Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2000/04/25

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Subject: Re: [Leica] Epson 870, 1270
From: "Henning J. Wulff" <henningw@archiphoto.com>
Date: Tue, 25 Apr 2000 14:53:26 -0700

At 12:40 PM -0500 4/25/00, Henry Ambrose wrote:

>If you need resolution the Polaroid seems the answer as it is 4000ppi as
>opposed to 2700 for the Nikon. Thats what I meant when I said "it'll do
>scans twice the size of the Nikon"
>Maybe you mean something different for resolution.

All I meant was that the effective resolution increase available from the
Polaroid was not terribly significant; just barely there. Remember that the
dpi ratings of scanners are not really true resolution numbers, it only
tells you what size file you can create. Just like with conventional film
when taking pictures; if you use Tech-Pan, and it can resolve 400lp/mm (I
just made that up; I don't care what the exact figure is) then your negs
will not have a resolution of 400lp/mm. There are a _whole_ bunch of other
factors at work, all of which degrade the final result to some extent.

>Velvia can be tough to scan if you have a really dense piece of film.
>Maybe thats why I use negative film a lot.

Negative film is definitely easier on a scanner, especially CCD scanners.
An LS-30 does a very good job with negatives for example, but is marginal
even for transparency films with low Dmax.

I still have a lot of Kodachrome to scan, and even the newer 100ISO films
will have shadow detail that gets ignored by all present CCD scanners, even
ones like Imacon Flextights. I just want to get everything out of the film
that my budget allows, and extra shadow detail is more important to me than
the small amount of increased resolution that I was able to achieve with
the Polaroid. Plus the batch mode thing with the Nikon, which is a huge
timesaver for me.

>Glad to hear that your Nikon works so well for you. Sounds like we have
>two contenders for best.
>
>Did you get the Epson 1600?
>I'm waiting to hear how they are in real world use.

No, I still haven't got it. They've had some 1600's in, but not the
firewire model. Maybe soon...

   *            Henning J. Wulff
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