverfast Ai software is superior to Microtek ScanWizard. The scanner comes with Silverfast Ai, so I would like to to learn to use it. However, Silverfast is, at least at first view, not the most intuitive software I have ever used. Silverfast seems to be another order of magnitude of complexity compared to the Nikon scanner software I used with my 35mm LS-40.
Can someone make some specific recommendations for workflow for Silverfast Ai on the 1800f for black and white negatives? I have searched this site and done some googling as well but still have questions. I'm considering attending one of Ted Harris's and Michael Mutmansky's workshops, but in the meantime...
I've read that it is best to scan as a RGB file, do people use 48 bit, positive or negative? What about the negafix component, does one set it to the black and white film being scanned, TMAX 100 in my case, or does one pick a color film setting?
I have read Scott Rosenberg's article on choosing a channel, the sharpest, and using that. Is it done with channel mixer in PS CS2 or by somehow tossing the unused channels, and if so, how does one do that? I've seen some tutorials on the web and looked at the quicktime movies in the program but they're all dealing with color.
I would be most grateful for any assistance.
Eric
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