[sane-devel] Affordable film scanner supported by SANE

[Major A]

> At the end of the day the problem with SANE and film scanning is that
> there is no SANE front end with decent orange mask removal, dust removal,
> multi pass scanning, faded negative correction etc. etc. The end result
> is that it is somewhat sucks when compared to VueScan.

Orange mask: at least with Coolscan2, this one is trivial: adjust the
exposure times of the R, G, B channels so that the space between two
frames comes out exactly white. If you then scan with these settings
and invert, all colours will be correct, and you have used the scanner
at its best -- you get the best possible noise performance out of it.

Dust removal: we're working on it. It's already pretty good but
usually requires adjustments for each scan.

Multi-pass scanning: is this really a front-end issue? (Otherwise I'm
the culprit here since it's not yet in Coolscan2.)

Faded negative correction should be done in GIMP really. Pity
mainstream GIMP only supports 8bpp colour.

> Note that in the UK at least you can get your hands on the old Minolta
> models like the Dual Scan II, Scan Elite etc. quite cheaply.

Check ebay, some older Coolscan scanners (LS-30/LS-2000 is the oldest
one I would consider, previous ones didn't have an IR channel) pop up
there every now and then.

> Get something with an IR channel. I didn't and regret it totally, to the
> point that I intend to replace my Scan Dual II as soon as funds allow
> with something that does have an IR channel.

The IR channel certainly helps, but it has also been reported that
scanners with LED sources exaggerate defects and therefore need an IR
channel only to remove what a scanner with a xenon light source
wouldn't see anyway. I'm sure there is some truth to it, a decent
xenon-based scanner can probably give you a cleaner scan from a
(clean!) frame than any Coolscan ever could. Then again, if you keep
your films in a puddle, there's nothing that can beat an IR channel.

I'm told that Minolta is a special case, it seems, their scanners
bring out defects because they use image sharpening within the
scanner.

> There is a mailing list dedicated to film scanners. It is not specific
> to any OS, but would be relevant if you have no idea what you are doing.
> Try Googling a bit harder.

I don't think there is any traffic on it right now -- I think I'm a
subscriber and I haven't got a message for quite some time.

  Andras

===========================================================================
Major Andras
    e-mail: andras at users.sourceforge.net
    www:    http://andras.webhop.org/
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