I use (as you may have seen by now) Fuji NHGII, and Superia is said to
be identical to Fuji Press 800, but Fuji reps have told me Superia is
more grainy with a bit more contrast. The published specs (I think,
not double checking) say equal grain however, and I've never done
critical comparisons. The few rolls of Press 800 I've shot looked
very similar to NHGII to me in casual comparisons from memory.
Using the LS-30 I found a significant improvement in image structure
and grain sharpness using VueScan, but I suppose you're already doing
that. I don't see "aliasing" with 800 negs as much as with smaller
grain negs, as grain is big enough for the scanner to see clearly.
You really don't need to sharpen grain resolved clearly by the scan
that much, I find much more than 75%, 0.8 radius, and 0 threshold
begins to overemphasize grain more than a good optical projection
would do. At some point you have to face the fact you'll never get
super sharp big prints from 35mm, no matter what lens and film you
use, unless you really start chasing resolution with advanced
techniques, and even then it's *much* easier IMO just to shoot medium
or large format and probably get better results too.
If the grain is crisp but the picture is soft, than you can only look
to your shooting technique. Unless, that is, you oversharpen in the
digital domain, and that creates other problems. Selective sharpening
can work pretty well, but it gets into more work than I want to do on
most pictures.
When I first got the SS4000 I wondered if it was overemphasing grain
in my 800 negs, particularly in the sky. Careful comparisons of large
prints to highly magnified negatives revealed a direct correspondence
however - the scanner is seeing the negative very accurately. There
is simply more grain in some areas of the negative than others. I
wonder if this is due to some sort of "stacking" effect (Austin?),
whereby areas with dyes closer to the color of the base appear
grainier. Certainly smooth areas of tone show more grain in any film,
color neg, trannie, B&W.
Anyway, I recognize big grain ain't for everyone, especially if you're
trying to maximize sharpness and smoothness to the extent possible. I
like grain as an escape from all that. That's what I deliver to my
commercial clients and it gets boring:)
Dave
----- Original Message -----
From: Rob Geraghty <harper@wordweb.com>
To: <filmscanners@halftone.co.uk>
Sent: Wednesday, November 07, 2001 6:36 PM
Subject: filmscanners: Re: filmscanners: RE: filmscanners: 2700ppi a
limiting factor in sharpness?
> Dave wrote:
> > A Polaroid SS4000, courtesy of the recent great price.
> > Before that an LS-30 and both using VueScan.
>
> Thanks, Dave. The other thing I meant to ask was what 800 speed
film?
> Is it Fuji Superia 800 print film?
>
> Rob
>
> PS Tony Sleep has mentioned in the past that he often uses his
SS4000 to
> scan Fuji 800 exposed at a higher speed and gets great results. My
only
> experiences with 800 have been with low light (underexposed) images
and
> was unimpressed with the grain aliasing I saw. Overexposed I don't
doubt
> the story is different!
>
>
>
> Rob Geraghty harper@wordweb.com
>
>
>
>
