[filmscanners] Re: Advice Please

["Anthony Atkielski" <anthony@atkielski.com>]

David writes:

> I shoot medium format (t-max 100) film and the
> end use is for high qualiy glossy magazines and
> corporate publications, usually A4, very
> occasionally A3.

Any decent scanner will be more than sufficient for this type of work, as
offset printing can't come close to the quality produced by a good film
scanner.  So from this standpoint, both the Nikon and the Flextight (and
probably any other MF scanner) would be fine.

If you want to be able to extract as much information as possible from the
film for archival purposes, then you may need to look at the scanner with
the best quality (i.e., highest price, roughly).

> Calumet, for example, tell me that the Nikon
> 8000ED would be more than adequate for the purpose,
> whereas Digital Workshop say that the Nikon would
> not be up to the job and I would need a Flextight
> III, at considerably more expense.

Both would be more than enough for publication.

> So, first question; would the Nikon give me
> pin-sharp scans from b/w negs, suitable for high
> quality publication, at least to A4?

Easily.

> Secondly, when the Nikon was demonstrated, the
> film was clearly not at all flat in the holder.
> They told me that the scanner had enough depth
> of focus to compensate for this. Is this true?

Depends on what you mean by "not at all flat."  The Nikon is sensitive to
warping of the film and I've had scans with the standard 120 strip holder
that were visibly soft in areas that warped out of the focus plane.

The solution is to use the MF glass holder that is available as an option
for the scanner (about $350).

> They also said that, if it was a problem, a glass
> carrier was available, but I can forsee all kinds of
> problems with that, such as dust on the extra 4
> surfaces, and newtons rings.

True.  I seem to get better scans with the glass carrier than with the
standard carrier, though.

I've only recently started using the LS-8000ED and I haven't scanned any
black and white yet, but the results with transparencies are great.

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