Drum Scan Forensics

[JW Dewdney]

Hi all. Well - today I just received close to $1K worth of drum scans from a very well-known service bureau, supposedly somewhat renowned for their quality scans. Out of the interest of protecting them, in case this is a simple mistake or misunderstanding - I'm not going to name names. At any rate - I was just going over the scans, and was a little bit appalled at what APPEARS to be poor quality.

So- the POINT of this post is to determine what factors one can use to determine whether or not a scan is a QUALITY scan. The criteria I used to determine these were 'poor' scans were the following;

1. Colour Balance - surprised to find it pretty far off!!
2. Blue channel is terrifically noisy in some of the scans. It goes BEYOND grain - it's actually 'chunky'..!!
3. Histogram is spiky as hell - previous drum scans had super dense, rich histograms, with seemingly good bit depth.
4. They simply don't look that great - to me. I've made C-prints off the same film - and the result was superior.

Is it possible that I'm in the wrong in terms of my assessment? Why? Any suggestions? I think I would agree with the criteria cited in the scanner shootout results posted on this site (you know the one, right?). Can anyone make a good suggestion as to what good evaluative criteria might be otherwise?

Thanks much for your time reading this!
J.

[Frank Petronio]

The local service I used recently lost their best person and I spent the afternoon "training" the replacement. They probably had some staff problem too, that is the most likely scenario.

By all means complain!

[JW Dewdney]

from the scans - it looks like the PMT for the YELLOW channel is dying or something. But I don't think that actually HAPPENS with PMT scanners. Just CCDs... wouldn't you think that the fact that the blue channel is extra noisy would be good evidence that a CCD flatbed was actually used (well -that's my theory thus far)...? Good point frank - but regardless - I'm just trying to figure out if, in fact, my judgement is on the mark first...

[George Kara]

I strongly suggest buying a good used scanner and doing it yourself. I purchased a scitex eversmart pro for around 3k including software.

I process everything using silverfast hdr and purchased the silverfast book which is effective for color management.

I can get it right pretty well every time and it really isnt that difficult to do.

[JW Dewdney]

I strongly suggest buying a good used scanner and doing it yourself.

Well- I use a heidelberg scanner with silverfast personally. it's fine for most stuff. I think I can pull a better result than pretty much any semi-pro scanner (esp. from a neg). But I'm doing some 20x24 prints for my portfolio - and I don't want to mess around with this stuff. I need the ABSOLUTE best quality. The lab uses a crosfield - so that SHOULD be plenty to do the job. But anyway...

[Doug Dolde]

Call them up and complain ! The squeaky wheel gets the grease !

[JW Dewdney]

oh - of course I will, Doug. I have no problem with that.. I'm just trying to figure out what the source of the problem was first - so that I'll be in a better position to deal with it when I go talk to them tomorrow.

[Gordon Moat]

The lab I use for scanning, and a service bureau I sometimes use, would both do the scans over at no additional charge if I indicated to them a problem with the scans they did for me. Noise in only one channel sounds like either a problem with one PMT, or getting the settings very wrong on the scanner. I would simply ask them to do the scans over, while explaining what you felt was wrong.

Ciao!

Gordon Moat
A G Studio

[George Kara]

I assume you dont mean you own a tango. I suggest you take a look at the excellent scanner review comparison on the LF page. The crossfield seems like a decent scanner in comparison but doesnt outperform the other pro-level products.

There is a great kodak/creo/scitex on e*** right now with an asking price of around 1350. This is one of the best scanners on the market.

Scanning is like managing your own money. Nobody will do a better job than you.

[Kirk Gittings]

JW, Just curious:

But I'm doing some 20x24 prints for my portfolio

Is this a commercial portfolio? Why are you doing portfolio prints so large? I don't use a portfolio any more (haven't needed one since websites), but when I did I wanted it to fit in a Fed Ex box.