Re: Scanner selection


Valburg (lkv1@psu.edu)
Thu, 21 Jan 1999 16:49:51 -0500


At 01:26 PM 1/21/99 -0500, Dave wrote:
>In a message dated 1/21/99 5:38:15 AM Pacific Standard Time, nick@mcn.org
>writes:
>
>> The choice of a film scanner seems to have narrowed down to the Nikon
LS4500
>> which does up to 4X5 film only and the Agfa Duoscan which can do 8X10
>> film/reflective.
>
>Nick, they don't belong to the same category. LS4500 is a film scanner while
>Duoscan is mainly a flatbed scanner with transparent adapter. For our
>practical purposes, within a 4x5 area, you can scan at higher resolution with
>a film scanner compared to a flatbed scanner. (snip)
>
>So if you are planning on scanning a lot of negatives, it's best that you get
>a film scanner. With flatbed scanner, what you can do is enlarge the negative
>(into prints or positive) then scan the result.
>

In addition to the resolution consideration, a flatbed scanner will be much
more limited in the optical density range it can handle well. The
practical result of this will be scans which are considerably noisier than
those from a film scanner: noisier shadow areas in scans from
transparencies, noisier highlights in scans from negs. In real world
terms, it's not a particularly subtle degree of difference.

Regards,
Mitch Valburg



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