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Thread: Affordable Scanning of 4X5 nagatives

  1. #11

    Join Date
    Dec 2001
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    68

    Affordable Scanning of 4X5 nagatives

    It really depends on the quality you want. For $75 to $100 dollars/scan, a TRUE pro lab will do a "drum scan," where the negative or transparency is immersed in an oil and scanned. It is the highest quality currently available for exhibition, museum, reproductions etc. Once it's scanned, you print from the CD or disc as many times as you want.

    However, for general use, Epson makes some of the best. I own the 1640SU which handels film up to 4x5 and prints to 8x10. Anything larger you have to split the image, do two scans. Then put the halves together in photoshop. I use it only to scan for my web site but it will produce decent quality for an amateur. If you really want to spend $2000.00, try Calumet Photo. They have a good line of high end flat bed scanners or they can direct you else where.

  2. #12

    Join Date
    Dec 1997
    Location
    Baraboo, Wisconsin
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    7,697

    Affordable Scanning of 4X5 nagatives

    I'll second David's suggestion that you consider the Linoscan 1400. I've been using mine for about two months now. It was a problem getting it up and running but I got excellent tech support by phone from Linoscan and solved that initial problem fairly quickly. Since then I've been very pleased with the scanner. I've read about people having all kinds of problems with their scanners - banding, scans too fuzzy, that kind of thing. I've never had the first problem with the Linoscan. The scans are fee of all artifacts, the image is very sharp, and this with my still learning the software.
    Brian Ellis
    Before you criticize someone, walk a mile in their shoes. That way when you do criticize them you'll be
    a mile away and you'll have their shoes.

  3. #13
    All metric sizes to 24x30 Ole Tjugen's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2002
    Location
    Norway
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    3,383

    Affordable Scanning of 4X5 nagatives

    I have an AGFA Duoscan T1200 - I believe Mikrotek has something similar in the U S. This is a flatbed scanner with built-in transparency unit, giving 1200 dpi sc ans. Not quite good enough for 35mm, but more than adequate for LF... It also has glassless filmholders for 35mm strips,35mm mounted slides, 6x9cm, an d 4x5" film, plus a 11x14" glass plate...

  4. #14

    Affordable Scanning of 4X5 nagatives

    If I had your budget, I'd choose the Microtek ArtixScan 1100. It is the same hardware as the Duoscan HiD, I believe. It is, in fact, what I was planning on buying. Then I thought to myself "I'll just try the Epson and see if it's good enough" (I didn't really want to spend the money on the Microtek). It's good enough for me. If I have a really good but difficult to scan slide (with lots of very dark detail) or a slide I want to blow up higher than 20x24 I'll get a drumscan.

    I fully believe the Microtek would do a better job on shadow detail with less noise, but scanning the Epson at 2400 and sizing down to 50% gets rid of a lot of noise (as does careful multipass scanning aligned and averaged in PhotoShop). For resolution, I believe it would be hard to distinguish the two.

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