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Re: [OM] Scanning B&W photos and the Callier Effect

Subject: Re: [OM] Scanning B&W photos and the Callier Effect
From: Matt Crawley <matt@xxxxxxxxx>
Date: Sat, 14 Sep 2002 13:28:51 -0600
Hi Joe.

joegwinn@xxxxxxxxx wrote:
> All the stories of the problems that some kinds of transparency scanners have,
> especially with black and white negatives, brings to mind a debate from the
> 1970s and 1980s, the one about the relative advantages and disadvantages of
> condenser versus diffuser lightsources in photographic enlargers.

I don't know about everyone else but the only problem I have with B&W negs
is not being able to use the Infrared Dust & Scratch removal filters. This
has only recently been a problem because a few years ago there was no
Infrared Dust & Scratch technology.

> The difference between color film (negative and transparency alike) and
> traditional black and white film seems to be that because the silver is
> removed from color film during development, there is far less scattering (and
> thus Callier Effect) with color film than with traditional black and white.
> Likewise, color has soft clouds of transparent dye rather than random clouds
> of black particles (the silver grains) so a scanner that's satisfactory for
> color may well fail on black and white film.  (Presumably, chromogenic black
> and white film will scan like color film, as that's exactly what it is.)

I have not noticed the diffs you mention scanning color vs B&W except for
the Infrared Dust & Scratch removal. This is not a problem with C41 black &
white.

There is a HUGE diff between scanning Negs vs Transparency though. B&W AND
color negs show much more grain when scanned than comparable
transparencies... And dust or scratches on a transparency are DARK vs WHITE
on a neg.

> Turning the argument around, a scanner that does well on traditional black and
> white film is likely to be excellent on color film (ignoring color balance and
> the like).

On my Nikon 4000CN I've found that I need EXTREMELY fine grained negs to get
acceptable scans. Tmax400CN is supposed to be really fined grained and I
find it just barely acceptable for scanning... I have had pretty good
results with Fuji Acros 100.

I have given up on scanning color neg film unless I have no other option.
Transparencies all the way baby!

What results are other people seeing?


 - Matt Crawley
 












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