Linotype-Hell Tango blog

[Lenny Eiger]

The Aztek Premier is nearly unobtainable here in Germany, I have a Howtek D4000 myself and will discuss differences in future articles but I also had the chance to test this one slide on a D4000 in mint condition with an experienced operator. In theory, the Premier should offer higher resolution with 8000ppi and a 3µm aperture but if that's actually the case is hard to tell. In my experience, the Tango gains most information out of the originals despite it's 10µm aperture (vs. 6µm on the D4000). It also runs much smoother due to it's higher build-quality, I guess this also affects actual resolution. I don't have the USAF-target but when somebody is willing to send it to me (also with test slides of your own) I would be happy to test it. I will add another article regarding the aperture and resolution as well.

The Premier is nearly unobtainable anywhere. Rarely does a used one come up for sale, as they are usually kept by their owners. However, that said, I am thoroughly sick and tired of Luminous Landscape's comparing the top-of-the-line digital camera to a med-level or consumer level scanner, often with a poor operator. So this has become one of my pet-peeves.

As Tim Parkin will attest (I have just done over a hundred scans for him for free), I am happy to scan things for testing purposes for people that are writing articles in the media. We need to have fair comparisons to there if we want to see film continue - at least for a bit. If you want some assistance, let me know.

Lenny

[georgl]

I have to make a few reference slides/negatives, I ruined previous attempts. I would scan these for myself and when they meet your expectations, I could also send them to you.

I'll have to wait till my dealer has the new Apo-Summicron 50mm for a few shots - seems like the ideal lens for this purpose :-)

[georgl]

I finally found some time to dance some tango ;-) I had to use the Mac-version of Newcolor (the 16bit-capable successor to Linocolor) on my old G4 (with Mac OS 10.2.8) because the Windows-version has serious bugs (sharpening cannot be turned off, no scans beyond 1GB) - I will discuss my experiences in my blog in a few days including some samples.

But here it is, my first 8x10"-slide and also my first "real" scan:



And some 100% crops:


It's the "christmas-tree" at Potsdamer Platz, Berlin. 8x10" Provia 100F, Sinar adhesive holder, Schneider 150XL, F22, ~10sec.

The scan was made @ 1920ppi, max. resolution at this size without stitching, resulting in 1.7GB (no fun on a 14 year old G4!) at over 300 Megapixels. I added some brightness to the overall quite dark slide and sharpened it (150/0.3) - nothing else. Colors are 99% right, highlight & shadow-rendition similar to the slide on the light-table! Clearly superior to my previous scan on the Eversmart (stray-light is an issue with these extreme slides).

[georgl]

Can you guys see the images? It works on my computers but maybe I have to use a different upload-service?

[pinup tragic]

I get pic - upload.de
site don't allowed ------ a 404 image i think - even stranger English

[MisterPrinter]

Can you guys see the images? It works on my computers but maybe I have to use a different upload-service?

I can see them fine.

[georgl]

I also updated my blog with this scan and a brief comparison to the Eversmart Pro II.

[EOTS]

Hi Georg!

Thanks for sharing your findings (here and also in your excellent blog)!

The scan was made @ 1920ppi, max. resolution at this size without stitching, resulting in 1.7GB (no fun on a 14 year old G4!) at over 300 Megapixels.

Regarding the max. resolution of 1920dpi limitation:
Is this caused by a limit within the Newscan software or by some kind of hardware limit?
As you tried Silverfast (following your blog), do they have the same limitation?

Best regards and thanks,
Martin

[SergeyT]

Tango has a hardware limitation of 16000 pixels per line in drum rotation dimension.
So with an 8x10in film one should expect up to 16000/8 = 2000 dpi resolution.
For a 4x5 it will be double of that (16000/4=4000 dpi) and so forth while it reaches its 11000 dpi with a 35mm film.

SergeyT.

[EOTS]

Thanks SergeyT, that explains it!