Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2005/09/22

[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]

Subject: [Leica] a couple of questions regarding scanning..........
From: aaron.sandler at duke.edu (Aaron Sandler)
Date: Thu Sep 22 03:09:58 2005
References: <a2f8f44705092105296d4c7e80@mail.gmail.com> <20050922012954.67432.qmail@web51006.mail.yahoo.com>

CD vs DVD shouldn't matter...they're just two differently sized boxes in 
which to store a different number of scans (DVD will store about 7-8x as 
much as a CD).

But, PLEASE DON'T TOSS THE NEGATIVES!!!

1) At worst, negs are your archive...your backup.

2) In practice, there are many different qualities of scans.  Unless you 
are paying big bucks for each single scan, you are not getting the best 
quality scan available today, let alone whatever new technology may be 
available down the line.  Depending on the scan, there may be no quality 
difference between a scan and the negative when making a 4x6 print, or even 
a 5x7, or possibly even an 8x10 (if you're getting a good scan), but what 
if you sometime want to go even bigger?  What if your kids do?  Your 
grandkids?  You or they will need the negative, either to print from or to 
rescan at higher resolution.

My experience:
All of my negatives are scanned onto CD...at the Costco one-hour photo lab 
when they are developed.  Generally, the quality of these scans is ok for 
web posting.  Sometimes it is sufficient for decent 4x6 and 5x7 
prints.  However, I rescan on my own scanner any photo that I really 
like.  I make a much higher resolution scan and I'm much more careful with 
contrast, tonal range, etc, than Costco is.  My scans almost always make 
much better 4x6 prints; you can often even see the difference on the 
web.  And, crucially, from my scan I can make a very nice 8x10, and even a 
very nice 12x18 (assuming the negative is sharp & well-exposed).  But I 
still keep the negs...maybe someday I'll want to have a fancy drum scan or 
(whatever the next technology will be) to make a _really_ big print...you 
never know.

Example:
original Costco scan from CD...looks pretty nice on web, except the 
highlights are totally blown...very obvious on prints, which don't look 
very nice:
http://www.duke.edu/~ajs2/PAW/2004_45/images/main.jpg

my rescan...highlight detail present...this is hanging on my wall as a 
12x18 and it looks fantastic:
http://www.duke.edu/~ahh2/sandlerphotographs/prints/images/ScrippsAquarium.jpg

So, to summarize, KEEP YOUR NEGATIVES!

Best,
Aaron


>Thanks to Daniel for your reply/ advice. A couple of questions: I guess 
>you have no differance in quality between CD-RW and DVD? Also there is no 
>differance in quality between CD-RW and negative? If the answer to last 
>question is "no," I guess there is no reason to keep negatives?
>
>Again, thanks to anyone who replies.
>
>Bill


In reply to: Message from dlridings at gmail.com (Daniel Ridings) ([Leica] a couple of questions regarding scanning..........)
Message from wrs111445 at yahoo.com (Bill Smith) ([Leica] a couple of questions regarding scanning..........)