scan times with epson 4180

[john_wintheiser]

I have just purchased an Epson 4180 scanner, primarily as an

affordable way to scan medium format slides and negatives. I should

add I am quite new to medium format. I am using a Mamiya 1000s which

I got used from KEH. I have just scanned my first black and white

negative. I am very pleased with the result. However, the scanner

seemed to take an inordinate amount of time to make a scan- about 18

minutes to scan 3 negatives at 3200 dpi. This is about 5-8 times as

long as it takes to scan 35mm on my dimage scan dual III or my old

Epson 1250. Is this usual?

[david_sargent]

You are getting more than 3 times the number of pixels as you would from 35mm at the same scanning resolution (assuming 6x6 format). So, you should expect it to take longer. Do you need to scan at 3200 dpi? At that resolution, you could make a print of 24 x 24 inches @ 300dpi (again assuming 6x6cm format). When I scan I usually pick a target size of 10 x 10 and then crop and/or resize to print on 8x10 paper. That is a scan resolution of roughly 1300 dpi. I haven't timed my scans, but it only takes a few minutes on my epson 3170.

 

By the way, the first time I tried to scan I really didn't know what I was doing, and I selected a target size of 10x10 and a resolution of 3200dpi. My computer locked up. After an hour or so I rebooted. If it had worked, I'd have a picture with about 1 gigapixels.

[custom film holders for fl]

>>By the way, the first time I tried to scan I really didn't know what I was doing, and I selected a target size of 10x10 and a resolution of 3200dpi.<<

<p>

Hehehehehe... I think all of us had to try this at least once as newbies :)

<p> Doug<p>

<a href="http://home.earthlink.net/~dougfisher/holder/mainintro.html">Dougs

MF Film Holder for batch scanning of 120/220 medium format film with flatbeds</a>

[john_wintheiser]

Thanks for the responses. Obviously, the bigger negative will require more time. I tried at 1200 dpi and it still took about 5 minutes. This still seems longer than other scanners. That is not a big problem, I guess as long as I know the scanner is working properly.

[jon_noble]

Have you noticed that scan times are significantly shorter when you scan transparencies when compared to negs. However, 5mins seems quite long tho. I use multipass with my 4180 (using silverfast) at 1200 and takes about the same amount of time.