Polaroid Neg. or Pos. for scanning?

[Sitron]

I just unpacked my 4x5 after a few years of digital shooting, and would like to shoot some polaroids with it. I don't have a darkroom anymore, so I'd be scanning into my computer. Does anyone know if I'd get better results shooting Type 55 and scanning the negative, or one of the other polaroid pos. films? Shooting positive film would certainly save me the steps clearing the neg., but I do like those edges! I read somewhere that positives scan better than negatives, that tend to look grainy.

[Frank Petronio]

Scanning Type 55 negs is like scanning any other film - versus a 4x5 print. You will always get more information from the film than a print - film has much more resolution and range over paper.

If people got grain from scanning 55 then they are doing something wrong - I've been scanning 20 year old Type 55 just fine on my Epson flatbed.

[Tom Westbrook]

What Frank said. The 55 negative is a bit larger than standard 4x5, so I have had to make my own holder for it with some card stock (I still use an old Epson 2450). Works great. I always expose for the negative and toss the positive.

[John Flavell]

Well, now is a good time to ask the question I've been wanting to ask. A friend's Epson 4990 scanner has a nice 4x5 holder and it works quite well. For Type 55 negs, though, I'm not sure it'll work. Aren't the Type 55 negs just a little smaller than regular 4x5 negs? Has anyone out there worked out a solution?

By the way, Sitron, I agree it would be better to scan the negs. AA says in his book, "Polaroid Land Photography", that the negative has a textural range of Zone 1.5 through 8.5, while the print has spread of Zone 3 through 7.5. That's with the ISO for the negative set at 20 and the print at 64.

[David A. Goldfarb]

About the neg size issue--I usually try to get the whole neg out including the border and cut it with a scissors instead of cracking it along the perforation, so it fits neatly into a glassless 4x5" neg carrier on my scanner. I can also use a transparency tray with another sheet of glass on top, and this actually produces a sharper result. The tray has anti-newton glass, so I scan them emulsion side up with plain glass on top and flip it digitally.

In my enlarger, I just use a glass negative carrier, which I use anyway for regular 4x5" negs.

[Frank Petronio]

I trimmed a bit off of mine so they fit in regualr 4x5 carriers. Sometimes I show the funky edges, but once you are scanning instead of darkroom printing it is easy enough to fix any "too perfect" edges and perfect your imperfect.

[Joakim Ahnfelt]

The neg carrier for the Epson 4990 won't take a p55 neg. They are a couple of mm to big. You either have to cut them down or put them directly on the glass. Since this is the way your supposed to scan 8x10 it should - in theory, mind - work for 4x5 as well.

[Keith Pitman]

For the positive, Type 52 offers some alternatives. You can get near-Zone System controls over both exposure and development with this material. Check Ansel's later Polaroid book, or my article in the November, 2004 issues of Black and White Photography. Beautiful material.