Some one was asking about the difference in scanning slide film verses
neg film. Well first thing is that slides have a much higher rating for
dmax. So a very high quality scanner such as drum scanner is capable of
extracting more detail in shadows. This is why every one doing high
quality print work exclusively shoots slides. However if your scanner
is not capable of going much above a 3.2 dmax it may not matter
technically.
There was a Kodak film, Ektar 25, which had a very high shadow detail
when scanned properly, but most scanner operators were not real good at
caliberating to this emulsion. It had the unique feature of producing
outrageos quality photo prints and could be a choice high quality
commercial press output (screening of 175 lpi & higher), however it just
did not catch on with the scanning operators. Many shops just printed
very high quality 8x10 print and taped it to the drum. Because of the
lack of grain at high resolution scans this produced awesome results.
However too few labs were competent at printing the original 8x10
print. I have not seen Ektar 25 for some time. I personally think it
was capable of producing the most dynamic color prints of any neg film I
have ever used. However if exact color reproduction was necessary there
were just to few labs that knew how to print it. I think with newer
software it could be better calibrated for scanning directly from the
neg. This might be the only neg film to challenge a trans film in this
area.
Just remember that neg film emulsions vary greatly so some negs scan
poorly. Most pro neg emulsions will scan adequately on newer high
quality desktop scanners. For down and dirty work I almost exclusivly
use neg film on my desktop. I can get a roll of 36 35mm negs processed
at a good lab for less than 2 bucks in about 15 minutes! So I think
negs are great for every day work which will probably never be used for
anything bigger than 4 or 5 inchs on a quality press. For on-line web
site work ... it's almost as easy and offers better output than most
high quality digital cameras .
Phillip Franklin
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