thomas_park

If your backlight isn't big enough to scan MF film, you'll most likely just need to get another scanner.

My original bias was towards scanning in RGB, and I'm still standing behind that feeling. The 16-bit greyscale scans from my scanner (Epson Perfection, admittedly not the most powerful engine) resemble the green channel from an RGB scan of the same image.

 

In the RGB scan, the blue and green channels have the highest acutance,with the blue channel being slight lighter. I think this is due to the color of the film base, however.

 

The green channel looks very similar to the blue, only darker. The red channel is softer than the other two.

 

So, with my film on my scanner, it seems to make sense to scan RGB and mix the channels by hand. YMMV depending on your scanner, of course.

I'd argue that the film base does contribute some color, at the very least, and that some scanners may have slightly more noise from one color channel than the others, so it may be desirable to clip the output from the channels unevenly. Probably not an issue with the newer and higher end machines, but this is an ingrained habit by now =)

I usually scan my B+W film in RGB mode, but suddenly started to wonder if this

is the best course of action.

 

Is there an advantage to scanning in greyscale over RGB? The scanner is using

the same sensor, so I'd assumed that the greyscale scan would simply use the

tonal values for the RGB channels and represent them as separate grey values. I

don't see any reason why scanning in greyscale would cause the sensor to be more

sensitive to grey tones.

 

In other words, my assumption is that scanning in greyscale is the same as

scanning in RGB but with perhaps without the ability to apply different output

levels to the separate color channels. Is this a reasonable or correct

assumption, or is there actually an advantage to scanning in greyscale for BW

images?

 

Thanks,

Thomas park

If you're scanning a negative or slide in an Epson Perfection, make sure you don't have film hanging out the back of the negative carrier, on the hinge side of the scanner. Also make sure this area and the corresponding part of the backlight window are perfectly clean.

 

This is where the scanner will calibrate the backlight (notice there's a space at the back of the negative carrier). If you have part of an image there, you're going to get funny streaks where the scanner thinks it has to compensate for the brightness of the backlight.

Hi John,

 

Just a few comments to add - I bought a C330 a little while back and have been very pleased with the optics. One thing to keep in mind is that all of these cameras are going to be reasonably old and have seen varying amounts of wear (as well as varying levels of care). I suspect that the people who have had bad experiences with their Mamiya TLR's may have neglected to have a fungus-y lens cleaned (which would certianly destroy the image quality.) You can find some amazing deals on these cameras, but some of them have had a very hard life due to use by journalists, pros, or simple neglect.

 

That said, the TLR is a camera that you need to do a lot of playing with. It has several cons. What you see on the focusing screen isn't necessarily what you get on film; you need to adjust the exposure according to how far the lens is extended from the film surface; there's the problem of parallax, especially in close-up shots; the thing weighs about 4 pounds; you get some very strange effects if you tilt the camera on it's horizontal axis... The list goes on.

 

However, this camera also has it's pros. There are no batteries. Picking up this camera has made me think a lot more about my photography, and consequently appreciate the flexibility of my 35 when I use it. At the price, the Mamiya TLR's can be a great learning tool and a great introduction to MF. Changing lenses on this particular camera is fairly easy. It's a 6 x 6 format, which some people like quite a bit for landscape and portrait work.

 

Personally? I like my C330 a lot. It cost less than any of my Canon gear (lenses or body), and hey, it just looks neat ;)

 

thomas