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Hi Tomasz,
me too I would like to have a MF scanner in the
future, so far it is too expensive for me. YOu write the LS 4000 is $2100 in
Poland - this is remarkibly expensive - in Germany the best price is actually $
1550.
I will work with the Ls 40 in the next future, as
we will get this scanner at work. As I do a lot of b&w , I am curiuous how
it performs with the negatives. Another solution would be to shoot in colour and
transform it in b&w in the software - in Photoshop (LE) it is quite easy to
get nice results. I will check out these options myself.
Concerning the Canon vs. Nikon question it is
difficult to decide: following the test results in german (critical) ct´
computer magazine the Canon is far behind the Nokon concerning Dmax and also
noise seems to be a problem. Most people consider the Nikons to be the better
choice.
I don´t know what you plan to do with the scans,
but being given that a big limitation is the film format (35mm) itself, maybe
the 4000dpi resolution is not really worth the big money and you would be
relatively better off with a 2900dpi Coolscan IV. In any case I don´t think that
in 2 years the actual scanner models will have more than 60% of their
value.
Much luck, Bernhard
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Saturday, October 13, 2001 1:22
PM
Subject: filmscanners: Ls-4000ED vs.
FS-4000 - can you help?
I'd like to raise the problem of choosing the right 4000dpi
filmscanner (for
my needs, of course).
My "ultimate" choice is Nikon
LS-8000ED because of the MF scanning
capability (I do more and more MF).
But because of the price (in Poland it
costs $ 4500) and since this would
be my first film scanner and I'm not
skilled enough yet, I'm trying to find
some "substitute" for the next 12-24
months. Of course my time, as
anybody's, is precious, so in that time I
don't want to make scans that
I'll have to do once again with my next
machine. I can concentrate on 135
type negs. I've narrowed my choice to
Nikon LS-4000ED ($ 2100) and Canon
FS-4000 ($ 950). If in 1-2 years time I
decide to sell the machine, I will
be able to do it quickly and without
spectacular losses - Nikon because of
it's already established renown and
Canon because many people can afford
it.
To help me decide which of the scanners would be my present choice
I'd like
to ask those experienced from you to help me solve some unclear
matters:
LS-4000ED
- According to test in German "Color Foto"
magazine when scanning b&w
negatives, the LS-4000ED suffers from the so
called Callier-Quiotent. The
scanner has Dmax 3,6 with color slides and
negatives but only Dmax 2,9 with
b&w due to the nature of light form
LEDs (undiffuesd) the light beams run in
one direction and on their way
they meet obstacles in form of silver halide
particles. It's more or less
the same as using an enlarger with a diffuser
or with a condensor. The
latter should give more pronounced grain and less
light.
Do you think
this effect is relevant to scanning quality? What Dmax is
enough for
b&w negatives (even a bit too dense ones)? Have you, users
of
LS-4000ED, LS-8000ED, observed any problems with Dmax of b&w
negs?
- How is it with unsharp edges of film material scanned with
LS-4000ED,
LS-8000ED? Does all film material suffer form the shallow DOF or
is it
restricted to slides in mounts, for example? How is it with film
stripes
which were archived flat in acetate sleeves in a
binder?
FS-4000
- I'm trying to find out for myself what weaknesses
this scanner has. I
already know about its slowliness but I was also
infomed that it can't
control the exposure time. Is this a problem? And if
yes, then with what
film material? 90% of my films are colour and b&w
negatives.
- Has anybody compared the optical quality of FS-4000 and
LS-4000ED? Can you
tell how does the Canon scanner perform without the
FilmGet software which
apparently performs unswitchable sharpening with all
the scans?
- Is the Dmax of FS-4000 (2,9 according to "Color Foto")
sufficient for
negatives? In the next 12 months I'd be almost exclusively
scanning
negatives, both color and b&w but of different quality,
sometimes quite
dense (my difficult pushed negs with stage
photography)
Many thanks in advance
Tomasz Zakrzewski
P.S.
1
Don't propose SS4000 from Polaroid. It's price in Poland is almost that
of
LS-4000ED and customer support and service virtually
non-existent.
P.S. 2
Somebody from this list was so kind that he sent me
a CD with samples of
scans from his 8000ED. Many of the scans exhibited
various degree of edge
unsharpness.
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