Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2007/08/18

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Subject: [Leica] Re: Scanning Tri-X
From: lrzeitlin at optonline.net (Lawrence Zeitlin)
Date: Sat Aug 18 07:50:41 2007
References: <200708181146.l7IBkIR4058154@server1.waverley.reid.org>

On another list someone complained about the "posterization" and  
aliasing encountered in scanning Tri-X film. Here is the quote:

"both my 2880ppi and 4000ppi
film scanners posterize my Tri-X negatives... which
makes sense.  there is also nothing you can do to
remove sampling errors after you scan.  My early
analysis of Tri-X grain showed that it has strong
frequency content around 4000ppi so when my scanners
sample at around half the Nyquist frequency the
aliasing is just a fact of life.  With finer grained
films, the grain is still aliased, BUT since the
signal to noise ratio is so much higher the actual
useful *image* data is not lost and *luckily* the new
aliased *grain*, while not an accurate representation
of the original, is still aesthetically pleasing."

Can someone explain what he means in plain language?  I've scanned  
hundreds of Tri-X negatives with my Minolta Dimage 5400 scanner at  
4000ppi, and, apart from the inevitable dust spots on poorly stored  
negatives, I have yet to see what he means. If there is a problem, is  
the scanner software correcting it automatically?

Larry Z




Replies: Reply from alex at zabrovsky.com (Alex) ([Leica] Re: Scanning Tri-X)
Reply from h_arche at yahoo.com (H. Ball Arche) ([Leica] Re: Scanning Tri-X)
Reply from jhnichols at bellsouth.net (Jim Nichols) ([Leica] Re: Scanning Tri-X)
Reply from richard-lists at imagecraft.com (Richard) ([Leica] Re: Scanning Tri-X)
Reply from lug at steveunsworth.co.uk (Steve Unsworth) ([Leica] Re: Scanning Tri-X)
Reply from images at comporium.net (Tina Manley) ([Leica] Re: Scanning Tri-X)