- Joined
- Jul 15, 2008
- Messages
- 16
- Format
- 35mm RF
Update
I think my original problems were caused by three factors:
First, the film is not horrible. Minilab 4x6 prints come out very nicely. Unfortunately, scans from my V500 do show a lot of colored (but not obnoxious) grain in the shadows. Contrast seems to be lacking, and I simply can't get anything close to this in terms of smoothness (Flickr page). In other words, sounds like the standard effects of aging. Oddly enough, I don't get much better results rating either the 400VC or 400NC film at 200 vs. 320. Any ideas why?
It's interesting, but some of the cheap supermarket brand film I bought earlier scans a lot smoother than this stuff. Colors aren't to my taste at all, but very, very smooth. I've bought a fresh roll of 400VC at the extortionate price of $12 CDN to see the difference between the old stuff and a fresh batch.
Second, using any sort of USM with this film in Epson Scan is a really bad idea. Even low USM accentuates grain and makes it look like color noise. Moreover, you have to turn off USM for each frame in the preview window. I was turning it off for the first frame only, and assuming the software was applying the settings to all the images. Big mistake. Default setting in Epson Scan is "Medium USM", which interacts badly with the film I have.
And finally, I think there were some problems with the processing, because the test rolls I did weren't anywhere near as poor as the first three. Middling, but not shocking.
I think my original problems were caused by three factors:
- Old film
- Operator error in using the scanner
- Poor(ish) processing
First, the film is not horrible. Minilab 4x6 prints come out very nicely. Unfortunately, scans from my V500 do show a lot of colored (but not obnoxious) grain in the shadows. Contrast seems to be lacking, and I simply can't get anything close to this in terms of smoothness (Flickr page). In other words, sounds like the standard effects of aging. Oddly enough, I don't get much better results rating either the 400VC or 400NC film at 200 vs. 320. Any ideas why?
It's interesting, but some of the cheap supermarket brand film I bought earlier scans a lot smoother than this stuff. Colors aren't to my taste at all, but very, very smooth. I've bought a fresh roll of 400VC at the extortionate price of $12 CDN to see the difference between the old stuff and a fresh batch.
Second, using any sort of USM with this film in Epson Scan is a really bad idea. Even low USM accentuates grain and makes it look like color noise. Moreover, you have to turn off USM for each frame in the preview window. I was turning it off for the first frame only, and assuming the software was applying the settings to all the images. Big mistake. Default setting in Epson Scan is "Medium USM", which interacts badly with the film I have.
And finally, I think there were some problems with the processing, because the test rolls I did weren't anywhere near as poor as the first three. Middling, but not shocking.