Professional 'enhanced' scan vs. DIY scan...

[Peeb]

OK- you can pay a small up-charge (about 10 cents per image on a 36 roll) for 'enhanced' scan (roughtly 3000x2000) from an online vendor. Let me give you an example and then pixel peep just a bit.

Took my latest roll and went to the first image that was in focus and properly exposed (ugh- shot #5!). It's a shot of my D610 set up for a shot of the upcoming sunrise. Here is the difference:

1. Image they sent me at approx. 3000x2000 resolution (but compressed to fit here)-

Here is my scan of the supplied negative (Epson V600)-

The white balance is (to me) much more accurate on my scan, but it you want to accentuate the golden hour, their version is nice. Let's take a close-up look.

Here is left upper side of the camera- professional scan:

And my version:

Look at how 'jaggie' the vertical outline of the prism housing is on the internet version!

I'm pretty pleased with my scanner's ability to meet/exceed the pro shop. I would NEVER want to invest the time to DIY all 36 shots, and due to pure convenience I'm inclined to keep paying the $4.00 per roll for enhanced scanning, but if I really want a super clean shot, I would not hesitate to dig out the negative and do it myself.

NOW, for $9.00 per roll you can get them to do a super resolution scan and perhaps that is beyond what I could achieve, but I doubt I'd regularly pay that- I just have too many 'clunkers' on most rolls that are not worthy of that!

 

[Derrel]

I dunno....their scan looks superior to yours, at least to me. Higher acutance on theirs...more edge crispness on the mode dial lettering. At the speed my scanner works, $9.00 for a roll of 36 scans is a good deal, based on time needed to scan 36 frames. Anyway...thanks for posting. As far as $4 per roll for the kind of scans they are giving you? A BARGAIN!!!

 

[Peeb]

I dunno....their scan looks superior to yours, at least to me. Higher acutance on theirs...more edge crispness on the mode dial lettering. At the speed my scanner works, $9.00 for a roll of 36 scans is a good deal, based on time needed to scan 36 frames. Anyway...thanks for posting. As far as $4 per roll for the kind of scans they are giving you? A BARGAIN!!!

I agree on the price for sure.

ALSO, I agree that I really like the resolution of the letters on the wheel on the pro version- check out the H in particular. Those artifacts and jaggies are troubling to me. Let me do a little post on their verson and I'll see what I can do...

 

[JonA_CT]

I hadn’t even thought about the amount of time to scan 36 frames in a flat bed. You all have convinced me to stop grumbling about the developing and scanning costs for my lab. (I mean...I shouldn’t anyways...their work is flawless)

 

[Peeb]

I hadn’t even thought about the amount of time to scan 36 frames in a flat bed. You all have convinced me to stop grumbling about the developing and scanning costs for my lab. (I mean...I shouldn’t anyways...their work is flawless)

If scanning isn't a labor of love, then it's just...

labor.

It really does take some time. Some images are worth it- most (of mine) are not!

 

[Ysarex]

Bleep scanning and bleep bleepin' Epson!

I've been doing a lot of film scanning in recent months. Bottom line: There's no beating a dedicated film scanner that's engineered for the format. With that said here's a scan of a 35mm transparency from a Nikon Coolscan at 50% of the "enhanced" resolution your lab provides (1500 px):

Only concerned here with resolution so I'm not fussing about color or even contrast that much.

That Nikon Coolscan is on my desk at the college lab. I can use it anytime I want. In fact I'm the only one who can use it since the college abandoned its use years ago when drivers for the lab computers were no longer available. (I have VueScan on my laptop). I also have a new Braun ($2000.00) scanner at work and a fleet of Epson V series scanners. But at home I have an Epson V-600 on my desk -- just like Peeb. It sucks. But it's affordable and it's convenient. Here's that same transparency at the same res from the Epson V-600.

And that's with modifications!! First modification: Epson instructions tell you to scan film through the film base! WTF!! I flipped the film over in the scanner and scanned it properly. Second modification: I shimmed the film holder so the scanner would focus on the film. You can buy an adjustable height film holder for the scanner: The Single Channel Variable Height MF Holder For Epson. I just sat down one afternoon and kept running test scans until I got the right height and then shimmed the film holders.

That's the end of a plastic slide mount that I cut off and glued to the bottom of my film holder -- another on the other end of course.

But all I got from those two modifications is the scan above. Epson has an unsharp mask filter built in and I assume Peeb used it for his scan. I have it turned off in the above scan because it sucks.

Epson's claim for the resolution of their V series scanners is Trumpian. They are not capable of 6400 PPI. They are not capable of 2000 PPI! (see above scan).

So what next? I only use mine with 120 film and so a bigger neg goes a long way to reducing the need for the kind of res you get from a dedicated film scanner. But a lot of folks use them for 35mm. Can we do better? Here's that same image again scanned with the Epson but this time enhanced.

That sure looks better. In fact at this screen res it looks comparable to the Nikon scan. No way is this worth the time and trouble (I'm retired) but what I did was:

1. Over scan the transparency to start (4800 PPI).
2. Hand that scan over to anti-blur software. The anti-blur algorithms they've come up with in recent years seem very well suited to enhancing mediocre film scans. I used this: SHARPEN projects professional | PROJECTS SOFTWARE
3. Problem with anti-blur algorithms is they create artifacts bigly.
4. So I added simulated film grain to cover over the artifacts -- it's film after all!
5. Sampled down the image from 4800 PPI to 3000 PPI.

Here's a side by side at the full res of 3000 PPI at 100% of the sign above the door.

Joe

 

[webestang64]

I do this for a living and here are the best film scanners I have ever used.......

1. Drum scanner.....time consuming and expensive but you can enlarge a well shot 35mm neg into a billboard.
2. Noritsu 1800 series. Buying one yourself will be very hard and cost a bit but using a lab with this scanner is the best way to get close to a Drum scan.
3. Nikon Coolscan.....I've used the 5400, 8000, 9000 and all have done a wonderful job. You can get them for a good price and still get them repaired as well as get software.
4. Any other film scanner.
5. (Insert name here) flatbed scanner. Granted I use a Epson XL10000 for 4x5 and up film scans but for anything smaller.....dedicated film scanner.

FYI......cost at my lab.
For dev and scan of a roll C-41 35mm $10.95 (dev $6 scans $4.95).
Each scan will be around 3130x2075 (8x12 at 260res) 18.6mb file.
We offer a 85mb file scan for (dev $6 scans $15.00) $21.00.

 

[vintagesnaps]

I usually get scans when I get film developed; for me it's worth it to not have to do it all myself or to have to buy an expensive printer/scanner. I've scanned some of my darkroom prints and had a couple professionally done and with those I've gotten good results (working from an original that's 8x10 to make a copy print that's 8x10).

 

[webestang64]

scanned some of my darkroom prints

I use my Epson V700 w/Vuescan software and get wonderful results. Although 100% of my BW that gets sold is a one off print.

 

[carusoswi]

Webestang64:
. . . (sorry to all in responding to such an old thread, but . . .) webestang64, you state that you use VueScan with your V700 and get wonderful results. Perhaps you can point me in the right direction with this software. I use an Epson V800, currently obtaining results with which I am satisfied using Silverfast 8.8 ai Studio.
I purchased VueScan, partly out of curiosity, but mostly because Silverfast forces me to do all my scanning from within Windows. I prefer to work in Linux. Additionally, for small work, I prefer to pull out my old Epson Perfection 2400 for which my Silverfast is not calibrated (to me, bad form on their part - one should not have to buy a separate version of the software for each different scanner one owns).

My problem with VueScan is that I have had no luck figuring out how to set up the MultiScan Crop feature so that I can scan three strips of 6 frames automatically.

The Epson Scan software that was supplied with my scanner (and which I used for years with my Perfection 2400) is, to me, the most intuitive in this regard. You select professional mode, prescan, and the frames are there. You can rotate and/or flip frames individually, then scan . . . very easy.

The SilverFast software was very frustrating to figure out, but using SilverFast's support and watching online tutorials, I finally have my head around that software.

So far, VueScan has me stumpted. I would think it would be the easiest to use. I understand the principals involved in MultiScan. Tell the software how many frames your film holder holds in each direction, enter the spacing between frames, and that is all you should have to do.

It's not working for me.

What settings have you entered for your scanner? I realize that you may be using a 24 frame holder (4 strips of 6 frames), but would appreciate any tips you can offer.

I read that I should be able to set these frames manually. I have tried, but so far, without success.

Thanks for any advice you can offer.

I just know it cannot be this hard. I am missing something.

Caruso

 

[webestang64]

Caruso,
Most of my scanning is done one image at a time. Also I mainly use Vuescan for prints and use Epson scan for negs (large) with my V700. Other reason I have Vuescan is to use with a Nikon Coolscan 8000.

On the Vuescan web site are these instructions for multiple images, I hope this helps... Batch Scanning Tips
If that does not help I suggest contacting Hamrick. I've emailed them several times and got the answer I needed. Good luck.
Scotty

 

[bhop]

I use a V700.. which is basically the same as the 600. Once you get the film holders adjusted properly and figure out your workflow, it's actually pretty sharp. Doing a roll of 36 exposures does take some time, but it's not all that bad if you batch scan. I prescan each image, then make level adjustments, once I get all those done (that's the time consuming part) then I do the full size scans all at once, while I go do other things.

 

[carusoswi]

Thank you both for the replies. I did contact Hamrick, but the reply was to set the software for multi-crop and play around until I got the hang of it. I probably will continue to play around, but was hoping to hear from someone who uses this multi-crop feature successfully with their V800 (or any V-series Epson scanner) that uses the three or four strip holders to automatically locate and step through the frames on these film strips automatically.
I am very pleased with my workflow using Silverfast (which required some effort on my part to learn), and it seems like forever that I have been using Epson Scan software which is also very capable (Epson Scan's frame finding, IMHO, is the best implementation that I have seen).
That said, Epson Scan and Silverfast will not run in Linux, my OS environment of choice.

I am new to this forum, and, so far, have enjoyed browsing the various posts.

Thanks, again.

Caruso

 

[denada]

i really like the fuji frontier series for anything but, oddly, fuji film. 400h, velvia 50 & 100, and provia all turn out horrible with it (i'm yet to see scans of any of these films that i like; projected velvia 50 is hands down the most beautiful film in my opinion). its size is not practical for personal ownership. also, i have not used it myself so i'm unsure if there is some way to fix this, but it cuts off the tiniest edge of your frame.

i just checked out some noritsu scans and they are comparable with the frontier sp-3000.