My dealer got their first shipment in yesterday. I happened to be there as they unpacked it and thought I'd offer my initial impressions.
I have a 4990 and was interested in seeing how much better -- resolution and DR -- the 750 is over the 4990. To clarify, this is not a complete test, only my observations on scanning a single 4x5 test tranny of a typical landscape image on one sample of the 750 scanner. The image is of Bryce, with lots of detail, bright clouds, dark shadows -- and of course, dust.
I scanned at 2400 DPI, sharpening and ICE both off, but the levels slider adjusted and optimised for the tranny. I used the Epson driver as the store does not install Silverfast on any of their machines since it creates conflicts with some of the other scanner drivers.
First thing I noted is the prescan time is notably slower than the 4990's -- not a huge deal, just noticed it. The scan itself takes about the same time on either machine.
Now to the juice.
First thing was the 750 scan was soft. Not even the dust was sharp. I took the feet off (minus position, lowering the holder) and re-scanned. This was even worse, so I added the feet back in to the plus location, raising the holder. The result was essentially the same as the normal position scan, so I am unimpressed with the resolution at this point -- it most certainly is not better than the 4990 and appears to be slightly worse.
But there is some good news: D-max, or dynamic range, whatever you want to call it, is notably better on the 750. I can only quantify it by saying it looks like about half a stop gain in the shadows which may not be earth-shattering but IMO is noteworthy.
Other comments: The holders are only improved in that you can adjust the feet, but it appears the adjustment does not do a lot, so no real gain here. The wet-mount adapter is nothing to get excited about either. It is a glass tray that sits on top of the regular scanning glass, so you scan now through two sheets of glass. You can wet mount up to about a 5x7 neg, but not much more so your dream for an inexpensive 8x10 wet scanner has been dashed. I did not try a wet mount on the 4x5, so perhaps that will render a better resolution scan -- we'll have to wait for others to report their findings on that. I did learn the wet-scan tray is available as a stand-alone purchase and can be used on the 700, though it is unclear if it will work on the 4990. I doubt it since the 700 series appears to use a series of small hole patterns to tell the scanner which holder is being used.
That's it for now -- I am planning to go back this afternoon to see if their scanner tech has been able to improve things. I'll report any updates.
Me? For now I remain unimpressed and will stick with my 4990 -- I'd rather have the added resolution than the extra DR.
Cheers,
