Re: filmscanners: Scanning 4x5 under $500 US?

[frankmazz <frankmazz@mediaone.net>]

I am way late on this thread, I haven't even read much of it thoroughly, sorry, 
but I have 2-cents worth (USD <g>) that I think are of some value, especially 
since Dean seems to have written off Agfa. (Dean, because of my late response I 
hope you don't mind the direct reply to your email address as well.)

In April this year I bought an Agfa Arcus 1200 flatbed scanner for about $800 
USD from B&H. It comes with holders for 35mm negs, 35mm slides, 6x9 cm, 6x7, 
6x6 and 4x5 in film. The glass plate slides out, the holders slide in. No muss, 
no fuss.

I'm too new at this to give you technical info about what wonderful results I'm 
getting from prints, 35's and 4x5's. But I have a pretty discerning eye and I'm 
having the time of my life (currently working on my second half-century).

Recently I took a 4x5 b&w neg in awful, wretched condition, scanned it and 
cleaned it up (removing some type of liquid spots and dirt). I had an 11x14 in 
made at a professional service bureau from a 3.5 MB TIF file for $47. The folks 
there were in heaven because they delivered sharp "black blacks." The photo is 
striking, but I'm disappointed in the tint on the b&w digital paper.

So, I uploaded the same image to ofoto.com as a 1.8 MB JPG file. They don't 
produce 11x14's, so I went to 16x20. The picture is stunning and only set me 
back $15.

The image is an old, beat up metal light house at the mouth of a small river 
off Lake Michigan that begs for robust contrast. And I got it! My Dad shot the 
4x5 picture years ago and hasn't been able to make a suitable print in his 
darkroom. He will now have a framed and matted print for his birthday.

I keep pushing the scanner and it keeps delivering. If you can afford $500 and 
those negs are important to you, the $800 will be well spent.

FrankM
St. Paul, MN



At 8/15/01 07:06 AM -0700, Shough, Dean wrote:
>Not this question again!  But scanners are coming way down in price, their
>resolution is going up, and now 12, 14, and even 16 bits per color are
>readily available.  I have some 20 year old 4x5s (B&W, negative, and slide)
>that I would like to play with again - I haven't worked with them or done
>any large format since I no longer have my own darkroom.
>
>I am in the market for a flatbed scanner that can do  reasonable job with 4
>by 5 film.  I figure 1200 dpi is good enough for what I want, although I
>have nothing against 1600 or 2400 dpi.  ;-)  My main concern with any
>flatbed scanner is the noise, particularly in slide shadows.  The scanners I
>am considering are:
>
>Epson Perfection 1640SU Photo  -  $299, USB & SCSI, 1600 dpi
>Microtek ScanMaker 5700 - $332, Firewire, 1200 dpi
>HP ScanJet 7400C - $440, SCSI and USB, 2400 dpi
>Canon Canoscan D2400F - $467, USB, 2400 dpi
>Agfa - no longer makes consumer scanners
>
>My questions about these scanners are:
>
>1) Has anybody compared the noise or image quality of these scanners.  I
>would really like information where someone has tested at least two of these
>scanners, using either slides or negatives, and can state that scanner A is
>better than scanner B for the following reason...
>
>2) Can anybody verify that these scanners work with VueScan, particularly on
>the Mac, either OS 9 or X?  It looks like the HP and Epson run under VueScan
>but that the Microtek and Canon will not.
>
>3) Are the outputs of the HP and Epson limited to sRGB?  I have been lead to
>believe that this is the case with their consumer scanners.
>
>4) Do all except the Microtek "fake" their high resolution by either
>microstepping a single CCD or using a pair of CCDs?  I don't think any are
>using CCDs with more than 10,400 elements.
>
>5) The Canon features FARE (similar to ICE).  Does it require one scan or
>two in order to read the IR image?  I am concerned about image registration
>problems.
>
>6) Is the output of the HP 16 bits or is it only capable of outputting 8
>bits per color?  With HP's software and with VueScan?
>
>7) Any hidden gottchas?  Like no exposure control, crappie software, etc.
>
>8) How much would I gain by going up to $1000?  I am thinking here of the
>Epson 1680 or the Microtek 8700.
>
>--------
>Dean Shough
>dean.shough@lmco.com