I migrated from a 1200U to an Agfa T2500 about 6 months ago. I recently
had a job requiring compositing that exceeded my Photoshop skills, so
down I went to my local digital services provider with my T2500 35mm
color neg scans. My color managed PC system scans opened on his color
managed MAC system looking just like they did on mine, and he also
commented on the good scan quality. Moral of the story? ICC profiles
are a good thing, and the T2500 is still probably the least expensive
($4300) 35 to 4x5 scanner that will really do the job. If you don't
need 4x5 scans, the new medium format Polaroid is higher res and a bit
less money.
Dave King
----- Original Message -----
From: James L. Sims <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Saturday, October 07, 2000 12:07 PM
Subject: Downright Depressing
> After having so many difficulties scanning negatives and
> transparencies on my Epson 1200U scanner, I discussed one of the
> problems, posterization, with a SilverFast tech. He suggested
> that the problem could be beyond the capabilities of my scanner
> and to make some scans with a higher quality scanner. Upon his
> suggestion, I asked the owner of a local photo service company to
> scan a particularly difficult negative (2 1/4" X 2 1/4")on his
> Sytek scanner (perhaps an overkill to the tech's suggestion). The
> comparison of his scan and the best I could do on my scanner is
> depressing, to say the least. While the color was a good bit off
> (it was a raw scan), there was no posterization and I was able to
> adjust the colors to within an acceptable range in Photoshop. The
> image was razor sharp.
>
> The photo service has been in business for almost thirty years and
> has made the transition from film to digital imaging. He has two
> printers - one very large format inkjet and another large format
> printer that exposes the image, via a laser scan, on to
> photographic paper. The images are breathtaking - some billboard
> size. While he still has one E-6 line operating, does some black
> and white work, and still uses a Deardorff copy camera for copy
> work, over 90% of his business is digital. It was interesting (to
> me, at least) that he does not use ICC profiles. His finish work
> is all done within his in-house loop and image scans are given to
> the customer as raw TIFF files. He uses both PC's and Macs in his
> facility.
>
> An even more interesting observation is that the scan he made for
> me was done to produce a 20" X 20" image at 300 dpi. That is well
> within the capability of the 4000 dpi Polaroid and Microtek
> scanners and the Minolta Scan Multi II. The Sytek does have a bit
> higher OD (advertised 4.1 Dmax) but I believe that the scanners
> just mentioned could come very close to the same result. All have
> 42 bit image data internal (I think).
>
> The visit to my friend, Cecil Isbell, his company, Quality Photo,
> was an eye opener. While a good medium format scanner is probably
> beyond my justifiable reach, I fully appreciate Polaroid and other
> manufacture's interest in producing quality scanners for medium
> format at a price within the reach of serious amateurs and small
> business professionals. Things just keep getting better.
>
> Jim Sims
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