Howtek 8000 Drum vs. Epson V850 flatbed scanners

[Alan Klein]

Here's a comparison between Howtek HiResolve 8000 drum scanner and Epson V850 flatbed.

Negative is mine, Tmax 100, processed normal by North Coast Photo dip and dunk with Clayton F76+ developer (similar to Kodak D76). Taken on a Chamonix 45H-1, Schneider Symmar APO 150mm with B+W orange filter.

I'm thankful to Peter Figen of Los Angeles who performed the scan on his Howtek. The scan was done at 4000 ppi using the native aperture (6.35 microns) for that resolution. It’s 16 bit RGB directly into Gamma 2.2 Adobe RGB color space. Peter provided both non-Adjusted and adjusted TIFF files. Note the adjusted version was changed only to set the clipping points using Trident. I did not sharpen either of his files.

I did the scans on my V850 using Epsonscan. The first scan was done at 4800 ppi reduced to 4000 for the first comparison set. The second scan was done at 2400 as I found for some reason it was sharper after sharpening than the 4800 scan. That could be an error on my part. Both scans were adjusted to set the clipping points only. I used Color Comparison set but without Continuous Auto Color Control. Display gamma 2.2The second comparison set (2400ppi) was sharpened in Lightroom 6 purchased version. Sharpen 108, Radius .7, Detail 25. I used Irfanview for the comparison view reducing to approximately 1900x1200 for display on this site.


Overview 1000ppi wide by Alan Klein, on Flickr


Screen shot compares scanners at 100 percent beiore sharpening by Alan Klein, on Flickr


Screen shot 2 compares scanners at 100 percent before sharpening by Alan Klein, on Flickr

[Alan Klein]

The following is after sharpening the Epson V850 only. Howtek not sharpened; only clip points adjusted on both.



Screen shot compares scanners at 100 percent after sharpening by Alan Klein, on Flickr



Screen shot 2 compares scanners at 100 percent after sharpening by Alan Klein, on Flickr

[Kiwi7475]

The following is after sharpening the Epson V850 only. Howtek not sharpened; only clip points adjusted on both.
Attachment 204893

Attachment 204894

The second image with the door is much darker on the epson. Surprisingly the other image is not. It suggests the histograms are very different which would obscure the apparent resolution.

[Alan Klein]

The second image with the door is much darker on the epson. Surprisingly the other image is not. It suggests the histograms are very different which would obscure the apparent resolution.

The histograms were different as the black and white clip points were set differently. See photo comparison below.
Histogram results of scan by Alan Klein, on Flickr

[Pere Casals]

The histograms were different as the black and white clip points were set differently.

This also depends on how you have the Gamma control adjusted in the scanning software.


Many BW negatives have a way larger Dynamic Range than a monitor may display, to there is no way to show a good linear capture of the negative, we have to clip shadows/highlights or we have to compress it.

For a image we love, best is taking a linear 16bits/channel capture that looks dull and later editing the curve in Ps.

[Alan Klein]

Anyone know how to make the images larger for viewing? Originals are around 1900ppi wide. (Edit: Pictures above have been replaced with 1900 wide images.)

[Peter De Smidt]

Host the images remotely and link with img tags. I used Dropbox, but some use Flickr..... I'm sure there are other options. Or email them to me, and I'll host them on Dropbox.

Why would you only sharpen the Epson scan?

Here's something to try in either lightroom or Adobe Camera Raw, which is available from inside of Photoshop. Go to sharpening. Put amount at 40-50, radius at .5 (the minimum), and detail at maximum.

[Alan Klein]

Host the images remotely and link with img tags. I used Dropbox, but some use Flickr..... I'm sure there are other options. Or email them to me, and I'll host them on Dropbox.

Why would you only sharpen the Epson scan?

Here's something to try in either lightroom or Adobe Camera Raw, which is available from inside of Photoshop. Go to sharpening. Put amount at 40-50, radius at .5 (the minimum), and detail at maximum.

I tried sharpening the Howtek scans. But they didn't seem to get better. I've just been informed by Peter Figen that there’s no need to sharpen a 4000 ppi scan from a drum scanner. It’s already as sharp as it’s going to get and all you’re going to do is make the grain more prominent.

[Peter De Smidt]

I tried sharpening the Howtek scans. But they didn't seem to get better. I've just been informed by Peter Figen that there’s no need to sharpen a 4000 ppi scan from a drum scanner. It’s already as sharp as it’s going to get and all you’re going to do is make the grain more prominent.

That's demonstrably false.

[Peter Mounier]

Nice! Did you wet mount the Epson scans?