Digital BW, The Print

Martin,
Thank you for the guidance on using the SS120.

I willl be bringing the unit home and hooking it up to my PC 
(Windows98SE) - I have a SCSI card so the hook up should be fairly 
straight forward. Although I agree that the better part of a day will 
be getting it alll straightened out and up to speed. Fortunately, 
they will let me have the unit for a weekend at a one day rate (about 
Canadian$120). I should be able to get a good deal of scanning done 
if I work around the clock :-)
Regarding a few of your comments:
1.Upgrading Silverfast to 5.5
If the supplied CD only has 5.2 - and I install the 5.2  - is the 5.5 
an easy download from the Silverfast site and will it install over 
5.2 or would I need to uninstall first ?
2. RGB vs Greyscale.
If the larger file size and rental time is not a great concern, would 
it be qualitatively (is there such a word :-) be better to scan a B&W 
neg in col ?
3. Raw scan .
You mention that with 5.2 you can only get a raw scan or a HDR scan - 
what does this mean ?
4.Is it better to use the software's controls, or to do the editing 
in PS later and just scan everything at default settings ?
To ask it another way, since I'm scanning a neg and viewing it prior 
to Inverting and seeing a positive in PS, how can I "see" or "know" I 
have a quality scan ?
thanks
Frank


> Frank,
> 
> Right off the bat ask them to upgrade to the current version of 
Silverfast
> for the 120 which is version 5.5.2r20 for Windows, 5.5.2r08 for the 
Mac OS
> or 5.5.2r11 for Mac OS X. These are free upgrades and the 5.5 will 
be very
> important for you. With the 5.2 version you cannot scan directly to 
16-bit.
> You can only get 16-bit with version 5.2 by doing a raw scan or what
> Silverfast refers to as a HDR scan.
> 
> So if you are working with Silverfast 5.2, under options set the 
gamma to
> 2.2 (to match PS 2.2 grayscale), check the "for HDR output" box, 
scan
> everything to 16-bit HDR Grayscale. Scan at 4000 dpi to get the 
most info
> out of the negs. This will give you raw tiff files that you can 
edit in
> Photoshop. They will look rather compressed but will expand out 
just fine.
> 
> If you have version 5.5 also set the gamma to 2.2 but scan directly 
to a
> 16-bit grayscale file and use Silverfast's level's command to set 
the white
> and black points just outside the data range. This will save you 
time in PS
> and will translate the scanners 14-bit data over a broader portion 
of the
> 16-bit space of the file. You could use the other functions in 
Silverfast
> but time will be money and you can do the same things later in PS.
> 
> The solution to perfect flatness with the 120 is to use the glass 
carrier.
> If it doesn't come with one, I would not be concerned in regard to 
flatness.
> The problem with the medium format carrier and, to a lesser extent, 
the 35mm
> carrier is that they are not full frame. On my medium format negs I 
lose
> about 1mm on the sides. This may vary depending upon the camera you 
used
> since not all camera have the same frame width.
> 
> Definitely scan in 16-bit! You can switch down to 8-bit later in 
the process
> but you want to do as much as you can in 16-bit at the start.
> 
> As to scanning in grayscale or RGB there is debate. Since you are 
on the
> clock the grayscale route would seem to be the way to go. An RGB 
file is
> three times as big as a grayscale file.
> 
> What are they going to charge you to use the scanner and how long 
is the
> "day"? You will probably find that you will use the first day just 
getting
> acquainted with everything. After you have taken your scans home 
and worked
> with them you may find you want to rescan some of them.
> 
> Do your math. If you really have a mountain of negs be sure you 
don't wind
> up paying for a substantial portion of a 120 bit by bit.
> 
> Also, how will you get your files home? You will need to burn them 
onto a CD
> and this takes time as well. A 4000 dpi grayscale scan of a 6x6 neg 
will be
> about 160 MB so at best you will only be able to get 3, maybe 4 
scans on a
> single CD.
> 
> Of course if this is a rental you can bring home and hook up to your
> computer it will be a much better deal or if you have a lap top to 
take to
> the scanner to transfer files.
> 
> Martin Wesley
> 
> http://www.borderless-photos.de/guests.html
> 
> 
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "frankg_photo" <frank@f...>
> To: <DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@y...>
> Sent: Saturday, July 13, 2002 2:55 PM
> Subject: [Digital BW] tips please -SprintScan120
> 
> 
> > I cannot afford to purchase one of these Polaroid 120 film 
scanners
> > but a local photo equip rental house has a unit with Silverfast 
5.2
> > available to rent on a daily basis - I have a mountain of black &
> > white 120 & 35mm negs to scan.
> >
> > Can you offer any pointers to help me get the very highest quality
> > scans possible ?
> >
> > One thing I searched the archive for but I didn't turn up any
> > results  - apparently there is a way of keeping the film flatter
> > (particularly the 120 negs) for a sharper result ?
> >
> > I guess I should scan 16 bit not 8 ? Comments ?
> >
> > Should I scan in 256 greyscale mode ?
> >
> > I'm using Photoshop6 & Windows98SE
> >
> > Thanks
> > Frank
> >
> >
> >
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