Professional flatbed scanners?

[Ted Harris]

Paul, I wet mount if I have a damaged piece of film that will not lay flat, if I need to reduce grain, if I have a badly scratched piece of film,etc. Generally, to solve problems rather than to improve resolution. Or, when scanning small film that I know is going to be printed very large (e.g. 35mm to be printed 40x50 or something like that) so as to insure that there are absolutely no variables on my end that will get in the way of the final print. BTW, not saying that I think 35mm should ever be printed that large but I was just part of a project where that was the objective and I couldn't argue with the eventual client on this one.

[jetcode]

Here is how a refurbished Cezanne Elite makes its way to your doorstep and what it looks like under the hood. Note that the entire left wing is not yet attached. This thing is a tank at 160lbs. The shipping was $400.

Ted, If I may, a couple of questions:

1) The standard tray I have with this scanner appears to be somewhat fogged like it is dirty and it has some small scuff marks on it. I assume that this will affect the scan quality?

2) The lower tray with the grid on it is for reflective art?

I am in the process of scanning a 4x10 B/W negative at 2880. The whole process from installation to scan was pretty painless considering I am a complete virgin when it comes to MAC systems.

Joe

[Ted Harris]

Joe ....

1) The glass is frosted ... is that what you mean? The frosting is an anti newton ring coating. Did you get the cover glass? I don't see it in your picture .. a frosted strip about 5" wide that has metal sides that fit in the grooves on the side of the scanning glass.

2) You scan reflective material on the top glass as well. Grid for alignment.

[Don Hutton]

Here is how a refurbished Cezanne Elite makes its way to your doorstep and what it looks like under the hood.

I'd be pretty happy to find one of those blocking my front door....

[jetcode]

Joe ....

1) The glass is frosted ... is that what you mean? The frosting is an anti newton ring coating. Did you get the cover glass? I don't see it in your picture .. a frosted strip about 5" wide that has metal sides that fit in the grooves on the side of the scanning glass.

2) You scan reflective material on the top glass as well. Grid for alignment.

Ted,

The cover across the bed was a piece of optical mylar. There is a 5" frosted strip in the box and the 35mm batch holder. I take it that covers the piece of film? I just scanned a 4x10 at 2880 and it produced a 308M greyscale file which is substantial. When I pulled it into PS on my laptop I noticed that the image was a bit dark. I used the Sharp finish. I used PS levels (white adjust to 203) to adjust the white appropriately. Either my white reference is not installed right or I need to learn about picking black and white reference points prior to scanning.

Here are some images from my first scan. The image was taken of my HP laptop screen (1440x900) with a 210mm macro at about 1.4:1 on Bergger 200. First the original reduced and raw except for correcting levels. Note that the left side has been cropped about 3/4" or so from the original 4x10. Clip1 zooms the Portrait icon. Clip3 zooms the lips in the portrait icon. Clip3 finished is cleaned up and 35% PS sharpening at 2.2 pixels. Note that to get these images into this forum I used JPEG compression at 50-60 percent except for the full size which I compressed at 80 percent.

I'm impressed. I look forward to learning how to correct for originals in the scanner software. A couple of months from now I should have a pretty good handle on using this scanner.

Joe

[jetcode]

I'd be pretty happy to find one of those blocking my front door....

Wait 'till you try to move it. The manual says use 4 people to lift it. Unfortunately the manual wasn't read until after a friend and myself lugged it down into the lower level studio. It was so big we had to tilt it at quite an angle to get it through the sliding glass door.

I can't wait to scan some color images. I've considered offering scans at reasonable rates to the public. Stay tuned. I need to really understand this scanner first before I attempt to take that task on.

[sanking]

Brian, wonderful work on your web site. I need to see your prints.

Question for everyone: Why choose a very expensive flatbed over a drum scanner? I understand the need for prepress - a flatbed is much more productive. But I'm curious about the reasons a fine art photographer chooses a flatbed.

My own thinking is that flatbeds are easier to use, easier to maintain, and the technology is newer. Nearly all drum scanners you see on the market are fairly old and those that are being made today very expensive. By contrast, new models of high end flatbeds continue to be introduced.

Drum scanners do have one important advantage over flatbeds, and that is in the area of dynamic range. If I were scanning professionally and had to deal with a large number of color slides the drum scanner would be my choice. However, the dynamic range of high end flatbeds is more than enough to scan B&W and color negative, which rarely have a Dmax of over about log 3.0.

Sandy King

[jetcode]

Drum scanners do have one important advantage over flatbeds, and that is in the area of dynamic range.

Chrome is limited in dynamic range. How much more of the extremes can be captured? Does a greater Dmax improve color fidelity or capture shadow detail that the eye will fail to detect in a print? Is there truly a dramatic difference in quality between these different technologies at the high end? I suspect there are differences but will the average eye be able to notice this? I suspect the shadow and highlight detail is cleaner with higher Dmax. Is it like comparison like the difference between a $1k stereo system and a $20k stereo system?

I am curious as a scanner novice.

The other reason I choose this technology was for reflective scanning of art. While I don't have much of that myself I am surrounded by a lot of artists and this may help pay the way for the scanner.

Joe

[QT Luong]

Chrome captures less dynamic range of the scene than negative, however, the dynamic range of the chrome itself is higher than that of the negative.

In practice, here is a typical situation where the greater Dmax makes a difference. You have a landscape with sunlit peaks and the valley in shadows, and scan to preserve the detail in the peaks. With the high Dmax scan, you can brighten the shadows considerably so that the valley does not look too dark. With the low Dmax scan, if you attempt to do the same, the shadows will exhibit considerable noise.

[jetcode]

Chrome captures less dynamic range of the scene than negative, however, the dynamic range of the chrome itself is higher than that of the negative.

This sounds contradictory.

In practice, here is a typical situation where the greater Dmax makes a difference. You have a landscape with sunlit peaks and the valley in shadows, and scan to preserve the detail in the peaks. With the high Dmax scan, you can brighten the shadows considerably so that the valley does not look too dark. With the low Dmax scan, if you attempt to do the same, the shadows will exhibit considerable noise.

If I understand you correctly you are speaking of dynamic range compression; i.e. transpparency contains more information in a smaller dynamic range?

I thought Dmax was about being able to detect information in dense areas on a negative or transparency while Dmin is the ability to detect information in low density areas. Of course chrome has no nuetral transparent space that is not filled with some form of color (except B/W transparecies of course) Again I am a total newbie here. I ordered a recommended scanning book from Amazon to continue my own education.

Joe