Last up-dated 10/12/10
NEW! This review is six years old - several newer versions of the Epson Scanners.
are now avaliable.
Review of Epson V700 scanner.
Have a look at Better Scanning flat bed film tools here.
Epson 2450 Scanner - A good choice for panoramic film.
"How sharp?" and Illustrations (down)|
Moderate-price dedicated film scanners for long panoramic formats are not available. Flat-bed scanners with transparency adaptors must be used. The Epson Perfection 2450 which came out in early 2002 got my attention with the promise of a 2400DPI optical resolution and a $400 list price. I have been using the Umax PowerLook III which has a maximum 1200DPI optical resolution for the past three years. It has been as good as was available in the $1000 price range. Relative sharpness and tonal range of digital output and conventional dark room prints are comparable with regard to format size and print size. I make quad-toned b/w prints from 35mm film and need a system that outputs good quality at about five to eight inches tall, the optimal size I use for conventional 35mm darkroom prints. Epson ink-jet printers use computational slight-of-hand to significantly increase the dots of ink that hit the paper relative to the actual DPI of the scanned image and produce digital prints of good quality. The objective is to scan at an image size, within the maximum effective optical resolution of the scanner, that is 300DPI or better - achieving good “grain” structure, acceptable sharpness, and smooth tonality. The 300DPI figure is arbitrary and based on practice. For example a 1800DPI scan gives me an eight inch tall image at about 300DPI. Keep in mind that the maximum optical resolution rating of the scanner means the digital tones correspond with the tones of the actual image, i.e real image data. Increasing the resolution beyond this adds non-image (interpolated) data to increase print size but cannot hold details. The EP2450 scanner and others like it with a stationary flourescent lamp have characteristics similar to cold-light enlargers. The soft light source reduces fine dust and scratches and softens the appearance of grain and other small, contrasty detail. Strictly speaking film grain isn’t reproduced in the scan directly, only a digital facsimile. Different types of scanners and scanning software effect its appearance. For example there is a marked difference between the Umax Binuscan software which automates sharpening and plain manual TWAIN. The Binuscan auto-sharpening accentuates the appearance of graininess. I find the difference between the Epson’s cold light and the Umax moving tungsten lamp similar to the effect of using a soft, grain-reducing developer with B/W film. The look is just different. Th EP2450 unit is compact and operates almost noiselessly. The reflective scan size is 8-1/2 x 11. A 4-5/8 x 10-7/8 inch lamp is in the scanner cover for film. It comes with a set of film holders for formats up to 4 x 5. I haven’t seen any glass-less film holders that work well with pan film. The system I swear by is simply to lay the film emulsion down on the scanner glass with a 3 x 10 inch sheet of anti-newton ring glass* on top. Can’t get flatter than that. Unlike the 8 x 10 Umax film scanning area where a roll of film lays sideways and drapes over the sides, the narrower Epson lamp requires that the film lie end-to-end and can only extend out the bottom. This is sometimes a bit of a problem for cropping 360 degree++ images on the scanner. Fixed-lamp scanners also have slight uneven illumination (as do enlargers). This could be a minor problem for high-key 4 x 5 film. The middle third (length-wise) of the Epson lamp was slightly brighter - no problem for 120 pan films. The EP2450 performed very well up to 1800 DPI - after that I could not see an improvement. You may notice a difference up to the maximum rated 2400DPI with a different printing setup. I was able to increase my print size over an inch taller than with the Umax and gain better looking overall tonality and sharpness. Medium format users will be on cloud nine. The examples below illustrate near as possible the results of some of my tests. I did a lot of comparison’s of my typical b/w and color negatives with the Umax and the Epson was a clear winner. The scanner comes bundled with the excellent SilverFast-SE software. It has most of the needed manual controls and on auto pilot it nailed the exposure and was amazingly accurate at automatically converting color negatives. * Source for anti-newton ring glass: Focal Point Industries, Inc. 2867 Stonewall Pl#101 Sanford FL 32773 Ph. 407 322 2123 fax 407 322 2186 http://www.fpointinc.com |
Illustrations
Sharpness Example 1 - Black and White
Sharpness Example 2 - Color
Umax PLIII Sharpness Example 3 - Color
Ilford XP2 Film Example
Chromes
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