Hello, Anyone have advice on scanning 4x5 negatives to digital image?
Type of scanner and results compared to getting this done at a lab.
Thanks.
mark.darragh wrote:Paul,
A little more scanning info that you may find useful. I should mention that I primarily deal with positive films but I do shoot the occasional sheet of colour neg. In terms of scanning, I've found colour negative is much more challenging to get accurate results with. However, in certain high contrast situations or when your dealing with a strong colour-cast it excels. Which ever path you go down the key is making sure that you can access (or create) accurate conversion profiles for the film you use.
Which approach you choose ultimately depends on what eventually intend to use your images for. For web images and smaller prints, a flatbed such as those mentioned will do a great job, provided you have accurate colour profiles. The Epson's certainly get plenty of praise from many LF photographers.
If you hope to produce larger prints then a true drum scanner or “virtual” drum scanner like the Flextights will produce much more acceptable results. There are commercial companies offering both these services across Australia. If you think that might be your future, get a few sheets scanned and compare the results.
Drum scanners, in the hands of an experienced operator, do give the best results in terms of resolution, shadow detail, sharpness etc. With the move to digital it could be regarded as a dying art though. Buying a second-hand unit and running it yourself would really only be worthwhile if you wanted to invest a lot of time (and probably money).
The Flextights are a much more viable option for running at home and the older models do appear second hand from time to time (though they are still much more expensive than an Epson V700 for example).
From what I understand Hassleblad now only make two models - the X1, X5 (faster, more expensive). Both scan up to 4x5” and have a firewire interface. I don't think any of the Flextights were capable of scanning 5x7” film.
The last of the Imacon scanners were also firewire units the models as being follows
949 and 868 – scan to 4x5 at 2040 dpi, both high-end units main difference again being the scanning speed
646 – pitched as more of a “Prosumer” model but I don't know much about them
343 – scans to 6x17 cm
Before this series the computer interface was SCSI.
Flextight Precision III – scans to 4x5 at 2040 dpi, apparently very similar performance to the 868
Flextight Photo. – scans to 6x17
Precision II – scans to 4x5 but only to 1800 dpi. From what I understand these could be given a software upgraded to the Precision III software to scan 4x5 at 2040 dpi optical.
I've been fortunate to have access to a 949 and Precision III and scanned hundreds of images on them. Both easy enough even for me to use and quality of scans are excellent. I'm sure if you were getting sheets scanned on one of these units commercially you would be very happy with the results.
Hope all that information is of some help to you.
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