I recently bought an Epson V600 with which to scan my 4x5 film. I looked up several available scanners on filmscanner.info and decided based on their tests that the V600 would be sufficient for such large negatives despite the low tested resolution, but once I actually got to scanning some 4x5s on it I quickly realized that filmscanner.info were sorely mistaken about the capabilities of the scanner and that the actual achievable resolutions are quite a bit higher than their tests achieved.
First I will present a 100% zoom of a 6,400 dpi scan of a piece of HP5. This is the highest possible resolution of the scanner.
As you can see we're resolving beyond the grain of the film. We can see the film grain and it is not only present, but it is definite beyond the mere absence or presence of each individual grain (i.e. beyond the pixel level.) I have intentionally left the bed of the scanner dusty in these tests so that you can see the resolution of the scanner as it relates to not only the finite resolution of the image in the negative, but also the infinite resolution of the physical dust.
Here now is a 400% zoom showing that the grain is not only present as the presence or absence of each grain, but that the scanner is resolving beyond the grain to show the contours of each grain, resolution beyond the information that the film contains.
Next I provide two images for comparison. The first scanned at 3,200 dpi, the resolution recommended by filmscanner.info, and another scanned at 6,400dpi. These scans were made one directly after another so that the film and dust in the scanner would not be disturbed. They show that there is resolution beyond what is achievable with a 3,200 dpi scan. I encourage you to open the images in multiple tabs or windows and switch between them quickly so that you can defeat change blindness.
3,200dpi at 3,200% zoom all matched
6,400dpi at 1600% zoom all matched
As you can see there is information contained in the 6,400dpi scan that does not exist in the 3,200 dpi scan. It is clear that the resolution has increased, but the question is does this increase in resolution correspond to an increase in actual information captured? For this I bring your attention to the two miniscule pieces of dust seen in the center of the red circle. We see at 3,200dpi that there is a small vaguely 8 shaped blob of lighter pixels, this could be anything and looks quite like grain in the film. But when we capture that same area at 6,400 dpi we can see that there are two diagonal lines of lighter color pixels much smaller than the surrounding film grain. This information was not contained in the lower resolution scan. They are not an artifact of the scanner which captures the image in horizontal lines. I believe this must be additional information captured. I do not believe it to be aberration or artifact but to reflect the actual capability of the scanner.
Please let me know what you think.
First I will present a 100% zoom of a 6,400 dpi scan of a piece of HP5. This is the highest possible resolution of the scanner.
As you can see we're resolving beyond the grain of the film. We can see the film grain and it is not only present, but it is definite beyond the mere absence or presence of each individual grain (i.e. beyond the pixel level.) I have intentionally left the bed of the scanner dusty in these tests so that you can see the resolution of the scanner as it relates to not only the finite resolution of the image in the negative, but also the infinite resolution of the physical dust.
Here now is a 400% zoom showing that the grain is not only present as the presence or absence of each grain, but that the scanner is resolving beyond the grain to show the contours of each grain, resolution beyond the information that the film contains.
Next I provide two images for comparison. The first scanned at 3,200 dpi, the resolution recommended by filmscanner.info, and another scanned at 6,400dpi. These scans were made one directly after another so that the film and dust in the scanner would not be disturbed. They show that there is resolution beyond what is achievable with a 3,200 dpi scan. I encourage you to open the images in multiple tabs or windows and switch between them quickly so that you can defeat change blindness.
3,200dpi at 3,200% zoom all matched
6,400dpi at 1600% zoom all matched
As you can see there is information contained in the 6,400dpi scan that does not exist in the 3,200 dpi scan. It is clear that the resolution has increased, but the question is does this increase in resolution correspond to an increase in actual information captured? For this I bring your attention to the two miniscule pieces of dust seen in the center of the red circle. We see at 3,200dpi that there is a small vaguely 8 shaped blob of lighter pixels, this could be anything and looks quite like grain in the film. But when we capture that same area at 6,400 dpi we can see that there are two diagonal lines of lighter color pixels much smaller than the surrounding film grain. This information was not contained in the lower resolution scan. They are not an artifact of the scanner which captures the image in horizontal lines. I believe this must be additional information captured. I do not believe it to be aberration or artifact but to reflect the actual capability of the scanner.
Please let me know what you think.