Digital BW, The Print

Pardon the interruption, but I can attest that my Canoscan 8400f
flatbed also prefers thin negatives. It can pull astonishing amounts
of detail out of what looked to my naked eye like clear areas on the
negative. On the other hand, nice full-toned-looking negatives will
give mediocre results and even blown highlights.

This makes no sense to me, since if scanner CCD's work like digicam
CCD's, I'd expect the opposite. I can make some "exposure" adjustments
with the driver controls, but, though I haven't made any study or
measurements, I believe I lose overall range when I compensate this
way. That seems to be what the histogram is telling me. I take that to
mean the controls are manipulating the data, not the optics.

When I learned to do darkroom printing after using the scanner for a
while, it seemed to me that enlargers "preferred" negative density
much closer to what my eye did.

I'm speaking of B&W film, 35mm, usually TriX or HP5.

Bob

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, hogarth@s... wrote:
>
> Steve Gledhill wrote:
> 
> > Bruce,
> > Does your 'thinner negs' experience for scanning only apply to drum
> > scanners or does it apply for all scanners?  From what you say I guess
> > it does, but can you clarify please.  
>