Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1997/06/23
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]>I get my best scans from color transparency film. The scans from color >negatives show every defect in the film. Color neg film tends to scratch >easier than any other material I use. Also, I get more noise in the darker >tones with color negative material. > >What scanner are you using? I am using a Leafscan 45 on formats from 35mm >up to 4x5. I am about to get a scanner just for 35mm (like the Super >Coolscan) and I am wondering if there is one that may be optimized for >color negatives, as the Leaf is definitely not. > >This may be a bit off subject, but about 40% fo the 35mm pix that I scan >are taken with Leicas. Jim, After almost a year of hunting for a Leaf scanner (I have a friend who deals in used prepress equipment), I bought a Polaroid SprintScan Plus. I had several long discussions on CompuServe with different people, each advocating a different brand. I had intended to buy a Super Coolscan, but choose the Polaroid for a couple of reasons. The Polaroid has a 3.4 density range, wheras the Nikon is a little under 3.0. This makes a huge difference in the ability of the scanner to pull out shadow/highlight detail. I believe the Leaf has about 3.7. The Polaroid has "canned" settings for many common films. The ones for Fuji print films (which are the only print films I've used on the scanner) work very well. They remove the orange mask and compensate for the characteristics of each film. Even when using these settings, you can still have full manual or automatic control of the scan. The Polariod also lets you do a "raw" scan. If you have a problem image and know what you are doing, this gives you access what is on the film without any software or hardware getting in your way. If you are interested, email me and I will send you some of the comments and information on different scanners that I've gotten. - - Paul