Digital BW, The Print

Randy et. al. --

It's exactly the same old diffusion vs. condenser enlarger discussion. My 
early darkroom prints were made with condenser enlargers, but after ten 
years or so of photographic printing I discovered the benefits of using an 
enlarger with a diffuse light source -- improved highlight separation was 
the major improvement, but softer, more easily spotted dust was also a plus.

The reasons to prefer one scanner over the other becomes less certain since 
your present work is largely with color and B&W chromogenic films. However, 
I believe you'd find the Polaroid/Microtek scanner to be the preferred 
device for scanning your old negatives, old Kodachromes, as well as any new 
work you might do with silver-image film. I felt certain about purchasing 
the Polaroid since I have an accumulation of many years of conventional B&W 
negatives, quite a few Kodachrome slides, and I continue to expose a fair 
amount of 400-speed Tri-X. The Polaroid/Microtek scanner is also capable of 
producing fine scans from chromogenic films though this wouldn't be a 
reason to prefer the SprintScan over the Nikon scanner which should be 
equally excellent at this particular task.

If you can find a dealer with a new Polaroid SprintScan 120, I believe that 
Polaroid continues their warranty support. I understand that paid, 
out-of-warranty support is also still available. Even so, if I were 
replacing mine with a NEW unit, I would seriously consider buying a 
Microtek 120tf. I understand that the Polaroid units were actually 
manufactured by Microtek under contract to Polaroid, and the 120tf should 
be the same scanner.

On the other hand, saving money is also a virtue, and a purchase decision 
might also hinge on the prices found on eBay where I see that recent sales 
of the Polaroid 120 have been for $1750 NEW and $1250 MINT. As I wrote 
previously, the Microtek is available for $1700 NEW from www.bhphoto.com.

The software package that comes with the scanner might also influence your 
choice. SilverFast software is bundled with the Microtek 120tf. The 
Polaroid 120 comes with either of two packages: Polacolor Insight alone or 
SilverFast AI in addition to Insight. I've tried Insight, SilverFast, and 
VueScan and much prefer the control and flexibility of SilverFast. The 
version provided with the SprintScan 120, however, is v.5 or v5.2 or v.5.5 
all of which include a few non-working features. I found it very much worth 
spending $77 to upgrade to their current v.6.2 in which everything works. 
Should you decide to buy a full, after-market copy of SilverFast, it will 
cost you $424, so it's worth making sure it's included with whatever 
scanner you buy.

Hope this helps.

-- Victor Landweber



At 06:26 AM 2/19/2004, randyrancier wrote:
>Victor, thank you so much for the information, so many others get
>off on tangents.
>
>No I am only considering film scanners.  From what your saying
>sounds like the old debate of difussion vs. condensor enlargers.  I
>will probably be shooting primarily chromogenic BW film, but I will
>also be doing a lot of color; I would also like to scan some of my
>old BW negs and would like to be able to have the option to shoot
>and develope convientional BW film; would the Poloroid and Microtek
>scanner work well for all of these applications?  Also, if Poloroid
>isn't supporting these scanners, is there any problem getting them
>serviced if I was to pick up a used one or should I stick with
>Microtek at this point, in your opinion?
>Thanks
>Randy