Negative or transparency film?

[sportback]

At last, a tranny film...

As the person responsable for this thread (!) I thought I'd better at least show you what I did today. Bear in mind that I processed these (And the 1st dev temperature was, in the very least 'variable'...) AND I'm also trying to get my head round a new spotmeter...

Aside from that, at 100% magnification, the results are really sharp, so perhaps I'm worrying for nothing, but I do think the overall quality is better than the negative.

This said, I'm wondering if I can take the stress of so little exposure latitude - the bottom line is that really.

The last image is for Jürgen, but sadly I cocked up the exposure and burnt out the highlights...sorry!

 

[cs_foto]

. Bear in mind that I processed these (And the 1st dev temperature was, in the very least 'variable'...) A

looks good!

did you process them yourself?

re: latitude, when you are out and about (traveling, etc) with only one back c41 helps cause you can get away with so many different light scenarios.. on the other hand having a back loaded with E6 limits you to the base iso and the shutter and aperture limitations of your camera... which is not always bad. E6 will also allow you to print cibachromes (ilfochromes) which is something I would love to try in the near future...

 

[sportback]

I live in rural France, and as such decent labs are not on every street corner!!

I process everything myself - I have to - and this is what provoked the original question. Geting used to less latitude (And taking more accurate meter readings!) might be the way to go, but I admit, the latitude of a C-41 is very comforting...

 

[polypal]

Less room to play with exposure for trannies can be overcome by bracketing.
I admit I am a coward that often decides to do multiple exposures to find out quite often none of them were necessary.

Use of and some training in spotmetering can help a great deal.
In the end experience helps to be more comfortable with personal decisions to compensate for any readings found.

Your first results with tranny film look very good.
"Le dejeuner sur l'herbe" number 4 could have benevitted from bracketing.

 

[sportback]

"Le dejeuner sur l'herbe" number 4 could have benefitted from bracketing.

Thank you - and I agree - but I was so convinced I had it right, that I didn't bracket and this is what happens!

Bracketing is a solution, you're right, however the 12 exposures available rapidly become 3 or 4 (depending on how many frames are exposed for each image) Oh course, with a series of exposures I could then try HDR!!

 

[polypal]

High grade scanning

To show what film and scanning can do here a sample of a drum scanner.
Not even a high end drum scanner, these go to 20.000 DPI

This was made with a medium range 5000 DPI drum scanner.

 

[TJV]

Holy cow, that's a great scan! Neg or trannie? ISO? Any chance you could post an upcropped version to compare and reference?

I've been looking for a decent example of a good drum scan in ages, mainly to answer personal questions about whether to preserver with film and outsource only critical final scans at the end of longer projects, or make the switch to digital for cost / convenience reasons. If I could shoot neg film (and take advantage of the latitude) and consistently get results like this I'd be happy to hold off on a digi transition for personal project work.

 

[polypal]

This scan is from a tranny.
As you can see this is a dated image, at least 15 years old.
I came across it by coincidence looking through files for anything scanned with a drum type scanner.

Professional drum scanners are becoming available at prices that make it tempting to reserve some room to install such powerful equipment.
I am not talking about the 20.000 DPI category but the medium range ones with 5000 DPI resolution.

The bottleneck with older equipment is the hardware and software that comes along.
It often means working with outdated Macs with all risks involved.
Amazing how fast IT hardware is loosing its value and is dumped for newer equipment.
Older scanners can not be operated with modern hardware simply because the software can not be adapted.

 

[polarcircle]

What would the price of these old scanners be approximately?

I assume that vuescan do not support them????

I guess that most of these are through scsi interfaces right?

Ronald

This scan is from a tranny.
As you can see this is a dated image, at least 15 years old.
I came across it by coincidence looking through files for anything scanned with a drum type scanner.

Professional drum scanners are becoming available at prices that make it tempting to reserve some room to install such powerful equipment.
I am not talking about the 20.000 DPI category but the medium range ones with 5000 DPI resolution.

The bottleneck with older equipment is the hardware and software that comes along.
It often means working with outdated Macs with all risks involved.
Amazing how fast IT hardware is loosing its value and is dumped for newer equipment.
Older scanners can not be operated with modern hardware simply because the software can not be adapted.

 

[polypal]

Hello Ronald,

You hit the nail on the head.
These scanners are meant to be used with SCSI ports and older generatiom MAC technology.
Even CPU's faster than 800 Mhz give problems. It prevents the software from the scanner to start.

That and the fact that an ante-diluvian G4 MAC is needed to make processing possible is what made me decide not to proceed.

A scanner with a working G4 + SCSI will be around 700 euro.
Scanners no longer supported by the Japanese factory are not encouraging either.

Still the images from these older machines are quite good.
Only question is howlong will the Mac etc last?


Paul

 

[polarcircle]

I guess that the problem for the G4's is maybe not endurance as much as danger of being damaged by a voltage spike in the electricity. However, I think this looks interesting. Would these drum scanners provide better quality than an Epson V750?

Where can one buy these?

Cheers,

Ronald

Hello Ronald,

You hit the nail on the head.
These scanners are meant to be used with SCSI ports and older generatiom MAC technology.
Even CPU's faster than 800 Mhz give problems. It prevents the software from the scanner to start.

That and the fact that an ante-diluvian G4 MAC is needed to make processing possible is what made me decide not to proceed.

A scanner with a working G4 + SCSI will be around 700 euro.
Scanners no longer supported by the Japanese factory are not encouraging either.

Still the images from these older machines are quite good.
Only question is howlong will the Mac etc last?


Paul

 

[polypal]

Hello Ronald,


Anything that ends the life of the G4 with SCSI board ends the chance to use the drum scanner.
Wilko knows this stuff and gave me a local site where s/h MACs are for sale.
There was not one G4 offered with SCSI technology.
All G4 Macs for sale had USB on board.
That is what made me decide not to buy this drum scanner.
The decision was supported by the fact that the Japanese manufacturer does not service this product anymore.


Drum scanners are designed for professional use by the graphic industry.
The top of these machines can give 20.000 DPI.
The one I had in mind was a table top version with a respectable 5000 DPI.
That is more than the best flatbed scanner can give.

Send me a pm with your email address and I will inform you about the seller.

I found this drum scanner advertised in evilbay.
Think again before you buy!


Gr,
Paul