[filmscanners] Re: Finally, I can talk about the SS4000+ (LONG)

["" <al@greenspace.freeserve.co.uk>]

Art wrote:

<snip>

> The scan quality from the SS4000+ was amazing.  Since the SS4000+ seems
> to recalibrate before each scan, I didn't see any streaking, or "lazy
> sensors", and believe me, after the problems I had with other
> scanners, I was looking for problems.  I looked for color fringing, or
> images out of registration, but there was none.  Then I looked for the
> usual party of "noisemakers" in the shadows of slides.  Nope.  I tried
> playing with levels in Photoshop to force some stuff hidden in the
> shadows to show itself.  It wasn't until I ended up with an image that
> was beyond recognition that I was able to make anything approaching
> "noise" show up.

<snip>

Art,

Interesting review!  Did you only torture your image using levels in Photoshop? 
 When I
initially did the same exercise using levels in Photoshop on images from my 
first Minolta
Elite, I thought any noise/streaks were acceptable because the image was 
unusable by the
time they really showed up.  However, I later found that the Brightness setting 
in Vuescan
seems very much more capable of bringing up the shadows without trashing the 
highlights
or the overall colour balance.  (I know curves can do the same job but not the 
ham-fisted
way I use them:-) That really brought home that I had a lemon.

I know the SS4000+ isn't directly supported by Vuescan yet but you can (I 
think) produce a
raw scan using Insight which could then be manipulated in Vuescan.  If you have 
the time,
I'd be interested to know the results.

> Both dust/dirt/defects and grain get suppressed without sacrificing sharpness

Did you do any direct comparisons between the SS4000+ and the Dual II on this?  
I've found
ICE very useful on damaged film (and to reduce the need for dust spotting) so 
I'd be
hesitant to move to a scanner without it, unless the starting point is that 
much better.

Certainly if the SS4000+ it really is that good in the shadows and at handling 
dust etc, I
might be able to live without ICE and jump ship!  All I would have to do is is 
find a UK
Polaroid stockist who would do part-exchange on the Minolta......



Al Bond

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