Archival Image Quality of 3f vs. TIFF

[b.cipolla]

Hello all. I'm preparing to scan a very large batch of negatives using a Hasselblad Flextight scanner. I've used the machine before, but I am new to the 3f raw file format that is included with the FlexColor software. I'm aware of the advantages of scanning to 3f in terms of being able to go back and reprocess negatives without having to rescan, but I was wondering if there was any advantage in using 3f over TIFF in terms of archival image quality. Right now, I'm scanning to 16-bit TIFF and then making making adjustments to my images in Camera Raw, and saving as DNG's so that my adjustments are saved. Is this not as safe as scanning to 3f, making adjustments in FlexColor or Photoshop, and then exporting 16-bit TIFF's? My main concern is to maintain and archival image quality and capturing the most available data within the negative. It's my understanding that a 3f file is only a TIFF with extra data added on that enables you to adjust it in FlexColor. Any insight would be appreciated. Thanks!

[b.cipolla]

I forgot to mention that when I scan in TIFF, I am turning all histogram, curves, and flextight settings off, so that there is no clipping. I am using some sharpening by leaving the setting at 0.

[Kirk Gittings]

3f files are not really raw. They never developed the file format. Its a myth. They are just tiffs. You can simply change the extension on a 3f file to .tiff and they work fine as tiffs. If they were a raw format you could not do this. I fell for this for a couple of years before a professional scanner and Jeff Schewe told me the truth. Once you get the scan there is absolutely no advantage to doing additional adjustments back in Flexcolor-you are better off going to PS or Lightroom.

[Jim Andrada]

Also not quite sure what you meant by "archival image quality" in this context. TIFF compression is lossless so you don't lose any quality by compressing (unlike JPEG or many video codecs.)

Of course keeping anything digital truly archived is an enormous can of worms. It can be a fun discussion though.

(Disclosure - my real job relates to development and manufacturing of systems for tape and disk backup and archiving)

[Noah A]

I occasionally use Hasselbad scanners and I've wondered about this too. I don't want to speak for the OP, but I've wondered if 3f will be as readable in the future as TIFF. Of course the TIFF format could become obsolete, but it's much more common than the 3f format so I figure the chances are decent that we'll be able to open TIFF files for quite some time.

I knew 3f files will open in photoshop with a plugin, I often just open them, invert them and process them in PS instead of flexcolor. But I didn't know that they are basically TIFF files, that is very interesting. I never tried changing the extension.

Whenever I scan I tend to save a 'raw' scan, and by this I don't mean a raw digital file, just a scan that's maybe a tiny bit flat with no clipping and no processing after the scan. I then spot it, make my adjustments and save that as a second, working file.

So Kirk (and others), do you save files as 3f for your archive? Or do you just change the extension to TIFF and save that? Or do you open it in PS and save it as a TIFF?

[Kirk Gittings]

I just changed it after saving the scan. That way you don't need the plugin. I haven't used an Imacon in a couple of years. I use an IQSmart now. I think all this is still true.

[Leigh]

I don't understand the question.

Data is data. It has no "archival" quality, nor does it have a definable "life". It exists, period.

The storage medium on which you put it may have a finite lifetime, but the data itself does not.

- Leigh

[Kirk Gittings]

Saving a Tiff as a DNG through ACR is not the same thing as saving a raw file as a DNG. You have no raw data to save from a tiff a tiff is rendered raw info.

[Leigh]

If you want a raw file, why would you save it in any file format other than the original?

If you can convert it now for archiving, you can just as easily archive the raw file and convert it when you need to work on it.

- Leigh

[Kirk Gittings]

Leigh I was referring to this statement "I'm scanning to 16-bit TIFF and then making making adjustments to my images in Camera Raw, and saving as DNG's so that my adjustments are saved." There is no way to output a raw file from Flexcolor and a 3f file is really just a tiff. I think that his approach is odd-not wrong. If I were him I would simply open up the 3fs as Tiffs in PS, do my adjustments with adjustment layers and archive that.