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From: thefathefa on 1 Dec 2007 14:24
Hi,

I purchased some time ago a film scanner Conoscan FS 4000US to scan my
films. I have a lot of APS rolls that I wanted to get on my PC.

I have found out that all photos, APS or 24*36, are showing a very
visible grain that it is making the scanned pictures look a lot less
nice than the printed copies which are very soft and very nice to look
at.

I have tried to show an example of this by showing a file coming from
film scanner
http://picasaweb.google.com/thefathefa/TestDemoScanner/photo#5139084557457334210
and another one coming from a flat scan of the print copy
http://picasaweb.google.com/thefathefa/TestDemoScanner/photo#5139084578932170706

The difference on these examples is not as clear as I see it comparing
what I get on the screen and what I see on the printed copies:-(

I was about to sell the Canoscan FS 4000US and to get a Nikon Coolscan
V ED but at the end, the reading I did makes me doubt that I'll find a
film scanner that will my old photos look as nice as the digital ones
I'm producing today...
It seems that the grain is in the film and that the way the pictures
are printed by the lab is softening them in a way that is hard to
reproduce.

Note that I can not afford to manually rework each of the pictures,
there are a lot!

Any one has an opinion on this?

Thanks for those who read this down to here !
From: Barry Watzman on 1 Dec 2007 20:58
Scan at a lower resolution.

Later Nikon scanners have a grain reduction technology, but how well it
works is a matter of interpretation. Grain really is indeed present in
the film, it is not an artifact of the scanner or the scanning process.
Another option is to VERY SLIGHTLY intentionally de-focus the scanner,
just enough (doesn't take much) to make the grain go away.

Grain is a characteristic of the film and the bottom line is that you
didn't make the best choice when selecting the film itself. If you use
slower film, the problem largely disappears.


thefathefa(a)gmail.com wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I purchased some time ago a film scanner Conoscan FS 4000US to scan my
> films. I have a lot of APS rolls that I wanted to get on my PC.
>
> I have found out that all photos, APS or 24*36, are showing a very
> visible grain that it is making the scanned pictures look a lot less
> nice than the printed copies which are very soft and very nice to look
> at.
>
> I have tried to show an example of this by showing a file coming from
> film scanner
> http://picasaweb.google.com/thefathefa/TestDemoScanner/photo#5139084557457334210
> and another one coming from a flat scan of the print copy
> http://picasaweb.google.com/thefathefa/TestDemoScanner/photo#5139084578932170706
>
> The difference on these examples is not as clear as I see it comparing
> what I get on the screen and what I see on the printed copies:-(
>
> I was about to sell the Canoscan FS 4000US and to get a Nikon Coolscan
> V ED but at the end, the reading I did makes me doubt that I'll find a
> film scanner that will my old photos look as nice as the digital ones
> I'm producing today...
> It seems that the grain is in the film and that the way the pictures
> are printed by the lab is softening them in a way that is hard to
> reproduce.
>
> Note that I can not afford to manually rework each of the pictures,
> there are a lot!
>
> Any one has an opinion on this?
>
> Thanks for those who read this down to here !
From: Roy G on 1 Dec 2007 21:33

"Barry Watzman" <WatzmanNOSPAM(a)neo.rr.com> wrote in message
news:47521154$0$2516$4c368faf(a)roadrunner.com...
> Scan at a lower resolution.
>
> Later Nikon scanners have a grain reduction technology, but how well it
> works is a matter of interpretation. Grain really is indeed present in
> the film, it is not an artifact of the scanner or the scanning process.
> Another option is to VERY SLIGHTLY intentionally de-focus the scanner,
> just enough (doesn't take much) to make the grain go away.
>
> Grain is a characteristic of the film and the bottom line is that you
> didn't make the best choice when selecting the film itself. If you use
> slower film, the problem largely disappears.
>
>
> thefathefa(a)gmail.com wrote:
>> Hi,
>>
>> I purchased some time ago a film scanner Conoscan FS 4000US to scan my
>> films. I have a lot of APS rolls that I wanted to get on my PC.
>>
>> I have found out that all photos, APS or 24*36, are showing a very
>> visible grain that it is making the scanned pictures look a lot less
>> nice than the printed copies which are very soft and very nice to look
>> at.
>>
>> I have tried to show an example of this by showing a file coming from
>> film scanner
>> http://picasaweb.google.com/thefathefa/TestDemoScanner/photo#5139084557457334210
>> and another one coming from a flat scan of the print copy
>> http://picasaweb.google.com/thefathefa/TestDemoScanner/photo#5139084578932170706
>>
>> The difference on these examples is not as clear as I see it comparing
>> what I get on the screen and what I see on the printed copies:-(
>>
>> I was about to sell the Canoscan FS 4000US and to get a Nikon Coolscan
>> V ED but at the end, the reading I did makes me doubt that I'll find a
>> film scanner that will my old photos look as nice as the digital ones
>> I'm producing today...
>> It seems that the grain is in the film and that the way the pictures
>> are printed by the lab is softening them in a way that is hard to
>> reproduce.
>>
>> Note that I can not afford to manually rework each of the pictures,
>> there are a lot!
>>
>> Any one has an opinion on this?
>>
>> Thanks for those who read this down to here !


Hi

The grain is very probably due to the street corner processor.

A lot of these places knew that most happy snappers were pretty poor about
getting correct exposure, and in order to correct this fault, they tended to
overdevelop the film slightly in order to ensure sufficient density to make
a print.

Joe Public could not tell a good photographic print from a crappy one, so
they could get away with this bad practice.

It is quite obvious when you compare the density of negs from these places
to negs produced by the good quality minority places, or to home processed
negs.

Because of the small size of APS the grain will be relatively larger than
the 35mm.

Sorry, but the only answer is to use the "Grain Reducer", if your scanner
has one, which will cause some softness and a drop in contrast, and you will
then get similar nice "Soft" results.

Roy G


From: 1Scan on 2 Dec 2007 06:11
I'd suggest trying Neat Image.

You can download a trial version and the purchase price is modest if
you like it.

Jeff Underwood
1Scan.co.uk

On Dec 1, 7:24 pm, thefath...(a)gmail.com wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I purchased some time ago a film scanner Conoscan FS 4000US to scan my
> films. I have a lot of APS rolls that I wanted to get on my PC.
>
> I have found out that all photos, APS or 24*36, are showing a very
> visible grain that it is making the scanned pictures look a lot less
> nice than the printed copies which are very soft and very nice to look
> at.
>
> I have tried to show an example of this by showing a file coming from
> film scannerhttp://picasaweb.google.com/thefathefa/TestDemoScanner/photo#51390845...
> and another one coming from a flat scan of the print copyhttp://picasaweb.google.com/thefathefa/TestDemoScanner/photo#51390845...
>
> The difference on these examples is not as clear as I see it comparing
> what I get on the screen and what I see on the printed copies:-(
>
> I was about to sell the Canoscan FS 4000US and to get a Nikon Coolscan
> V ED but at the end, the reading I did makes me doubt that I'll find a
> film scanner that will my old photos look as nice as the digital ones
> I'm producing today...
> It seems that the grain is in the film and that the way the pictures
> are printed by the lab is softening them in a way that is hard to
> reproduce.
>
> Note that I can not afford to manually rework each of the pictures,
> there are a lot!
>
> Any one has an opinion on this?
>
> Thanks for those who read this down to here !

From: thefathefa on 2 Dec 2007 07:33
Hi Barry,

Thanks for the answer. I am in the process of running a set of tests
to see if lower resolution is fixing the things (at least bit).

I just found out that the scanner has an option to change focus... It
has a check box "auto focus" which I used to leave checked. Autofocus
checked seems to correspond to a value 42...
I'll run a set of tests to see if by moving this value I can improve
partially fix the grain story.

I'll try to post back with the results of the investigation. I was
dreaming of an easy way to get my pictures scanned and it seems it
does not exist:-(

As a matter of fact, I did not choose the film quality at all. I just
used to buy what I could find without special attention... I'm a "joe
public" as Roy say:-)

Thanks again for your recommendations,

François

On 2 déc, 02:58, Barry Watzman <WatzmanNOS...(a)neo.rr.com> wrote:
> Scan at a lower resolution.
>
> Later Nikon scanners have a grain reduction technology, but how well it
> works is a matter of interpretation. Grain really is indeed present in
> the film, it is not an artifact of the scanner or the scanning process.
> Another option is to VERY SLIGHTLY intentionally de-focus the scanner,
> just enough (doesn't take much) to make the grain go away.
>
> Grain is a characteristic of the film and the bottom line is that you
> didn't make the best choice when selecting the film itself. If you use
> slower film, the problem largely disappears.
>
>
>
> thefath...(a)gmail.com wrote:
> > Hi,
>
> > I purchased some time ago a film scanner Conoscan FS 4000US to scan my
> > films. I have a lot of APS rolls that I wanted to get on my PC.
>
> > I have found out that all photos, APS or 24*36, are showing a very
> > visible grain that it is making the scanned pictures look a lot less
> > nice than the printed copies which are very soft and very nice to look
> > at.
>
> > I have tried to show an example of this by showing a file coming from
> > film scanner
> >http://picasaweb.google.com/thefathefa/TestDemoScanner/photo#51390845...
> > and another one coming from a flat scan of the print copy
> >http://picasaweb.google.com/thefathefa/TestDemoScanner/photo#51390845...
>
> > The difference on these examples is not as clear as I see it comparing
> > what I get on the screen and what I see on the printed copies:-(
>
> > I was about to sell the Canoscan FS 4000US and to get a Nikon Coolscan
> > V ED but at the end, the reading I did makes me doubt that I'll find a
> > film scanner that will my old photos look as nice as the digital ones
> > I'm producing today...
> > It seems that the grain is in the film and that the way the pictures
> > are printed by the lab is softening them in a way that is hard to
> > reproduce.
>
> > Note that I can not afford to manually rework each of the pictures,
> > there are a lot!
>
> > Any one has an opinion on this?
>
> > Thanks for those who read this down to here !- Masquer le texte des messages précédents -
>
> - Afficher le texte des messages précédents -

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