Re: Negative Scanners

----- Original Message -----
From: "Tom A Lindsay" <pinhole-guy@juno.com>
>
> I'm interested in learning which negative scanners are the best and
> easiest to work with. This e-mail goes back to the "scanning loooong
> negs" topic. Anyone with info on the subject is welcome to respond. I
> also need to know where to get the scanner and the prices for them.
> Many thanks from a longtime pinholer,

Tom,

There are at least 2 major issues in scanning negative that are longer than
what your scanner allows. To start, you need a scanning application able to
scan 2 or more parts of a long negative, using for all of them the same
corrections (or non at all). Once you have that, you would need to stitch
the images.

As for a suitable application, I know that SilverFast Ai is able to do that
(see this:
http://www.silverfast.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2429&highlight=panoramic

To stitch the images, you could do it manually (see the bottom of
http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/panoscans.htm ) or use software to help you
do it, there is a plethora of applications out there or you could use what
some think is the best, but very difficult to use, PTAssembler+Panorama
Tools+Photoshop combination. The expert on this method is Max Lyons, he
uses digital cameras to make panoramic (or not) images with outrageously
combined resolutions, he probably has the record with an image consisting of
196 different images stitched together to form a over 1 billion pixels!!
See it here: http://www.tawbaware.com/maxlyons/gigapixel.htm and do not miss
his gallery http://www.tawbaware.com/maxlyons/index.html or at least take
a look to this smaller one, just 340 megapixels!
<http://www.tawbaware.com/maxlyons/cgi-bin/image.pl?showFileName=DC_IMG_6256
-IMG_6318_National_Building_Museum_Interior.jpg&gallery=0> and make sure you
click on the link to the crops of the full size image.

I too am looking for a flat bed scanner capable of doing 4x5 at least. If
you ask me at this moment what scanner I would buy, the answer would be
Epson 4870 PRO, the pro version comes with SilverFast Ai and also with
ArcSoft Panorama Maker. I am not suggesting that scanner is the one you
should buy, but it should definitely be in the list to consider.

Something else, unless the intention is to stitch images for the web and not
for printing them, you would need a fast computer and lots of memory. How
fast and how much memory would depend on the size of negatives and the
resolution they are scanner at.

Guillermo
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Received on Sat Mar 5 06:35:42 2005