Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2008/05/05
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Since I was wrong and am now a reformed unbeliever, I feel obligated to provide the information. My email does not accept chocolate attachments. As Bob, says, the latest professional version of Vuescan software can save scans as a .DNG file, which is a Raw file format, just like the files from an M8. If your scanner is 16 bit like the top Nikons (and you scan at 4000dpi) then you will get a very large .DNG. About a 100MB from a 35mm original, bigger from medium format, obviously. Once you have the scan as a DNG, then normal Raw converter progs should work. This is a big leap compared to doing a conversion (to TIFF or JPG) within Vuescan itself. In the interests of science I shall make some new scans and have a play. I'll try with ACR 4.4.1 and LR2 beta. Caveats: Maximum quality defined by the actual dynamic range of the CCD in the scanner as well as the originally captured dynamic range (film and exposure dependant). I suspect that the CCD signal to noise ratio may be a bigger factor. Your scanners analog/digital converter will determine the quality of the 16 bits outputted too. Those limitations may or may not be significant. Certainly worth some experimentation. No question but that exposure and white balance adjustment in Raw is superior to any saved TIFF or JPG. ACR has a default setting to ignore DNGs over, (I think) 200MB. Other thoughts: If you have a computer with enough grunt to digest quantities of DNGs of these sizes, then lossless compression in ACR (and I guess LR) should shrink them down to a mere 50MB or so each from 35mm scans! Or buy an M8 and cut out the middle man. Cheers Geoff http://www.pbase.com/hoppyman/e http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/gh/ -----Original Message----- Subject: Re: [Leica] Nikon Coolscan 4000 Users.... I need help! DNGs are like RAW. Fully able to be manipulated in ACR or Lightroom without impacting the original scan. So you can always go back later to the DNG when the new HDR/UberDOF/3D/MegawideGamut becomes available. Also, you can play with the white balance, which is, in my experience, more difficult to do with a .tif file. ACR lets you do other stuff in RAW that you can't do elsewhere, but I've never known enough to use it... It's definitely not smaller; my tif files are about 100mb smaller than my dng files (6x6 scanned at 4000dpi). Like I said, though, Lightroom seems to freak with 550mb .dng files; perhaps Wade can give some insight... Bob Bob Adler Palo Alto, CA http://www.raflexions.com ----- Original Message ---- From: Mark Rabiner <mark@rabinergroup.com> To: Leica Users Group <lug@leica-users.org> Sent: Monday, May 5, 2008 6:09:18 PM Subject: Re: [Leica] Nikon Coolscan 4000 Users.... I need help! > Careful Steve. Never come between me and my chocolate! > :-) > > Bob Adler > http://www.raflexions.com > > On May 5, 2008, at 2:42 PM, Bob Adler <rgacpa@yahoo.com> wrote: > > No Geoff. Here's what you do: > Go to the Output tab > Set Output RAW DNG format to on. > > The manual is a bit confusing, but if you go look at this it works. > DNG format > ACR usable > The DNG's are better in some way? Smaller? More compatibility with Lightroom? Mark William Rabiner markrabiner.com