C750/Silverfast question

Richard Boutwell said:

Your time and money is just as valuable when you are making your own scans and prints as it is when having other people do the work for you.

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That's a big part of this conclusion for me.

I've enjoyed some very pleasing results from 120 drum scans printed large (ie, 24x30). Its true that the results sometimes show some grain, but at reasonable viewing distances for such prints (say at least four or five feet), those considerations disappear and the superior qualities of the colors and "texture" of the film come through.

That being said, I am "this close" to bailing out on color film. Since I got back into it last year, it has been an incredible journey, with some very nice results to show for it. But as much as I've fallen in love with the look of Portra, I'm increasingly convinced that the time/effort/cost/etc isn't paying off.

Doug Fisher said:

>>The "flat on the glass" scan was dramatically clearer than the others. No comparison.<<

99 out of a 100 times when there is a huge difference as you describe it is due to the fact the software settings were wrong. If you had the film in a film holder and got the bad results then you most likely did not set the software to "film with film holder" and instead had it set to "film with film area" guide.

Even the Aztek demonstration page made this same error (unless they have corrected it since I last visited).

Doug

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Interesting. I'll check for that.

Thanks!

Ok, Doug, you are a rock star! That made a HUGE difference.

Here is a (downrezed for web version of a) scan I made earlier. MUCH better results!



Just when I think I'm sending this back, I get a nice result and it makes me wonder...