A Request for Scan Samples

[Henry Ambrose]

Frank,
I strongly suggest that you have one of your favorite pieces of film drum scanned by a competent scanner operator and use that as your benchmark. You'll have a direct comparison then and one that you control fully. Otherwise you won't know for sure if the film was exposed correctly, the camera was focused properly, the tripod and camera were locked down, the processing was good, or any number of variables that can be introduced after that in the scanning and digital processing stages.

You'll learn lots more from a high quality drum scan of your familiar film than looking at any number of other people's results. Those results will contain the marks of all their skill and/or lack of skill in the use of their scanner and post processing. How would you ever compare in a way that eliminated all the variables? The obvious answer is that you can't.

Go dig out that great negative that you can barely stand to let anyone else touch and have a great scan made. It'll be a great touchstone for your scanning education and a wonderful way to get fine prints from your very own favorite negative or transparency.

[Frank R]

And Slade wins the prize!!!! He gets it!

Thanks Slade.

Anybody else out there with an Epson 4990 that would like to show me how good it can scan? (please read, and understand, this thread before answering).

Impress me with a dry scan versus a wet scan of the same 4x5 negative/slide?

Or just a pre- and post-processed wet scan?

How about a file that you think prints out great at 16x20?

[Ted Harris]

Frank, the library won't work here .... file sizes would be too big. Additionally, the ealie posts are right that you won't learn as much from printing different images from different folks as you will from printing the same image from different scans from different scanners. Do what Henry suggests. If you are anywhere near me come on by and I'll do one for you.

[Frank R]

Frank, the library won't work here .... file sizes would be too big. Additionally, the ealie posts are right that you won't learn as much from printing different images from different folks as you will from printing the same image from different scans from different scanners. Do what Henry suggests. If you are anywhere near me come on by and I'll do one for you.

Thanks for the offer Ted, I may have to take you up on it. And I understand about the file sizes being too big.

As for the other points: I don't want to compare other scanners; and I don't need to see what a drum scan can do. My scanner will never be able to reach that output. I just want to see the best that my scanner can do.