gary_bentley Posted August 28, 2003 Share Posted August 28, 2003 I was recently given an HP S20XI film scanner. Do I have to use the HP calibration card that originally accompanied the unit in order to calibrate it? The problem is, I don't have any of the original items that came with the unit and I don't want to pay $7 plus shipping for a card (if it is still available) if I can simply download a suitable calibration card pattern somewhere and print it out for use (assuming I could print it at sufficient density to be of any use in calibration, which is indeed a good question). I would hope HP didn't actually program the calibration specifically to their test card. Anyone using this scanner who can tell me more? Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
s._fisher Posted August 28, 2003 Share Posted August 28, 2003 I believe all you need is a 5x7 sheet of white paper. Try searching HP's site, they have it in a FAQ somewhere. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gary_bentley Posted August 28, 2003 Author Share Posted August 28, 2003 That would be pretty amusing if a blank white card was all they were looking for. As to finding the reference at HP, I'll give it another try, but hadn't found any reference to calibration previously other than the reference to the card included with the scanner. After I posted this I immediately discovered my naivete as far as talking about "printing out a test target." At least, as far as actually doing ICC color calibration. I looked at another posting previously here and found a site that offers precision targets, which are high quality film (very unlikely you could print something of that quality) with an associated data file which documents the proper color profile response to the target (I presume). Kodak apparently has a test slide available as well. A white card sounds do-able though <g>. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gary_bentley Posted August 28, 2003 Author Share Posted August 28, 2003 Darned if you weren't right! I just found the 1997 HP response to the issue of a lost calibration card--use a 5 x 7 sheet of white paper! Thanks for the tip. As far as my concern about more complex color profile correction, another HP document states that the color correction algorithms in the S20 use film dependent parameters measured directly from the film during pre-scan, more or less adjusting automatically to the film type. I'm off to shoot some 35 mm color film and scan those bad boys in! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bruce_rubenstein___nyc Posted August 28, 2003 Share Posted August 28, 2003 The clibration card is only for calibrating the scanner for use with reflective media. It has nothing to do with any film scanning. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
s._fisher Posted August 28, 2003 Share Posted August 28, 2003 Is there no calibration required for slides/negs then? I don't recall any other method of calibration for the scanner. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gary_bentley Posted August 29, 2003 Author Share Posted August 29, 2003 As far as I know so far (and I am just getting my feet wet with the S20, in fact should be scanning my first color negatives later today) the white card calibration is the only calibration required, and it may well apply only to reflective media (as was pointed out above), making the logical assumption that it would sense light passing through a translucent medium like a negative or slide, i.e., sensors below the media, and sense the reflected light from a print, i.e., sensors above the media. The HP documents at their website describe a scanner diagnostics test (Hpi_Diag, supplied with the S20 software) that tests the light path without a calibration card to perform slide mode calibration. It apparently checks the gain on the red, green and blue channel sensors below the slide/negative path via the unimpeded light from the xenon lamp above the slide/print path. Another clue that there are in fact separate photosensors is the fact that print media (reflective) has a maximum optical resolution scan of 300 pixels/inch whereas negative media can be scanned at 2400 pixels/inch (although admittedly that could be under firmware control). If all goes well today, I'll try to post a sample scanned negative image of some paintings I shot with 35 mm color film last night (not that my preliminary experiments will be of much interest to experienced photographers, but in the interests of chronicling the use of the S20 in the present context). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
matthias_svane Posted February 7, 2004 Share Posted February 7, 2004 And so it happened. Knowing that an American inch is 25,4mm I carefully cut a piece of white paper with the dimensions 127 by 177,8mm and inserted into my Photosmart S20. Seconds after my scanner uttered happy little sounds and was ready for new scanning adventures. I guess now is the time to tell my wife that we can still use the scanner, even if she threw out the original calibration card, because she thought it looked like garbage. Thank you very much for your help! Greetings from Denmark. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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