Results 1 to 7 of 7

Thread: Imacon vs Drum Scans

  1. #1

    Imacon vs Drum Scans

    HI all, I know this may have been done to death, and I've seen a few comparisons here and there, but I wouldn't mind a fresh thread.

    I normally get my 6x17's scanned by WCI on the tango, and they have been excellent. However with the AUD dropping, they are getting expensive. Tangos are very hard to find in Australia, but a few people have imacons. I have a 343, but I find that for large format printing, it's just not good enough. I want some people's advice on 848, and 949 imacons and how they compare to the tango..... Any experience with scanning companies in australia would also be appreciated.

    Regards

  2. #2

    Join Date
    May 2006
    Location
    grand rapids
    Posts
    3,851

    Re: Imacon vs Drum Scans

    Three to one would be 6x18
    I had an older imacon flextight that i wasn't happy with either and i ended up with a Screen drum scanner. The results great: better color, better dmax, better detail. Sorry, can't help with the newer imacons.

  3. #3

    Join Date
    Aug 2007
    Location
    Australia
    Posts
    143

    Re: Imacon vs Drum Scans

    Quote Originally Posted by 3to1ratio View Post
    HI all, I know this may have been done to death, and I've seen a few comparisons here and there, but I wouldn't mind a fresh thread.

    I normally get my 6x17's scanned by WCI on the tango, and they have been excellent. However with the AUD dropping, they are getting expensive. Tangos are very hard to find in Australia, but a few people have imacons. I have a 343, but I find that for large format printing, it's just not good enough. I want some people's advice on 848, and 949 imacons and how they compare to the tango..... Any experience with scanning companies in australia would also be appreciated.

    Regards
    I do Flextight 848 scans commercially. Customers regularly bring me drums scans to compare (some of which they'd paid silly money for) and I haven't seen anything yet I haven't been able to match. Drums come into their own for difficult originals or for huge enlargements though.

    I offer 6x17 tranny scans for AUD $45 each (unclipped, unsharpened, colour space of your choice, spotted) plus $10 per DVD burnt. The file size works out to be about 900MB. If you're interested, give me a call on (02) 4842-2976.

  4. #4

    Join Date
    Oct 2005
    Location
    Santa Cruz, CA
    Posts
    2,094

    Re: Imacon vs Drum Scans

    Quote Originally Posted by 3to1ratio View Post
    HI all, I know this may have been done to death, and I've seen a few comparisons here and there, but I wouldn't mind a fresh thread.

    I normally get my 6x17's scanned by WCI on the tango, and they have been excellent. However with the AUD dropping, they are getting expensive. Tangos are very hard to find in Australia, but a few people have imacons. I have a 343, but I find that for large format printing, it's just not good enough. I want some people's advice on 848, and 949 imacons and how they compare to the tango..... Any experience with scanning companies in australia would also be appreciated.

    Regards
    I'd ask Aztek if they had any customers there. I would look for someone with a Premier - twice as sharp as the Tango. I believe the ICG 380 also is a 3 micron-capable scanner. I'm with Vinny on this one... a drum scanner is going to beat a CCD scanner every time.

    Lenny
    EigerStudios
    Museum Quality Drum Scanning and Printing

  5. #5

    Re: Imacon vs Drum Scans

    thanks guys for your time.

  6. #6

    Join Date
    Sep 2005
    Location
    Germany, Aalen
    Posts
    849

    Re: Imacon vs Drum Scans

    I can not give a you a comparison of a drum scann to an Imacon, but I had a few 6x6 scans made by both Nicon Coolscan 9000 and Imacon X5 at 3000 (3200) dpi and frankly speaking could not see any difference in the sharpness (I mean detail) or Dmax. They were really close. So if you ahve an experience with Coolscan you may get an idea.
    Matus

  7. #7

    Join Date
    Jun 2006
    Posts
    160

    Re: Imacon vs Drum Scans

    Hi, I've seen some great Imacon 848 scans from 4x5 that have held up well even when printed to reasonably large sizes - I've printed them myself up to 32x40 and have seen them printed up to 48x60 (I must admit I was initially sceptical about the first, let alone the latter, but it looked "OK" even up close). However I do think that they are more demanding of a well exposed transparency than a drum scanner is. Also despite my previous comment I don't think that they hold up to big enlargements as well as a drum scan at the same spi.

    I have scanned a number of transparancies on my drum scanner (Howtek 4000 so nothing fancy!) that have also been scanned by others on an Imacon 848. Comparing the two digital files the drum scanned one (from Velvia 50) had much less noise in the shadows. The drum scanner was also better at digging out detail from dark areas, however this may have been an operator rather than a scanner issue.

Similar Threads

  1. Imacon 848 scans - is this OK ??
    By Matus Kalisky in forum Digital Processing
    Replies: 20
    Last Post: 6-Jun-2011, 14:19
  2. Imacon Scans and Flexcolor
    By Julian Boulter in forum Digital Hardware
    Replies: 5
    Last Post: 26-Jan-2008, 04:21
  3. Purchase drum Scanner or pay for scans
    By Dave Jeffery in forum Digital Hardware
    Replies: 50
    Last Post: 31-Dec-2007, 16:53
  4. A&I Labs - drum scans
    By Paul Butler in forum Digital Hardware
    Replies: 7
    Last Post: 2-Jul-2005, 07:51
  5. LF drum scans in Canada
    By tim atherton in forum Digital Hardware
    Replies: 1
    Last Post: 2-Feb-2002, 23:08

Bookmarks

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •