At 1:22 PM +0200 13-10-01, Tomasz Zakrzewski wrote:
>I'm trying to find some "substitute" for the next 12-24
>months.
BF: When I buy for the short term sometimes I buy the cheaper alternative.
>I've narrowed my choice to
>Nikon LS-4000ED ($ 2100) and Canon FS-4000 ($ 950).
>- According to test in German "Color Foto" magazine when scanning b&w
>negatives, the LS-4000ED suffers from the so called Callier-Quiotent.
BF: I've been able to pull a reasonable amount of detail out of very
dense Kodachrome slides, although a drum scanner could do better.
I'm just beginning to experiment with B/W, beginning with some old
Tri-X negatives. So far the dynamic range and Dmax seem just fine.
BF: One thing about this scanner is that it takes minor surface
scratches, such as those produced by film processing rollers, and
turns them into major artifacts in the scans. For color negatives
ICE does a miraculous job of getting rid of them, but it doesn't work
on (silver halide) B/W. Scans with 200 ASA Kodak color negatives
show a strongly pronounced grain that tolerates only minimal
sharpening, but the GEM grain enhancement does an excellent job of
reducing the grain and making the scans take sharpening quite well.
>- How is it with unsharp edges of film material scanned with LS-4000ED...
BF: With some of my 20-year old Kodachromes on my new LS-4000ED I
find that there is noticeable blurring in the corners with the
default focus point (at the center). If I move the focus point
halfway between the center and corner, then both areas become
slightly out of focus such that the sharpness is no better than that
of my old 2400dpi film scanner (Minolta Dimage Scan Dual).
>FS-4000
>...
>- Has anybody compared the optical quality of FS-4000 and LS-4000ED?
BF: I compared scans of the face on Kodak Q60 calibration targets
from the Canon FS-4000 and Nikon LS-4000ED and observed that the
Canon has a finer grain and slightly sharper image, while the Nikon
has better detail and less noise in deep shadows.
>Can you
>tell how does the Canon scanner perform without the FilmGet software which
>apparently performs unswitchable sharpening with all the scans?
BF: Take a look at www.normankoren.com. Norman just got a Canon
FS-4000 and he's very fussy about sharpness.
>- Is the Dmax of FS-4000 (2,9 according to "Color Foto") sufficient for
negatives?
BF: I would think that this would be acceptable for most negatives.
Hope this helps,
--Bill
--
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Bill Fernandez * User Interface Architect * Bill Fernandez Design
(505) 346-3080 * bill@billfernandez.com *
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