Re: filmscanners: Best scanner software

[Arthur Entlich <artistic@ampsc.com>]

I think the issue of dust and scratches needs to be explored in more
"detail" (excuse the pun).  Although higher resolution would imply
capture of more detail (including dust and scratches), there are a
number of factors to keep in mind.

Although it may be true that using the same film scanner, more dust or
scratches will "resolve" at a higher dpi, do not assume that all
scanners respond the same way, and therefore a higher resolution scanner
necessarily means more visible defects.

As has been noted many times on this list, without dICE, the Nikon
scanners appear to make these defects more obvious, due to the LED light
source.  Several people, including myself, have also found the Minolta
Dual Dimage Scan II tends to emphasize dust as well.

>From many reports (but no personal experience) it would appear the light
source or optics used with the SS4000 tend to diminish surface defects
while not sacrificing resolution.

So, indeed it is possible that the SS4000 used at 4000 dpi might capture
less dust and scratches defects than a 2800 dpi scanner, due to
different illumination and optics design.

Art

Alex Z wrote:
> 
> Thanks for the answer.
> The SS4000 doesn't offer IR based ICE feature, so did you mean *always*
> using
> IR cleaning when scanning with your LS30 ?
> 
> BTW, I'm confused a bit by your claim of dust/scratches being less obvious
> with higher resolution. My opinion was exactly opposite: more resolution
> picks up more dust, due to
> smaller pixels being used to achieve bigger resolution on similar physical
> area.
> Am I wrong ?
> 
> Regards, Alex
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-filmscanners@halftone.co.uk
> [mailto:owner-filmscanners@halftone.co.uk]On Behalf Of Rob Geraghty
> Sent: Monday, October 01, 2001 01:10
> To: filmscanners@halftone.co.uk
> Subject: Re: filmscanners: Best scanner software
> 
> "Alex Z" <alexz@zoran.co.il> wrote:
> > BTW, do you think 2800-2900 dpi is good enough for quality A3 sized print
> > (about 260-270 dpi and that size) or 4000 dpi would gain quality
> noticeably ?
> 
> I've made nice A3 prints on my Epson 1160 using scans at 2700dpi with a
> Nikon LS30.  Scans on a SS4000 look bigger, but I'm not convinced that
> there's a lot more detail in them.  I generally scan with Vuescan, and
> *always* use Infra-red cleaning.  Infra-red cleaning saves hours of
> spotting.  Dust and scratches are less obvious in SS4000 scans, so there's
> less spotting anyway.
> 
> Rob