Re: filmscanners: Sprintscan 120 and new negative proile scheme

[RogerMillerPhoto@aol.com]

David, concerning Polaroid's negative profiling plans for the SS 120, you've 
received some "why bother" and "it's a bad idea" comments from Austin 
Franklin while Isaac Crawford defended the idea.

I, also, think there's merit in your plan and I hope it works.  Do you think 
it will work well enough for a colorblind person like me to get "acceptable" 
results?  I get decent results with E-6 transparency film, but my one feeble 
attempt with negative film didn't go well.  For E-6, I use SilverFast rather 
than Insight (for my SS4000) because it can be IT-8 calibrated.  I'm getting 
close to having my workflow nailed down so that I don't need to do any color 
corrections; I just make the E-6 scan and do an occasional contrast or 
brightness tweak in SilverFast.  I usually shoot in a studio setting, so I 
have total control over exposure, contrast, lighting, etc.  

I normally shoot medium format negative film and when a client needs 
something for the web, I have to shoot some 35 mm E-6 in addition so that I 
can scan it with my SS4000.  A good negative profiling system for the SS 120 
would allow me to shoot medium format negative film for virtually all of my 
jobs.  I have a Microtek ScanMaker 5 flatbed scanner with IT-8 calibrated 
ScanWizard software that I can use to scan medium format film, but its 
ScanWizard software has limited negative film profiles (none for Kodak 160NC 
that I use) and I could find none that were even close to acceptable.  Being 
colorblind, I want the machinery to do what I can't.  And even if I had good 
color vision, I'd still want to as little "mothering" of the negative scan as 
I could get away with.  My time is too valuable to do by hand what technology 
can when enough money is thrown at it.