Good Day All,
yesterday I rented for the weekend an M1 Pro Scanner from Beau Photo Supplies Vancouver.
The scanner came in the Pro box, but the extra film holders and the silver fast software was omitted. This essentially makes the scanner a non-pro. This is especially ironic as the guy at Beau's was adamant that the Pro was the model to get and that the best way to test the scanner was to rent it. My original idea was to take a couple negatives to their shop and have them scanned. I'd be 75.00 richer and bit happier had I done that. Beau's would have been more likely to have made the sale as well -- currently things aren't looking too good for the M1.
In addition to not receiving the software, which is understandable, and the extra film carriers, which is not a big deal, I didn't receive the calibration target. Without the target there is no way for me to be sure of how much scanner bias I am fighting when correcting my scans. This all but negates any real review of the scanner as it applies to colour fidelity. I discovered this on Saturday and of course beau's is closed. As I said it isn't looking good.
Setting up the scanner was typical; you plug it in and there you are. Loading the software was typical as well with the exception that no expense was paid to make the installation application professional appearing or consistent. This foreshadowed my experience with ScanWizard 'Pro' Microteks feable attempt at scanner software.
What is it with these manufactures? Do they think if they call something 'Pro' we'll just ignore how amateurish the thing is?
Scan Wizard 'Pro' (SWP) is possibly the worst scanner interface and controller I have ever used -- and I've been scanning since the mid 80's. The last time I used SWP was a couple years ago on an 1800f. It was bad then and I think it may be worse now.
I don't know where to begin with regard to this software. Its entire automatic and default settings are wrong:
There is also a negative scan setting palette. This thing scares the hell out of me. This palette allows you to choose a very limited and mostly out of date grouping of neg films Fuji, Kodak and Agfa. It uses a look up table or curve that is not confidence inspiring as the curve in some cases is pretty extreme and is not at all easy to adjust. My initial tests indicate the table has minimal impact. I was unable to determine how to turn this thing off or even to verify that it was on.
Under the film portion are sections for adjusting exposure (and yet the scanner doesn't increase or decrease the light transmitted, but simply lightens or darkens the base scan) , changing the colour temp (adding or subtracting yellow/mag), auto colour cast check box (there must be a market for this but it is mind boggling: It did not figure out the colour cast in a crossprocessed neg), an anonymous eye dropper, which when used uses the sampled area as the grey point and finally an enhance contrast check box (one would think that contrast should be a range, but the folks at microtek seemed to think its an on off thing).
I've downloaded SilverFast SE which comes with the base scanner and allows for multipass.
It is my opinion that scanner software should be used to operate the scanner not to be used for image editing, unless you work in a production environment and time is money; n which case you should be using a true professional scanner.
In addition to operating the scanner, software should be available to do basic diagnostics such as checking alignment, light output and calibration.
With a bit of arm twisting SWP can operate the scanner for the most part, in this instance, due to the omission of the IT8 target on the part of Beau's I am unable to calibrate the scanner and there doesn't appear to be any way to do basic diagnostics for this device.
During the Piston and wings games I'll scan some truly challenging negs and give you my modest opinion of the scanner.
In any event I'm not too impressed with this software, and disappointed with my vendor.
yesterday I rented for the weekend an M1 Pro Scanner from Beau Photo Supplies Vancouver.
The scanner came in the Pro box, but the extra film holders and the silver fast software was omitted. This essentially makes the scanner a non-pro. This is especially ironic as the guy at Beau's was adamant that the Pro was the model to get and that the best way to test the scanner was to rent it. My original idea was to take a couple negatives to their shop and have them scanned. I'd be 75.00 richer and bit happier had I done that. Beau's would have been more likely to have made the sale as well -- currently things aren't looking too good for the M1.
In addition to not receiving the software, which is understandable, and the extra film carriers, which is not a big deal, I didn't receive the calibration target. Without the target there is no way for me to be sure of how much scanner bias I am fighting when correcting my scans. This all but negates any real review of the scanner as it applies to colour fidelity. I discovered this on Saturday and of course beau's is closed. As I said it isn't looking good.
Setting up the scanner was typical; you plug it in and there you are. Loading the software was typical as well with the exception that no expense was paid to make the installation application professional appearing or consistent. This foreshadowed my experience with ScanWizard 'Pro' Microteks feable attempt at scanner software.
What is it with these manufactures? Do they think if they call something 'Pro' we'll just ignore how amateurish the thing is?
Scan Wizard 'Pro' (SWP) is possibly the worst scanner interface and controller I have ever used -- and I've been scanning since the mid 80's. The last time I used SWP was a couple years ago on an 1800f. It was bad then and I think it may be worse now.
I don't know where to begin with regard to this software. Its entire automatic and default settings are wrong:
- D Range clips the highlights and shadows (Set this to Full range and never change it)
- W&B points in auto does the same as d-range (they are two buttons for the same task) and if you use the eyedropper you're trusting a really suspect screen sample of the scan to determine your outer highs and lows.
- Gradiation is a mystery that simply darkens or lightens the image from the midtones out (gamma?)
- color cast does what it says: adds a colour cast. Maybe some folks find this handy.
- Saturation and Selective Colour have no auto settings and operate as expected, but how often are you going to use this whilst scanning?
- Tonal Curve is a good tool. I prefer to see the histogram in the background (as in Imacon's software or as it is in some image editing packages) and I much prefer doing this in Photoshop where I can undo and redo to my heart's content.
- Filter is where you'll find the sharpening. The initial setting was low and I found it to be too much or applied too early in the process. There was a time when sharpening seemed to be better at the time of scanning this may have been a rumour that I bought into all those years ago, but that time seems to have passed. Also under filter are, filters: various blurs, edge enhancement, emboss, etc.. What the heck are these doing in a scanner interface and if they are going to be added why are they bundled together as an either or proposition?
- The last setting is a check box for Auto Colour restoration -- It seemed to lighten my scans and little else.
There is also a negative scan setting palette. This thing scares the hell out of me. This palette allows you to choose a very limited and mostly out of date grouping of neg films Fuji, Kodak and Agfa. It uses a look up table or curve that is not confidence inspiring as the curve in some cases is pretty extreme and is not at all easy to adjust. My initial tests indicate the table has minimal impact. I was unable to determine how to turn this thing off or even to verify that it was on.
Under the film portion are sections for adjusting exposure (and yet the scanner doesn't increase or decrease the light transmitted, but simply lightens or darkens the base scan) , changing the colour temp (adding or subtracting yellow/mag), auto colour cast check box (there must be a market for this but it is mind boggling: It did not figure out the colour cast in a crossprocessed neg), an anonymous eye dropper, which when used uses the sampled area as the grey point and finally an enhance contrast check box (one would think that contrast should be a range, but the folks at microtek seemed to think its an on off thing).
- The software does allow you to chose the focus area (two thumbs up).
- The default scan mode (found under preferences>more>) is quality. The options are 'best quality,' 'quality,' 'speed.' One would think that this should be in settings or at least prominently displayed, not buried, and that 'best quality' should be the default, but what do I know. (two thumbs down)
- the scanner advertises multipass capabilities the software doesn't seem to have this capability. (thumbs down head shaking)
I've downloaded SilverFast SE which comes with the base scanner and allows for multipass.
It is my opinion that scanner software should be used to operate the scanner not to be used for image editing, unless you work in a production environment and time is money; n which case you should be using a true professional scanner.
In addition to operating the scanner, software should be available to do basic diagnostics such as checking alignment, light output and calibration.
With a bit of arm twisting SWP can operate the scanner for the most part, in this instance, due to the omission of the IT8 target on the part of Beau's I am unable to calibrate the scanner and there doesn't appear to be any way to do basic diagnostics for this device.
During the Piston and wings games I'll scan some truly challenging negs and give you my modest opinion of the scanner.
In any event I'm not too impressed with this software, and disappointed with my vendor.
