following Stefan's question about scanners for b+w photography - I wonder what people find works best for producing a digital contact sheet. I guess that the resolution would need to be high enough to hold up at c. 4-5x resolution but not so high that it takes an hour to scan. Do people use a dedicated flat bed for this or just batch scan with a film scanner? Is it best to continue to produce contact sheets in the d/room? I know this is not strictly a "leica" question, but I would very much appreciate any advice (rest assured the negatives will be made with leica cameras and lenses...)

-- stephen jones (stephenjjones@btopenworld.com), December 04, 2001

Answers

Hello Stephen,

I use an Agfa Snapscan1236 with 600 dpi optical resolution, a large dedicated translucent cover for scanning contacts and white cotton gloves for handling negatives and slides. It takes about 8 min to scan 20 (4x5)slides or 35 (5x7)negatives.

Greetings

-- ralph busskamp (ralph.busskamp@philips.com), December 04, 2001.

Stephen,

I just recently purchased an EPSON Perfection 1640 Photo as I needed SCSI connectivity for my "vintage" Powerbook setup. I'm amazed what a $400 flatbed can provide, qualitywise, for scanning contact prints as well as negs directly with the help of a transparency unit. I have been told in the meantime, that the recently released Perfection 2450 does an even better job at the same price and an even higher resolution, allowing for two whole negstripes to be scanned in just one pass with the help of a built in transparency unit in the lid. Neg scanning has become a snap and fun again, compared to the tedious batch scanning of "dedicated" neg scanners... BTW, from these combined scanners you get the whole frame, no cropping due to neg holders. While you may stitch the stripes together electronically and create a digital contact sheet you might skip that metaphor and go for a folder of single files right away, printing them out, if needed, as a contents survey in Photoshop. Cheers.

-- Lutz Konermann (lutz@konermann.net), December 04, 2001.

Here's a link to an exhaustive review, posted by Godfrey in an earlier thread: http://www.virtualtraveller.org/epson2450.htm.

-- Lutz Konermann (lutz@konermann.net), December 04, 2001.

Thanks guys - I'll certainly check out the Epson which I've seen around. Scanning in 2 rows at a time doesn't seem to be too much of a hardship and it certainly seems well received.

-- Steve Jones (stephenjjones@btopenworld.com), December 04, 2001.

I'm very enthusiastic about the Epson 2450. Mine arrived, I did a test scan of a Minox 8x11mm negative which just turned out superb ...
http://www.bayarea.net/~ramarren/ photostuff/epson2450test/e2450.htm

Since then I've scanned several 6x4.5 and 6x6 negatives ... the quality is just breathtaking.

-- Godfrey (ramarren@bayarea.net), December 05, 2001.

Canon dial picture is super (is that a half frame camera - you refer to it as sub 35 mm)? Lovely tones - great looking scan

-- Steve Jones (stephenjjones@btopenworld.com), December 05, 2001.