Heidelberg Circon Linotype Scanner: opinions

[wiggywag]

I want to scan some 7x17" negatives and have the chance to buy a Heidelberg Circon Linotype Scanner. It is supposed to do A3+ (13 x 19 inches ), but Im not sure if the transparency area is that big? It is only 2.400 dpi, but that is more than enough for my large negatives. I can buy this scanner for almost nothing...what do you think?

Again, thanks a lot :-)

[sanking]

I don't know the answer to your question, but there is a Scan Hi-End forum on Yahoo where you might get an answer.

http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/ScanHi-End/?yguid=111435302

Sandy




I want to scan some 7x17" negatives and have the chance to buy a Heidelberg Circon Linotype Scanner. It is supposed to do A3+ (13 x 19 inches ), but Im not sure if the transparency area is that big? It is only 2.400 dpi, but that is more than enough for my large negatives. I can buy this scanner for almost nothing...what do you think?

Again, thanks a lot :-)

[wiggywag]

Thanks Sandy :)

[georgl]

You can use these scanners, but keep in mind that this is the "consumer class" made by some Taiwanese manufacturer and not by Linotype-Hell/Heidelberg itself. When it's not expensive and very little risk, it might worth a try but it won't be on the quality level of the Eversmarts or true Linos (Topaz, Nexscan & the drum scanners).

[BRC]

HI There, Just a little input on the Circon for you. Firstly, no it's not a cheap mass produced scanner with a linotype badge on it. They are made in Japan and are a very solid piece of kit.

One of the biggest problems you will encounter with a circon is the hardware needed to drive it. It is a scsi scanner so you need a scsi card, also the version of silverfast for the circon is old and will not run on a current OS, I have an old g4 box with osx 10.4 just to scan with the circon. So you need to dedicate quite a bit of space to the scannner and the box to drive it. The housing of the scanner is massive much bigger than A3.

The other main negative is that the dynamic range is not fabulous. It struggles a bit to to pull good detail out of high density areas. It's fine if you are shooting negs BW or colour and developing for scanning but it doesn't really capture all the shadow detail in transparency films and if they are a bit underexposed, you aren't going to be able to pull much back. I find in scanning old family history negs of my grandfather's which were typically over developed, the v700 pulls a lot more detail out of the dense areas of the neg. Sharpness is a whole different world though.

On the plus side, it is a focusable scanner and the optics are sharp. Silverfast gives you the ability to auto or manual focus. In practice I find the MF great, there is a 100% preview sample to test different focus settings and once you have found the correct settings for the film holding method you are using, you can just return to that each time you use that film holder.

If you are prepared to live with the hardware requirements, and can work within the dynamic range, it will produce stunning scans. Do check the clear plastic on the transparency scanning lid, once this gets scratches you will get small, defocused dark lines on your scans.

Cheers
B

[wiggywag]

Thanks for very helpful input!