[filmscanners] RE: Suggestions for scanning 4x5 transparencies

["" <snsok@cox.net>]

In regard to the grays, I was referring to gray tones in the color print. I
know they weren't strictly neutral but at least the eye shouldn't be
influenced as much by saturation and brilliance.

I wish we had the ability to try the different flatbeds before buying.

My understanding of the workings of the Epson 2200 is that the mandatory RGB
input is resampled to 720 ppi and converted to CMYK (or I guess more
correctly, CcMmYKk as there are 7 pigments). So it sounds like the Epson
2450 should have plenty of resolution at 2400 ppi. The printer is capable of
13 inches on the short side and my pencil calculations indicate that the
image from the Epson can be increased by 3.25 without having to upsample to
achieve the 720 ppi.

The other characteristics should be the deciding factors--right?

Stan

-----Original Message-----
From: filmscanners_owner@halftone.co.uk
[mailto:filmscanners_owner@halftone.co.uk]On Behalf Of Laurie Solomon
Sent: Saturday, October 26, 2002 1:44 AM
To: snsok@cox.net
Subject: [filmscanners] RE: Suggestions for scanning 4x5 transparencies


Since you put it that way, the answer has to be it depends on who you talk
to. :-)  However, in all seriousness, I would say that in all probability
the average highend prosummer flatbed scanner is probably satisfactory for
producing scans intended for printing on the high end inkjet printers like
the Epson 2200, assunming the scanner has good dynamic range, an acceptible
bit depth, and reasonable optical resolution. Other design features and
specs, in my opinion, are of lesser significance in answering your question.
Resolutions is most important in determining how large one intends the
scanned image to be reproduced.  If we are talking of producing
magnifications of billboard proportions from a 4x5 or smaller (or even an
8x10), one would probably not only want but need the optical resolutions
provided by a high end drum scanner.  Bit depth becomes most important for
color but can impact on the number of tones of gray in grayscale one can
obtain in a scan; dynamic range is important in defining the contrast range
that the scanner will be able to render in terms of capturing details in
contrast to noise.

Things like snap, saturation of colors, contrast and tonal range, neutrality
of color, etc. in the final prints is more a product of the printer's
limitations and the limits of the media and inks used to produce the final
finished print.

Hence the limitations are products of which set of limiting factors one is
taking into consideration as being constraining factors in determining
"quality."

However, in the above, I neglected to mention that you have moved back and
forth between referring to the printing of color transparencies in color I
presume and the printing of grayscale files.  Your first concern was with
the lack of snap in the grayscale print versus what you saw in the monitor
with some referral even in that case to a comparison with Ilfochrome prints,
which are not grayscale but color prints.  Color and grayscale are two
different animals in terms of both scanning and printing; and one has to be
careful not to confuse the two and overgeneralize from one to the other.

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