Polaroid SprintScan 45 Ultra

[David A. Goldfarb]

I have Vuescan and FotoLook v. 3, and I prefer FotoLook with my Agfa scanner. I usually can save some PhotoShop work by adjusting curves and levels in FotoLook. I've posted a bunch of my FotoLook curves for different films and film/developer combination as a ZIP file around here somewhere, which you should be able to turn up with a search.

I have an original Duoscan and have had a Duoscan T1200, but the Duoscan has gotten streaky.

I find I get much sharper results by using the glass tray with a sheet of glass on top of the neg or transparency than I do with the open film carriers.

[Per Berntsen]

Ted,

I have a trial version of Silverfast AI, and I wasn't able to get good scans from color negatives with that either. But I didn't spend a lot of time with it, so may I should give it another go.

I remember having read a tutorial on the internet about scanning color negs as positives, and then converting them in photoshop. Unforunately I didn't bookmark it, but it shouldn't be too difficult to find.

How do you think the Microtek M1 would compare to the Agfa T2500?

[Per Berntsen]

David,

Thanks for the curves offer, but I'm quite happy with VueScan.
I happen to get the sharpest results with the glassless carrier.

[Ted Harris]

Per, I suspect the M1 will not be in quite the same league as the T2500 in terms of resolution. May be a bit better in terms of DMax. If you can't solve the color issues with software it could be a problem with the lamp in the machine getting weak/wearing out. The M1 will give you excellent color.

[Per Berntsen]

Ted,

In the end, I succeeded in making a good scan from a sheet of Portra 160 VC. In my previous attempts I had used VPS, for which there were no profiles in Vuescan or Silverfast. I got the best result with Vuescan, Silverfast had a tendcency to clip the highlights. (this may well be due to my lack of experience with Silverfast.)

Another problem I ran into was that the preview sometimes had a reddish/yellowish cast on the right hand side, see enclosed image. The film is scanned right to left, so I think may be the lamp was not warmed up long enough - or is this a sign of a dying lamp?
And do you think it might be possible to get a replacement lamp from Microtek?

[Per Berntsen]

Here's the image

[Ted Harris]

Difficult to tell anything without seeing the original. If it is the lamp I imagine you can get a replacement. But it could be any number of things. Do you have the problem with other images? Does it happen only on the preview/prescan or also on the scan?

As far as the clipping goes, are you using the automated settings or manually setting your white and black points? Set them manually and you should fix the problem.

[Per Berntsen]

Here's what the image really looks like, this is the scan made directly after the prescan in my previous post. And yes, it only seems to happen with prescans, but not every time.

I did the following test just now:
The scanner was on, but had not been used for several hours, and the lamp was off, and cold. I made a prescan, which had the yellow cast on the right hand side. I then immediately made another prescan, (while the lamp was still on) which was OK.

So far, it has only happened with prescans, and with different images. Sorry for not being more specific in my previous post. I have been using this scanner for several weeks, but only for black & white, until a couple of days ago. I suppose this cast would not be visible in black & white.

As for the clipping in Vuescan, I may have clicked on something inadvertently. I'll give it a try again.

[Ted Harris]

Per,

I suspect you answered your own question several posts ago and that what you are seeing is inadequate time for the lamp to fully warm-up. FYI, many high-end scanners go through a warm-up count-down and unless you choose to bypass same won't let you do anything with the machine until the count-down is finished.

[Per Berntsen]

Ted,

You have been very helpful - thanks a lot.