[sane-devel] Scanning negatives with Epson Perferction 1260 Photo

Jonathan Buzzard jonathan@buzzard.org.uk
Sat, 02 Aug 2003 14:54:12 +0100


henning@meier-geinitz.de said:

[SNIP]

> I've asked multiple times for concrete proposals how the standard can
> be changed or appended. Each time there hasn't been any response. With
> "concrete proposals" I mean patches to SANE2 or at least the text of
> the to-be-added well-known options.
>
> If I remember correctly, we came to the conclusion that most proposed
> features can be done by adding well-known options (like multi-pass,
> selection of a specific range of images, auto/manual focus) and
> providing the functionality in the backend. So please send proposals. 

I did sit down and make a long list of things that I thought where missing
from the SANE API for negative scanning and posted it to this list. I am
not sufficiently  familiar with the SANE API to be qualified to make
good proposals on how it should be extended, and it would take significant
amounts of my time that I don't have to do so.

It seems to me a far superior solution for those that know what is missing
from the standard to point out what is missing and for those that have
intimate knowledge of the standard to add those features in the way that
best fits in with the standard.

[SNIP]

> If none of the people who use film scanners provide the necessary
> changes, they won't be done. 

I honestly feel I have done my bit. I sat down with the standard and
scoured it for features that appeared to be missing but would be
considered essential for proper negative/film scanning. I then wrote
a long email explaining how all of these features work and posted it to 
the list. This was a couple of evenings work.

To then expect me to become sufficiently familiar with the API to make
good proposals of how to implement this features is in my opinion asking
to much. It is hard enough to propose good API's even when you understand
everything fully, but to skillfully extend an existing standard is
in my opinion best done by those intimately familiar with it.


> I can't talk about that specific scanner, but with my Mustek BearPaw
> flatbed scanner I also get too much noise with dark slides or
> negatives. With those scanners I didn't have trouble to get good
> images from brighter negatives when using XSanes film selection option
> by the way. 

Good is clearly very subjective here. I messed around with scanning
negatives on various flatbeds. The results where never very satisfactory
which is why I have proper film scanner these days.

JAB.

-- 
Jonathan A. Buzzard                 Email: jonathan@buzzard.me.uk
Northumberland, United Kingdom.       Tel: +44 1661-832195