Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1998/06/22
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Hello All: I'd just like to share my two weeks experience with the above hardware for those of you interested in getting into digital photography/scanning. The set-up is relatively easy and straightforward. The unit comes with all the hardware and software needed to get started. The instructions are very thorough and precise since the cd rom comes with an instructional video on how to open, assemble and install the supplied scsi card into the computer. Scanning is also plenty fast. One can pre-scan/preview four frames at the same time. You have the option of looking closing at each of the pictures almost one after the other. Usually pre-scan takes about under 30 seconds. If you decide that you like a particular frame, you can adjust the exposure, crop, add saturation before the final scan. Final scan depending on the resolution takes less than a minute for 2400 dpi. A 1200 dpi takes roughly 20-30 seconds. That is plenty quick compared to the Microtek 35 t plus that I tested a few weeks ago. The color bias is pretty accurate and resembles very close to the original negative. e.g. I scanned a negative and compared it printed over custom lab. They are very close. The software is not complicated to use, although it does not have much tricks to it or special effects type of stuff. But for editing colors, saturation, cropping, it does the trick. On really contrasty slides esp. with lots of shadows, well, it does get tricky to adjust the biases. But if one is patient enough, you can come close to the original. Although there is a Hamrick software out there that helps alleviate this problem. Output quality is pretty good. I scanned a few slides at 2400 dpi and had a friend printed it over his LExmark Optra 1275n Color Laser printer at 8x10. Its quite impressive. Although its not comparable to cibachrome, but relatively speaking, looking at it from a distance of 3 to 5 feet, its like printed on a photograph paper. COnclusion: I highly recommend this piece of hardware for those people wanting to get into scanning/printing. There are more expensive scanners out there but for the price of $400++, its very hard to beat. For webpublishing purposes, it does more more than the trick!! Although at this point I'd like to publish some of my work at the web, i still don't know how to do it. Perhaps someone can guide me though this. Hope this is of help, Ferdinand