RE: [Leica] New to scanning, Photoshop, and B&W

["Rodgers, David" <david.rodgers@xo.com>]

Chris

>>Flatbed scanners don't do too well on negatives. My Agfa e50
is great for prints, but you really need a film scanner for negs.<<
 
That's what I always thought. Then I saw some 35mm neg scans done on a
flatbed that were head and shoulders above anything I'd done on my Nikon
Coolscan. The guy used a UMAX Powerlook III. 

I think there's huge untapped potential in many devices. I'm not saying this
to challenge what you're saying. I just think the device is far less
important to the end result than the knowledge and skill of the operator. So
impressed was I by what I saw that I bought an Epson 1680 flatbed, instead
of a new Super Coolscan. I got it to scan MF and LF, but I'm going to use it
for 35mm chromes, too; for ink jet printing and web. I also got it to
replace my older StudioScan II; which I admit didn't scan negs as well as my
Coolscan, but it's also 5-years older. 

I'll know more about the capabilities of the newly released Epson 1680 a
year from now. I still feel like a novice when it comes to scanning. I envy
people who have the time and patience to spend countless hours scanning.
That includes understanding programs like Silverfast, Monaco, Photoshop --
and I'm also using Premiere and After Effects to put sound and motion to
stills. Then there's Linux (just kidding). I think that's what it takes.
Countless hours. Sometimes I feel less like a photographer and more like a
IT person, which I was in real life. 

For some reason lately, I keep seeing remarkable flatbed scanned images. I'm
beginning to think that the reason drum scans look so good is because
they're manned by somebody who really knows what he or she is doing.  

Dave