From: Joe (jtait@texas.net)
Date: 11/09/02-01:20:50 PM Z
Judy Seigel wrote:
>At the moment, Polaroid tells me, they have both the 4000 & the 4000 plus
>on hand, tho fewer of the Plus. The Plus, by the way, is 4.2 Dmax and 48
>bit color vs the 4000 with "only" 3.9 Dmax and 36 bit color -- odds are
>that for my street shots in black & white the extra Dmax & bits are
>wasted, but the plus is USB -- I sure wouldn't mind one less scuzzy
>peripheral.. The scuzzy card in G4 is ALWAYS suspect when something goes
>wrong...
>
Just to reinforce Dan's prior comments, the extra bits can easily prove
their value when making curve adjustments on the scan. You have to make
some serious moves sometimes (especially when making dig negs a la
Burkholder) and inherent problems of digital/pixel images might become
apparent. 16bit images give you more information, more quality
information; hence more ability to reposition those tonal values
elsewhere on the scale and avoid posterization and other problems. For
similiar conceptual reasons, scanning at optical resolution can stave
off degradation of image quality and I would stress doing that as well.
If you are making inkjet negs, you would need to convert back to 8-bit
prior to printing, after making as many adjustments as you can in 16bit
(not all Photoshop tools can be used in 16bit mode, but PS7 gives you
everything you need if you are taking good shots in the first place)
Also to a agree with Dan, use the firewire connection. USB can be slower
than the scanners ability to send data to the G4, and I find firewire
more reliable anyways. SCSI bandwidth is overkill for scanning, but
better than USB.
One more piece of advice.....
A lot of people are finding that they can get even better B&W results by
shooting (slide film) and scanning in color. I have tried both and still
use B&W for most of my stuff currently, but I readily admit that it can
give superior images for some subjects. High-conrast scenes I would
stick with B&W and develop accordingly, but if you have control of light
and/or know that a shot is appropriate (a lower SBR is my sense) try
shooting color. You end up with even more data, and with channel mixing,
or other channel manipulation techniques, you can mix and match
tonalities and local contrast areas to you liking. Very cool.
>I'm told that Polaroid doesn't make ANY scanners -- that their scanners
>are made by Microtek... tho presumably to Polaroid design.
>
This is mostly true. To my knowledge, there are minor differences in
enclosure design, and some components might be slightly different. I am
lacking in this area, so I can't say go ahead and buy a Microtek; I only
know my experience with Polaroid's branded product.
Good luck Judy.
-Joe
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