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Evangelical Zeal Part 2 (Revenge of the computer nerds!!!) - part 3 of 1 2 3 4 5

by Damian McGillicuddy Published 01/02/2001

Now please be aware that one of my favourite hobbies is spending money. However being much wiser than I, my wife, (and at the time employer) had dispatched me to the NEC with only enough money to do minor damage to our budget. Of course I saw the hoods after I'd spent the "Lions share" of my cash. I knew buying the hood was the right thing to do, so after making a small withdrawal from the "Bank of Chris" I purchased it. Just as a side issue Chris inexplicably wanted the money back so on return home I paid him! Some friend he is!!!!

In short, now I had the equipment to test my theory and see was I right. The neg.. scanned beautifully, although because of the scanners 600dpi optical resolution "blow up" potential was limited. I had seen the future and unlike the confectionery advert it wasn't egg shaped it was digital.

So to recap, despite the very basic and ultimately inadequate equipment I'd managed to "dip my toe in" digitally speaking and test my theory to asses suitability and so far I'd done it all for around £400.

I was pleased to say the least.

OK, the game was now starting to get interesting. I needed to off load the X6 and look around for a dual platen scanner (at this stage I thought that I'd keep the option open for scanning reflective) with the grunt to do a high enough resolution job to satisfy my requirements.

I was a little surprised that even though I had only had the kit for about nine weeks I had to let it go (boxed and as new) for a little under half of what I paid. Boy didn't that smart! So now being in the position of knowing roughly what I was after I was able to call in a few favours and on a few friends to look at equipment. The one advantage of being a well known photographer is that you get excellent service from the pro shops.

So for me the first port of call was my friend John Willis at H. A. West (X-ray). Through a couple of different suppliers John had met my photographic needs for over ten years.

I wanted to look at Microtek's Scanmaker 5, the comparable Agfa model (both dual platen) and Minoltas Dimarge scan multi, a dedicated medium format roll film scanner. John very kindly arranged for me to take them, each in turn, home to try.

I'd dug out three negatives that were to be my "test kit". One was a very average every day picture of a little kid in a very pale cream jumper sat on a red chaislounge with the compulsory brown old master background. My second test neg.. was a real stinker.

A really high contrast black and white Fuji Neo pan neg.. Let me tell you a mono neg. really sorts the men from the boys when it comes to finding chinks in the armour of other wise "perfect" scanners.

Finally I had chosen an also semi difficult Provia tranny of a black girl with white "markings" our make up artist (hi Mel) had spent quite literally hours applying, again on a dark background. This image was classic in checking out the relative Dmax (basically the ability in the extremes of which a scanner can usefully replicate detail from both the shadow and highlight parts of an image) of a scanner. The over all low key value of the shot would show what "noise" was evident in the shadow values of the scan. All in all a "Royal Marine style" scanning assault coarse for my victims.

It is not my intention in this article to do relative in depth reviews of these machines. This would be a little irrelevant as some have (suprisingly - not!!!) been superseded; and quite frankly to do the report full justice would need more space than perhaps Juliet and Phil would allow for my insane ramblings. Needless to say though I'll try to touch on relative pluses and minuses and ultimately give a full account of what I ended up with and why.

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1st Published 01/02/2001
last update 09/12/2022 14:54:02

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Evangelical Zeal Part 2 (Revenge of the computer nerds!!!) - part 3 of 1 2 3 4 5