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["Michael O'Connor" <omichael@optonline.net>]

  David J. Littleboy wrote:

>I think we need to retreat to basics:

>Density range: the range of densities the scanner can recognize.

>Dynamic range: How finely the scanner chops up ("resolves") the density
range.<


   I'm with David Littleboy on this one, which I think is essentially
where Austin is, but Austin often loses his point in vitriol and fails
to stop before tripping over poorly expressed constructs. I'm not an
engineer, how a scanner works electronically is interesting to a point,
but I really don't know nothing about no volts, and I leave my decibels
to my stereo. After the volts, after the decibels, what a scanner's
dynamic range provides is essentially the potential to describe and
resolve more or fewer discreet steps between the sensor's minimum
resolvable density and its maximum resolvable density above noise. And
since its potential we are really speaking of, I also would have to
agree with what I believe was an earlier post by David, that is, that a
scanner's dynamic range should be expressed as a ratio, though that's
just my personal preference.

   I also feel I should say that the dynamic range of a file or a print
seems different than a scanner's, since they are known entities, and in
their regard I think Julian's part of the argument in getting this
thread going was the most concise, though it was often lost to vitriol
itself.

   What I'd like to know is how a scanner's sample resolution impacts
dynamic range, and whether there is a way, short of volts and decibels,
to quantify the impact of resolution on dynamic range, since I see no
conceivable way that a 300 spi scanner can match the dynamic range of a
4000 spi scanner with all else being equal.

   If you want, for the group's sake, to refute my idiot's view of
dynamic range, or my interpretation of your position, feel free, but I'm
not interested in pursuing the argument, so if you also will be
addressing my question on how to quantify sample resolution's impact on
dynamic range, please do those parts in separate posts, thanks.

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