I heard - el Bloggo was down. I told Heath that sometimes my ISP likes to delete files just to make life more interesting. Since you're reading this - it's up again.
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All morning spent with VueScan. Yes. Quite the program. I still think I'm going to end up with the 4990, but maybe it isn't quite the rush I thought it was. One thing for sure, VueScan blows away the Epson scanner driver. And of course - I'm sure that Barrett mentioned it years ago to me but I'm a slooow learner. Or maybe it's that until I hit a brick wall, I don't start listening.
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The only problem I had with VueScan and the 1600 is that when the negative was in the negative holder, the scan was soft. Also - you can't - at least I can't - figure out how to focus the scanner through VueScan since the Focus Title is always grayed out - which I figure means that the scanner itself doesn't support manual focus. What the scanner does have is a switch for setting whether the focus should be at Zero or 2-point something (the latter is for when it's in the negative carrier, i.e. the film is farther away from the scanning table).
Anyway - to make a long story longer - I just took the negative out of the holder and stuck it on the glass - and then the scan through VueScan was considerably sharper. (I'm not using any sharpening settings in VueScan, nor am I decreasing grain appearance etc.) All the sharpening is done post-scan. The other cool thing - is the RAW scan. What a concept. More later...
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Thank you Barrett, Markus -- VueScan did the trick. I'm going to hold on to this 1600. Getting great results now.
6 comments:
Not yet Craig. But it's on my list.
I'm using it with the Dual IV and get much better
results than with the (crappy) Minolta software.
Btw. Dave, watch out for Newton rings when you
place negs directly on the glass
Markus - I've been waiting to see those newton rings for years but haven't yet :)
Epson talks about them also - if you aren't using the carrier. I don't think the transparency carrier really sandwiches the negative enough get them rings, but will keep an eye out for 'em.
BTW, the Epson doesn't have the ability to manually focus which is why VueScan can't tell it to do same.
It's also a messy way to go - flat on the glass (dust etc.). There are a couple of things I want to find out about the 4990 before I get it though.
I did two very difficult scans today that I couldn't do with the Epson TWAIN software. I also found out more than anyone should know about how the 1600 operates.
Barrett - you mean the car oil I've been swabbing on the glass isn't a good idea :)
For now, I'm going to just try masking tape. (Not a great idea since it will leave residue on the glass but I'm not dipping these negs. in liquid).
There are other possibilities. For example - if I still had my neg. carriers from the Zone VI - (it's two plates) you could probably get by with take the top plate and putting it over the neg, although that plate might be a bit thick.
Or you could cut-out a piece of plastic and use that - and have it long enough so that you tape the sides down outside the glass area.
Hi Lee,
Vuescan is a program - not a scanner.
If all your slides are 35mm, I would suggest a film scanner. I use the Minolta Dimage 5400. There is a later model: The DiMage II.
Nikon makes a similar scanner.
I don't think that any flatbed scanner with negative transparency holder like the Epson does as good a job scanning 35mm negatives as a dedicated film scanner.
On the other hand with something like the Epson 4990 you can scan faster since you can put a bunch of slides into a holder and scan them all at once. So it gets down to the end purpose of the scans. If the purpose is to get every ounce of dynamic range and detail - then a film scanner is the best way.
If you plan on doing more archival scans of the slides that are quite up to the quality of a film scanner than the faster way to go is with the Epson 4990.
Right now I'd say you'd do better off using whatever scanning software comes with the scanner as opposed to VueScan which I think is for those of us constantly tweaking scans.
Hope that is helpful to you.
Dave
P.S. YOU GUYS - FEEL FREE TO TELL ME WHY I'M WRONG :)
Barret - yes, re: last paragraph.
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