Digital BW, The Print

It's not Nikon...Nikon doesn't advertise 5400ppi (it's not "dpi", btw,
it's ppi). 

Minolta used to advertise 5400, and that setting did make a slightly
bigger file than their 4000ppi, but that didn't add anything to detail
resolution in published tests. Maybe using Minolta 4000ppi, which
makes the same size file as Nikon's 4000ppi, would be less noisy. 

Minolta's 5400II lacks and won't accept the older model's famous grain
reducing diffuser. I have a Scanhancer diffuser for my Nikon V but it
doesn't serve as well as does a good workflow with Nikonscan or, more
directly, simply using Vuescan software. (Minolta dropped the diffuser
with their last machine, presumably to reduce scans from 12 minutes to
1.5 minutes, like Nikon). 

Scanning silver film with Nikonscan one simply scans negs as positive
and inverts in Photoshop, tweaking grain in post processing if one
wishes. 

Nikonscan, like Minolta's app, does exaggerate grain a little, but
that's just a matter of proper setting with Vuescan... one can do as
well with Nikonscan if one is willing to do a little more work. 

Vuescan's main advantage, IMO, is the "light grain reduction" setting
which doesn't soften grain (defines it about like a good condenser
enlarger with good optics) and in my careful tests definitely doesn't
affect fine detail resolution. That particular grain setting causes my
12X18 Epson 2200/MIS/QTR prints to closely emulate condenser enlarger
prints grainwise...if I wanted to vanish grain altogether, that's
available in Vuescan, still retaining sharpness (I've not tested
detail resolution with the heaviest grain reduction setting, which
seems to emulate the plastic look of DSLR).  




--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "Bill Morse"
<Bill.Morse@...> wrote:
>
> Yes, it's probably noise, probably from a CCD scanner- but I had
> another thought when I re-read David's original post.  David, you said
> that the scans were "virtually grainless."  At 5400 dpi, even with
> Ilford Pan F film, I'd expect to see grain at 5400 dpi. If you are
> not, I'd question whether you have perfect focus in your scans.
> Perhaps someone else who has recently scanned Ilford Pan F film at 5k+
> DPI can comment?