I use (as you may have seen by now) Fuji NHGII, and Superia is said to be identical to Fuji Press 800, but Fuji reps have told me Superia is more grainy with a bit more contrast. The published specs (I think, not double checking) say equal grain however, and I've never done critical comparisons. The few rolls of Press 800 I've shot looked very similar to NHGII to me in casual comparisons from memory.
Using the LS-30 I found a significant improvement in image structure and grain sharpness using VueScan, but I suppose you're already doing that. I don't see "aliasing" with 800 negs as much as with smaller grain negs, as grain is big enough for the scanner to see clearly. You really don't need to sharpen grain resolved clearly by the scan that much, I find much more than 75%, 0.8 radius, and 0 threshold begins to overemphasize grain more than a good optical projection would do. At some point you have to face the fact you'll never get super sharp big prints from 35mm, no matter what lens and film you use, unless you really start chasing resolution with advanced techniques, and even then it's *much* easier IMO just to shoot medium or large format and probably get better results too. If the grain is crisp but the picture is soft, than you can only look to your shooting technique. Unless, that is, you oversharpen in the digital domain, and that creates other problems. Selective sharpening can work pretty well, but it gets into more work than I want to do on most pictures. When I first got the SS4000 I wondered if it was overemphasing grain in my 800 negs, particularly in the sky. Careful comparisons of large prints to highly magnified negatives revealed a direct correspondence however - the scanner is seeing the negative very accurately. There is simply more grain in some areas of the negative than others. I wonder if this is due to some sort of "stacking" effect (Austin?), whereby areas with dyes closer to the color of the base appear grainier. Certainly smooth areas of tone show more grain in any film, color neg, trannie, B&W. Anyway, I recognize big grain ain't for everyone, especially if you're trying to maximize sharpness and smoothness to the extent possible. I like grain as an escape from all that. That's what I deliver to my commercial clients and it gets boring:) Dave ----- Original Message ----- From: Rob Geraghty <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Wednesday, November 07, 2001 6:36 PM Subject: filmscanners: Re: filmscanners: RE: filmscanners: 2700ppi a limiting factor in sharpness? > Dave wrote: > > A Polaroid SS4000, courtesy of the recent great price. > > Before that an LS-30 and both using VueScan. > > Thanks, Dave. The other thing I meant to ask was what 800 speed film? > Is it Fuji Superia 800 print film? > > Rob > > PS Tony Sleep has mentioned in the past that he often uses his SS4000 to > scan Fuji 800 exposed at a higher speed and gets great results. My only > experiences with 800 have been with low light (underexposed) images and > was unimpressed with the grain aliasing I saw. Overexposed I don't doubt > the story is different! > > > > Rob Geraghty [EMAIL PROTECTED] > http://wordweb.com > > >