Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1998/07/02

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Subject: Re: [Leica] Scanner
From: Alan Ball <AlanBall@csi.com>
Date: Fri, 03 Jul 1998 07:59:26 +0200

If it is the 2700F canoscan you are writing about, Eric, I'd like to
post a few words about my personal experience with it.

In Belgium I paid just under 900 USD (vat incl) for it. The specs looked
great. Reality is a little different. I use it with a PC. It is
delivered with a low end SCSI card but installation with Win 95 is very
easy. I've heard of installation problems with NT. First disappointment:
the software that drives it is a low end toy with very little room, if
any, to tweak on the important things (gamma) and to save personal
settings. Second disappointment: the slide scans are systematically very
dark, which means they systematically have to be manipulated. Third
disappointment: there is a lot, and I mean a lot, of noise in the dark
areas of the slides. It is thus a BAD scanner for (slightly)
underexposed slides. Evenly exposed slides (the 18 pct average grey
type) are scanned OK but dark. It scans at 30 bit, giving 24 bit files.
Optically it seems OK (very detailed scans). It is sold at around a
third of the price of the CoolScan 2000 which seems (on paper and
through hearsay) a pretty seducing piece of hardware. It is sold at a
much higher price level than the HP PhotoSmart which seems to satisfy
most of its users.

My experience is not isolated (do a search on dejanews +  I have had
quite a lot of private e-mail from other users).

So, beware of the 2700F: try it first. Put a dense slide through it and
observe closely. My position is becoming the following: if you are
paying high $ for your Leica gear because you want the highest possible
quality, do not act cheap on the imaging stuff that is going to process
your images....

Friendly regards,
Alan,
Brussels-Belgium

Eric Welch wrote:
> 
> At 05:23 PM 7/2/98 -0700, you wrote:
> >That would be ERIC!  I was about to ask the same thing.......
> >where is this great Canon film scanner that beats the LS-2000
> >and for only $700, Eric???
> 
> Canon has had it for some time, I'm told. And the camera group just got
> their hands on it recently where it will be marketed. Keep your eyes open
> for ads. Or check their web site. That's what I'm going to do.
> 
> And I wouldn't say it beats the SuperCoolScan 2000 (the one with built-in
> scratch and dust filters), but it has the same optical resolution - 2700.
> More than the $8,000 Kodak scanner I use at work! :-)
> 
> And the Contrast range (?) is supposed to be 3.1 or 3.3 I believe. Whatever
> that means. And 32 bit color, I think.
> --
> 
> Eric Welch
> St. Joseph, MO
> http://www.ponyexpress.net/~ewelch
> 
> Hard work has a future payoff. Laziness pays off now