The great TP film scanner test

As the next person on the list the answer is no, not been contacted about the negatives.

Mart
 
I've not read through this entire thread, so may have missed it. But if no-one's offered up a Plustek OpticFilm 7500i (or appropriate brethren), I'm happy (andf interested) to have a go. I have Silverfast SE, and some other posts may indicate that, despite scanning some 4,000 images so far, I'm not really an expert in using it!

Just a comment... from the results sticky, it's a little tricky to work out just what's going on, if you haven't been in from the start, and this thread doesn't pop to the front page all that often. Would just a little more explanation and/or a pointer be possible?
 
ChrisR said:
I've not read through this entire thread, so may have missed it. But if no-one's offered up a Plustek OpticFilm 7500i (or appropriate brethren), I'm happy (andf interested) to have a go. I have Silverfast SE, and some other posts may indicate that, despite scanning some 4,000 images so far, I'm not really an expert in using it!
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I've been looking at buying this exact scanner so I'd be intetested in any scans/experiences/tests that others can share from the Plustek Opticfilm 7500i!
 
IamAshlyRose said:
I've been looking at buying this exact scanner so I'd be intetested in any scans/experiences/tests that others can share from the Plustek Opticfilm 7500i!
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Ashley, see the thread
http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=404577
for an example of my attempts at scanning a newly taken Fuji C200 negative, and some explanations of why it was so cr... no, poor!

OTOH I've scanned some 4K images (or so) now. Transparencies have done really well, even the Kodachromes that are notoriously difficult. My 40-45-year-old black and white has been dodgy, but I now realise I was scanning on the colour setting (d'oh!). Old colour negatives have been hit and miss, often a lot of experimenting with different negative presets has been needed to get something halfway decent. For this really old stuff, I reckon the dust removal has been worth it, even for Kodachromes and black and white, but in both case it needs lotes of work masking and even then is only partly successful.

I've made my investment, so for me it's a question of making it work best. I hope I can give some examples that will help others make choices. I don't think I would have spent another £100 for a really good scanner, and I'm happy I spent a bit more than for the 7400 and got the infrared. But I had 40-year old slides, and if you think about the treatment they have had over the years, you'll realise it's not what your average exposure today will get!

One final comment: don't believe your (very) old negatives are sitting there safely. I have some treasured shots on Plus-X from 1973 that are badly deteriorated, and I'm really glad I've scanned them.

I suspect this is the wrong kind of comment for this thread, and if so, apologies...
 
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Ashley, it would be better for you to get either the 7600i or 7400i, the only real difference is that the 7400i lacks an IR channel so theres no IR dust/scratch reduction for colour negs/slides. As mentioned in the linked thread, the IR channel of the older 7500i is notoriously poor and not really worth the extra investment as it hardly does anything and softens fine detail, they sorted it out drastically for the 7600i though.
 
Thank you for the replies & I apologise if the threads gone a little off-topic. This informations been real helpful. The only thing that puts me off the 7600i is the extra on the price tag. I'll give it a long think hahaha.
 
Negs scanned and will go to the next on the list this weekend.

Mart
 
Marvin d martian said:
Negs scanned and will go to the next on the list this weekend.

Mart
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Cool, thanks Mart. How are you going to send me the scans.

zeroeseight said:
Would that be me, if so I need to PM you my address?
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Will have to check the list! ;)
 
Zeroeseight, I have our address with the negs. Jim, I'm waiting for the dropbox details so that I can forward the scans.

Mart
 
Doh, sorry! Will sort out now.

Edit: In fact I had sent an invite to the email addy you gave me. Perhaps it ended up in your spam? I have resent anyway!
 
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Right, I can't seem to get hold of Mart and he has not logged in for some time. Does anyone have a way to contact him?
 
I gather this thread has died because the negatives have gone AWOL and Marvin can't be contacted. It's a shame as it seemed like a really cool idea. Is it worth reviving with a new set of negatives? (If not, should we ask the mods to drop the sticky on the pics thread? We've so many stickies I don't see any non-sticky threads on the first screenful!)

While I think this is a good idea, I'm not quite certain what we'd be learning. It seems that the different software packages and the different ways people choose to drive them could have as much effect on how the scan looks as the actual hardware. There's a collaborative large format scanning test at http://www.largeformatphotography.info/scan-comparison/ that looks interesting; they say:

"With the scans being performed by different operators, this was always going to be a subjective comparison. Therefore there was no attempt to compare colour rendition, which is heavily influenced by the operator and the choice of scanner software. So long as consistent guidelines for the setting of black and white points were followed, however, it is possible to draw useful preliminary conclusions about a scanner's resolution, its ability to make out shadow detail, and its noise characteristics in the shadow areas."
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Anyway, is this worth trying again?
 
Sounds like a good idea. Happy for someone to start a new one and for the old bits to be unstuck! ;)
 
menthel said:
Right, I can't seem to get hold of Mart and he has not logged in for some time. Does anyone have a way to contact him?
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He's around occasionally...

marvin.jpg
 
RaglanSurf said:
Could we not poke him with a very long stick?
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I'm looking for something suitable to sharpen into a Marvin Pokey Thingey at the moment...

Edit: consider the long sharp stick deployed (at least, in the direction of his sign-in email address...)
 
Thanks Mark! I have a lot of details for him (address, phone number etc) but no email!
 
ChrisR said:
Anyway, is this worth trying again?
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Not very well thought out as there are too many variables...:shrug:
If you want something similar you pass the same neg around to each person for him/her to get the best result with his scanner with the same crop to show resolution etc and this neg would also have to be drum scanned to set the standard to judge by.
Well I offered one of my negs and with crops that I could get with a V750 (even then the lens was probably better than the scanner)...but no one was interested. :shrug:
 
excalibur2 said:
Not very well thought out as there are too many variables...:shrug:
If you want something similar you pass the same neg around to each person for him/her to get the best result with his scanner with the same crop to show resolution etc and this neg would also have to be drum scanned to set the standard to judge by.
Well I offered one of my negs and with crops that I could get with a V750 (even then the lens was probably better than the scanner)...but no one was interested. :shrug:
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Looking back at the start, it looks like each person scanned to TIFF and sent these to menthel, and also scanned/post-processed to JPEG and ditto. Presumably the first is pretty much as close to "same settings" as possible.

I'd agree that a common crop to show resolution would be a good idea, but this could be done by menthel for a chosen area of one or more of the images. Getting a drum scan is also a good idea, though with a selection of different negatives and slides, probably not cheap.

So yes, there are still uncontrollable variables, but it still looks looks as if it was beginning to show interesting results!
 
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ChrisR said:
Looking back at the start, it looks like each person scanned to TIFF and sent these to menthel, and also scanned/post-processed to JPEG and ditto. Presumably the first is pretty much as close to "same settings" as possible.

I'd agree that a common crop to show resolution would be a good idea, but this could be done by menthel for a chosen area of one or more of the images. Getting a drum scan is also a good idea, though with a selection of different negatives and slides, probably not cheap.

So yes, there are still uncontrollable variables, but it still looks looks as if it was beginning to show interesting results!
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Thanks Chris, I think some of us get what the aim was. If we ever see these negs again and someone wants to drum scan them then they are more than welcome. If someone wants to start a new thing then they can start it with their own requirements etc and we can see how it turns out.
 
menthel said:
Thanks Chris, I think some of us get what the aim was. If we ever see these negs again and someone wants to drum scan them then they are more than welcome. If someone wants to start a new thing then they can start it with their own requirements etc and we can see how it turns out.
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To start things off you need someone to take a shot on a tripod with an excellent lens and with correct exposure and developed properly, preferable on slow film (for detail).........he\she could even take 36 shots in secs and cut them up in strips of 3 for the other members..............so everything is based on that neg.
Fortunately guys I'm happy with Asda so :exit:
 
Apologies if my abcence has caused any problems. Due to work, moving house etc I have not been available. As far as negatives go, they where posted out and returned as undeliverable twice. If anyone can give me a suitable adress I will post them again. Having logged on through my I pad breifly I have not had any PM notifications, and only recieved a e-mail from the Big Yin on saturday.
Again, apologies.

Mart
 
Marvin d martian said:
Apologies if my abcence has caused any problems. Due to work, moving house etc I have not been available. As far as negatives go, they where posted out and returned as undeliverable twice. If anyone can give me a suitable adress I will post them again. Having logged on through my I pad breifly I have not had any PM notifications, and only recieved a e-mail from the Big Yin on saturday.
Again, apologies.

Mart
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Hi Mart, glad to hear from you. I will send you my address and I can sort out what to do with them after that.
 
Thanks Jim, that sound like a better idea.

Mart
 
Have the negatives turned up yet?
 
menthel said:
I do have them back in my possession. Shame I don't have time to get all of this up and running again. :(
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Just stick it on the back burner for a while if you don't have the time Jim. I'm sure it will resurface again at a later date.

And it seems by general consensus that the Epson and Canon flatbeds perform admirably and are good value for money and if you can afford the likes of the dedicated scanners like the Coolscans you won't go far wrong either.
 
RaglanSurf said:
Just stick it on the back burner for a while if you don't have the time Jim. I'm sure it will resurface again at a later date.

And it seems by general consensus that the Epson and Canon flatbeds perform admirably and are good value for money and if you can afford the likes of the dedicated scanners like the Coolscans you won't go far wrong either.
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Good point. My V700 is more than I ever need and I have decent sized scanned prints from it.
 
Probably worth stashing the negs somewhere safe then if someone comes along with something new and exotic we can get them to run these through their new gear.
 
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