More scanners, improved viewing

[Leigh Perry]

Two more scanners have been added to the scanner comparison ('http://largeformatphotography.info/scan-comparison/'). They are:
<ul>
<li>Howtek 7500, thanks to Mike King (UK).
<li>ICG 350i, thanks to Neil Snape (France).
</ul>

I've enhanced the user interface (or the user experience, in marketingspeak) to allow you to view two identical columns of
scan crops. Select the two that you are interested in to compare them side-by-side. I've only
tested this in Internet Explorer 6 on a PC, so let me know if there are any browser problems.

[Larry Gebhardt]

It doesn't seem to work in Firefox. None of the images load anymore.

[Allan Connery]

Images don't load in Safari 1.3, either.

[Leigh Perry]

Bugger. The banality of browser compatibility issues. I've been lucky so far and I knew it was too good to last.

I'll test it under Firefox & Safari. In the meantime I've added a link to a fallback page for those who can't view the new page.

[Michael J. Kravit]

Love the way you can use the mouse wheel to scroll between images. It may be me, but the ICG 350i seems to blow everything else away with respect to detail.

[Leigh Perry]

Michael, the ICG 350i received slight scanner sharpening. I wasn't prepared for the mail to be so efficient or Neil to be so quick with his scanning and didn't get the scanning protocol details to him in time -- where possible we have been turning off sharpening. That is why there's not much difference between the sharpened and unsharpened crops for that scanner, and it may explain some of what you are seeing. The other note of interest: Neil said that when the scanner software performs a scan at 2400 ppi, it scans at native 2000 ppi and then resses up rather than the more expected approach of scanning at 3000 ppi and ressing down.

If I can resolve the browser compatibility issues, I plan on adding checkboxes for each scanner so you can just include the ones you want to in the combo selection boxes. This will make another nice way to compare two or more scans.

[Leigh Perry]

OK, it now works on Firefox 1.0.6. At least it does for me. Can someone else confirm please? I haven't been able to get to a Mac so a Safari test would also be appreciated.

Cheers.

[Leigh Perry]

Before anyone got a chance to test that version, I've uploaded another -- more ambitious this time. You should now be able to select the scanners you are interested in. Any scanners that are not ticked do not appear in the selection combos. This should make it easier to examine subsets of all the scanners. Have a look at the page, (I hope) you'll see what I mean.

This display functionality is all implemented in browser-side javascript, so I hope it works in your browser. I'm sure you'll let me know if it doesn't...

[Larry Gebhardt]

Works fine now in Firefox. One thing that would be useful would be the ability to see unsharpened scans from the two columns at once. Maybe a check box to tunr sharpened scans off.

[Allan Connery]

Works now in Safari 1.3. Many thanks to Leigh and colleagues for their hard work.

[Paul H]

Works in Opera too

[Paul Butzi]

One thing that would be nice would be to list what sofware/version was used to drive the scanners to do the scans.