Plustek releases 7200dpi 35mm film scanners that are Mac-compatible

[laarree]

Just saw this bit of news on a photo website. Scanner manufacturer Plustek
finally comes out with Mac-compatible 35mm film scanners that scan at
a hardware resolution of 7200 dpi, beating out former resolution winner
Konica-Minolta's Dimage Scan Elite 5400II (company is now defunct and
absorbed into Sony). http://www.photo-i.co.uk/News/Jan08/Plustek.html and on Plustek's website:
http://www.plustek.com/product/7500i_ai_spec.asp and http://www.plustek.com/product/7500i_se_spec.asp

Because they never had Mac software, I had ignored the brand. Is anyone
here familiar with them? I have thousands of 35mm slides and negs at home
and am revving up again to some major scanning.

[Racer X]

above about 3k, you just start to get noise and are just seeing the dye cloud clumps.

[laarree]

If it's a multi-scanned, 16-bit file, capturing film grain and dye cloud dumps
isn't a bad thing.

[Racer X]

I'll look into it over the weekend and give you my opinion.

[laarree]

Found this review of the previous generation, PC-only version Plustek:
http://shutterbug.com/equipmentreviews/s...ndex1.html

It sounds like the downside of the scanner is that its dynamic range is lower than
some of its competition. The new one has a DR of 3.5, & the reviewed model's was 3.3.
I don't know if DR figures are comparable scanner to scanner or if there is a consistent
way in which it's measured by different manufacturers.

[Racer X]

I haven't looked at film scanner specs in a few years, but that dynamic range seems pretty low. I have an old Minolta Scan Multi (does just about any roll format with the right tray) and even back in '99 I think it was about 3.6.

[Racer X]

I think the multi exposure thingy takes care of the moderate dynamic range. Not sure how it does it in a single pass though. Specs say it is single pass.

[laarree]

Multi-exposure is actually done by doing several scans in a row and combining them--
I think the Silverfast software manages that. Sort of how high dynamic range photography
is done, if I'm not mistaken.