Re: filmscanners: Emulsion flaws (was dust in SS4000)

[Arthur Entlich <artistic@ampsc.com>]

"Owen P. Evans" wrote:
> 
 Art & Roger are taking the manufacturers to task in their theories;
> I'm just accepting the chemistry & physics.


Although I'm not sure your theory is correct or not, (I think the
bubbles either occur during manufacturing or during processing, and are
not the result of an aging process) I want to clarify that I am not
taking the manufacturers to task on this matter.  Photographic film was
designed for making enlarged prints and for projecting.  The
manufacturers have overall done a admirable job in developing and
manufacturing products which meet this criterion.

No in comes the digital scanner, a relatively new device which is only
now beginning to reach resolutions which "see" new types of previously
unimportant "defects".

I think what Roger has done here is to have helped to discover a
bug-aboo many of us have been chasing for some time now... what the
heck was causing all those spots in the scans which didn't appear to be
dust or dirt?

With a potential answer to that question, the next step is to look at
what can be done to lessen or eliminate this situation.  Certainly, on
possibility is for film manufacturers to revamp the manufacturing,
coating or processing systems to avoid the creation of larger bubbles. 
The other might be even more logical, because obviously we all have film
which manifests these bubbles, and that would be for film scanner
manufacturers to develop light sources that diminish the effect of these
defects on the final scan.  

Now that we have some sense of what is causing this phenomenon, it will
be much easier to isolate the problem and perhaps resolve it, but no, I
do not take manufacturers to task, unless they were aware of it, had a
solution, and were just hoping we'd never figure it out ourselves. ;-)

Art