Re: Nikon IV or Cannon FS4000

[Jerry Olson <jerryolson@xxxxxxx>]

Art, I know what I see. The 4000 + was not as sharp as the canon. The
GRAIN was sharp, but the IMAGE was not. So I don't think it's a focus
problem. A comparison scan as good as I could get it on both scanners,
at the same image size, under high magnification resulted in the canon
being sharper. 

Possibly a bad lens on the Polaroid. It happens.  But I sent a polaroid
tech an image by email at top resolution (A very small area) and he said
it was sharp. What can I say. It wasn't as sharp as the canon. 

I thought the software that came with the polaroid was pretty bad. I
didn't care for the insight at all, just didn't like it. I think it was
fairly easy to use, so I feel confident that I made the sharpest scan I
could with it.  

I hated the silverfast software. I could never live with it. Didn't like
anything about it. Way too complex for my needs. Tried about 20 scans,
for a full day. Used both software packages.  The SHARPNESS of the scan
was about the same with them. Canon beat them both, IN SHARPNESS. That's
the first thing I look at because if a 1200 dollar scanner can't deliver
sharper results than a 2720 DPI  Canon Scanner, I'm not interested in
taking it much further.

Yes, I could have had a bad lens on it, no doubt.

Jerry


> This simply flies in the face of every (and I mean every) review ever
> reported with these scanners, which, if I were making such statements,
> would make me wonder if I wasn't making some major error in my testing.
> 
> Don't you find it at least somewhat troubling that your conclusions
> (which were rather rushed, at that) are so contrary to those of all
> other users of both the SS4000 and the SS4000+ scanners?
> 
> It seems to me that either you should be selling that FS2710 back to
> Canon so it can be studied for it's miraculous resolution properties, or
> your SS4000+, in spite of the Polaroid rep's response, (what country are
> you in, BTW) is defective, or you were misunderstanding the software you
> were using with it.
> 
> Otherwise, I suggest all FS2710 owners should hold onto their scanners
> until something better comes along than the current 4000 dpi film
> scanners on the market, since the SS4000+ is equated in terms of scan
> quality to the Nikon 4000 (without the DOF issues) and better than the
> FS4000.  So I'm not sure where that leaves you.
> 
> Art
> 
> Jerry Olson wrote:
> 
>  > Neal, I'm in exactly the same boat as you. I have the 2710 and it is
>  > excellent for most things. I too, wanted a 4000 dpi scanner.
>  >
>  > I just tried the polaroid 4000+ and was very disappointed. It isn't as
>  > sharp as my 2710. In fact, it is very noticeable less sharp. The
>  > polaroid tech said to e mail him a sample, at 4000 dpi, (very small
>  > area). He thought it was just fine, and perfectly acceptable.  He has
>  > obviously never seen a sharp scan. So I'm returning it, and will get the
>  > Canon 4000. I hear that is a sharp scanner. (Can't afford the Nikon, at
>  > twice the price).
>  >
>  > Also, the software that comes with polaroids scanner is fairly dismal. I
>  > couldn't get a decent black and white scan with either Silverfast OR the
>  > Polacolor insight software. The scans looked extremely dark in the pre
>  > scan, and about 4 stops too light in photoshop. Silverfast must not be
>  > designed for black and white photos, as all the tools were grayed out,
>  > so you couldn't alter the scan in the prescan mode!
>  >
>  >
>  >
>  > Jerry
>  >
>  >
>  >>Before you say 4000 dpi compared to 2900 dpi, I use my
>  >>current scanner Canon FS2720, for scanning slides and
>  >>making 4x6 prints and web or emailing. Occasionally
>  >>maybe an 8x10, but really if I want a decent 8x10, I
>  >>usually send it off to The Slideprinter in Denver.
>  >>That said, I'm looking for which one of these will do
>  >>the best with slides. I don't think they are even
>  >>difficult slides, but my present scanner the Canon
>  >>FS2720, just can't do an accurate job with a few of
>  >>them. Will the Canon FS4000 significantly out perform
>  >>the FS2720 or just produce more dpi. The Nikon has a
>  >>different light source, will it produce significantly
>  >>better results than the FS2720. Most comparisons I've
>  >>seen deal mostly with cropping, and dpi, and ICE, but
>  >>I'm really not interested in that as much as getting
>  >>an accurate, sharp, scan from a slide.
>  >>
>  >>I've also tried multipass in Vuescan with little
>  >>improvement. I think I'm getting alot out of the
>  >>FS2720, it just isn't quite enough.
>  >>
>  >>
> 
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