Re: filmscanners: Nikon 8000 ED or Polaroid Sprintscan 120 ??

["Michael Wilkinson" <michael@infocus-photography.co.uk>]

Art is ,in my opinion ,spot on !
Drum scanners will have a limited life span,I use one .The  scans can be
amazingly good,although the tedious system of mounting in oil to get the
best and reduce dust etc makes me opt for my flatbed whenever I can.
Some of the better Drum scanners are simpler to use with the originals
held on the inside of the drum by centrifugal force and you can get a
lot of originals in as the drums are quit large.
Scanners like the Imacon are up there with the drums in terms of
resolution and if you examine how good the "consumer" scanners are now
you will see that they are on a charge,manufacturers are selling them
like Hi Fi ,one in every home .
That means lots of R and D going in to make them better and faster.
I doubt that the Drum manufacturers with their very narrow sales
potential will be putting in as much effort.
You also need to look at what the scans are used for,most go into
commercial brochures at maybe 8"x12" max ,  who needs "drum quality"
only to see it squandered on turning it into cmyk dots at maybe 300 to
the inch ?
Lots of pro photographers have low end scanners because the do the job
adequately, for now.

Michael Wilkinson. 106 Holyhead Road,Ketley, Telford.Shropshire TF 15 DJ
  michael@infocus-photography.co.uk      www.infocus-photography.co.uk
For Trannies and Negs from Digital Files
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----- Original Message -----
From: "Arthur Entlich" <artistic@ampsc.com>
To: <filmscanners@halftone.co.uk>
Sent: Thursday, February 22, 2001 1:14 AM
Subject: Re: filmscanners: Nikon 8000 ED or Polaroid Sprintscan 120 ??


: I don't think anyone will argue that for now, drum scanners have the
: edge in the digital scanning arena.  I also don't think many would
argue
: that CCD scanners are being successfully used to scan 35mm frames used
: in the coffee table glossy book market, with considerable success.
:
: For those who wish more control over their images and also economy,
the
: newer CCD based scanners are opening up a new market for photographers
: who wish to provide either manipulated images (do it yourself fixes,
: etc) or electronic digital images which can then be used on web pages,
: or sent via electronic means to stock houses or clients.
:
: I do, however, see a day when a major breakthough will likely occur
and
: the whole high end marketplace will be knocked on its ears.  A perfect
: example was the video/CG marketplace.  Video switchers, and
workstations
: to produce 3d CG were held by companies like Panasonic, Sony and
others
: with their multi hundred thousand dollar units.
:
: Then a small marriage took place between a product called the Amiga
: computer and a company called Newtek, which came out with the "Video
: Toaster" and bundled it with Lightwave 3d, and that world was changed
: forever.  For under $5000 one had a digital switcher and CG system
that
: rivaled units worth over $100,000.  WIthin months I saw trade
magazines
: like "Video Systems" go from 120 pages down to 40 as advertising
: revenues disappeared, as the biggies ran out of that market, and soon
: only Newtek ads, and a few other non-linear editing system upstarts
were
: left placing ads.
:
: The rest, as they say, is history.  Almost all professional video
: editing and CG development is now done via computers.  Hardware
: switchers are pretty much history, and it took only a few years to
: happen.  Today, major television effects and full CG animations are
: produced in a room with Macs or average PCs.
:
: It only takes one genius company willing to work "outside the box", to
: come up with a new blackbox, and all bets are off.
:
: Whether this will happen in the scanning field and when, I can't say.
: But I do not believe anyone can with any certainty say drum scanners
are
: here to stay, or that most pro photographers will not be doing their
own
: scanning 5 years from now.
:
: Predicting the future is full of sand traps.
:
: Art
:
: