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Learning to Scan Medium format Images

ComicDom1

ComicDom1

Member
I knew when I decided to go back to shooting film I was going to have to learn to scan in my MF film negative. I already own a dedicated BenQ 35mm Digital Scanner and I bought an Epson 700 with Digital Ice for my medium format.

I am still in the learning process with the Epson and I am wondering if anyone here has come across any website where they were able to quickly learn the best way to setup and scan their negatives with a flat bed similiar to what I have. Silverfast SE was included but I have read that some prefer Vue Scan software. Does anyone here have any opinions on this?

Thanks
Jason
 
You should be happy that you got the V700 rather than the V750, which is
pretty well just as good, as previously mentioned. I use a V700 with VueScan Pro which works very well. The version of Silverfast bundled with the scanner is pretty lame. VueScan works very well as long as you take time to learn how to use it, it's not as user friendly as some packages. I scan slides and negs at 3200 ppi, any higher means very large files. Transparencies are pretty easy but with negs you have to very carefully adjust parameters until you get decent results, then save the settings. Scan to 16 bit "raw" tiffs or DNG if you wish ( I find it's of no advantage). If you get VueScan, make sure it's the Pro version and read the help and tutorials on the VueScan site, you have to do this if you're to get the best results.

I find the V700 a decent scanner, especially for the price, but it will never give pin sharp grain, unfortunately. The only way to get this is to spend a LOT more.
 
I understand that if you do a wet scan, you get an increase in color saturation and better resolution especially towards the edges or all across the film because only wet scanning keeps the film prefectly flat. Another plus seems it conceals sctratches. Only cons are harder to keep dust away and dealing with the wetting agent. Definetely not for volume scanning. Some people see a clear increase in quality. There are 2 places I know that have inexpensive adaptors for the V series scanners. One is Better scanning and the other is http://www.scanscience.com/index.html
Please post your findings and results.
Eduardo



Pete_G said:
I find the V700 a decent scanner, especially for the price, but it will never give pin sharp grain, unfortunately. The only way to get this is to spend a LOT more.
Click to expand...
 
Pete_G said:
........ I find the V700 a decent scanner, especially for the price, but it will never give pin sharp grain, unfortunately. The only way to get this is to spend a LOT more.
Click to expand...


I would call the V700 and the V750 usable scanners.
They leave out the cream from MF images.
It is like you wrote : You need to spend a lot more to get better IQ.

Paul
 
Good discussion so far.
Has anybody got an example of a wet scan vs a dry scan?
Also an example of a scan on a V700 etc vs a Nikon coolscan or more expensive equipment?
Thanks
S
 
Swissblad said:
Good discussion so far.
Has anybody got an example of a wet scan vs a dry scan?
Also an example of a scan on a V700 etc vs a Nikon coolscan or more expensive equipment?
Thanks
S
Click to expand...

I don't think I have any examples to give you, but personally I wouldn't go without wet mounting any longer. There is a big difference with the scans, especially with the V750/V700.

I've personally made 30x30 prints with scans made from the V750. It takes a lot of work getting the sharpening skills down. Once it's done, though, it looks pretty darn good. Of course you can get a sharper image right off the bat with a Nikon 9000 or a Hasselblad scanner, but those aren't options, so you use what you have. Look up and follow how some people do their sharpening and you'll start developing your own technique. Everyone does things differently and each slide and each resolution has a different sharpening technique.

As for the software itself, after months of trying to decide whether to upgrade or not, I ended up upgraded my Silverfast to the latest version they have on their website. The latest version has the Multi-exposure feature and I had heard some horror stories about it. I actually experienced the double-image people reported, but I found that if your slide doesn't pop because of the heat difference or it's wet mounted then you don't need to worry about it. If it does pop because it's not wet mounted, just let the slide/neg cool off and try again.

Hope that helps a little.

Good luck!

Nathan
 
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