[Leica] Olympus Pen Ft

[tgray at 125px.com (Tim Gray)]

On Oct 26, 2008, at 5:34 PM, Douglas Barry wrote:

> Following the recnt posts on the Pen F and its lens quality, I went  
> out an shot off a roll of Kodak P3200TMAX using my PenFT. Scanning  
> the negs in using my Epson 3200, I was astonished to see the level  
> of grain and lack of clarity in the images. This is an example.

That doesn't seem to be an unexpected result with TMZ.  TMZ is pretty  
grainy as I'm sure you know, and a half frame camera has less are in  
the negative to help mask the grain.  Also, your scanner could be  
influencing the results.  In my experience, the lower resolution the  
scan, the more the grain is emphasized.  I think its called grain  
aliasing.  The lack of clarity might be from the lens or from the  
scanner - I don't know.  I wouldn't be surprised if its from the  
scanner (the 3200 is a flatbed, right?).  When I was looking for a  
scanner, I remember seeing a similar lack of clarity on the Epson V700  
compared to the Nikon Coolscans.

Sorry for the big sizes on the following two pictures, but they need  
to be viewed at their large size to see the grain.  The following 2  
photos were taken on the same roll of film (TMZ at 1600) with the same  
lens, etc.  The lighting was different and the scanning was different  
( both scanned on a Nikon V).  The first photo was scanned at 1333 dpi  
and saved to jpeg.  The second photo was scanned at 4000 dpi, then  
down sized to 1200x1600, then saved to jpg.  The difference in the  
grain in the two shots is significant if you ask me.  With a half  
frame camera, you're fighting an up hill battle since you already have  
less negative to work with...

1333 dpi scan:
<http://www.flickr.com/photos/tgray1/2672249369/sizes/o/>

4000 dpi scan, resized:
<http://www.flickr.com/photos/tgray1/2676040066/sizes/o/>

A less grainy film might be the way to go.  Even better, C41 B&W film  
like Kodak BW400CN might be the ticket.