Re: Scanning multiple times (was Re: filmscanners: Vuescan gripes)

[EdHamrick@aol.com]

In a message dated 7/20/2001 2:58:04 PM EST, smprastein@earthlink.net writes:

> I have an Acer Scanwit 2740S, which
>  requires multiple passes to do a multiple scan.  I thought that this
>  was the right thing to do to get lower noise when scanning at 16x. so
>  as to be able to average the input from successive reads. And, I
>  thought this would help in extracting info from seriously underexposed
>  negatives.   Am I all wet on this?

My experience has been that multiscanning doesn't help
underexposed negatives at all, but instead is only
marginally useful for overexposed negatives and underexposed
slides.  It primarily helps get detail from dark areas on the film.

It may appear to help underexposed negatives by essentially
blurring the image on some scanners that can't accurately
reposition the scanner.

You might get better results with underexposed negatives by
deliberately blurring the focus by turning off "Device|Auto focus"
and manually changing the focus.

Of course, I could be completely wrong about this <smile>,
and it would be interesting to hear other peoples experience
on this (especially seeing other people's web pages with
examples of this).

Regards,
Ed Hamrick