Luminous Landscape Forum
Equipment & Techniques => For Sale => Topic started by: slbowen on April 04, 2011, 03:26:52 pm
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This is currently just a feeler to see if anyone might be interested. I have a hardly used Creo iQSmart3 scanner. I live in New York City and ideally want to sell to someone here to avoid the shipping issue.
Thanks.
Susan Bowen
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No connection to the seller, but this is one of the best scanners available. I have the same one.
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I have never gotten a handle on using it... getting it to do what I bought it to do, albeit for an atypical application. Not sure how much more time I want to continue what has been a frustrating pursuit.
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What difficulty are you having? I purchase mine so i could scan odd size film, 6x24, 8x10, 4x5, in any combination. Wet mounting is a challange, especially 35mm with is curve. The results, even with dry mounting are great.
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How much?
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I've posted to try to get someone to come on-site to help me. I shoot overlapping multiple exposures with a Holga. I treat about 1/2 of a roll of medium format film as one image. I scan a half of a roll in one scan, flip the negative and scan the other half (never having to cut the film, which is nice that the 11x17 bed works out that way). So I only have one splice to have a file of the entire roll (I'm working with really big files).
With my old Epson scanner with Silverfast or Vuescan doing this process was no big deal. It is probably the limitations of Oxygen Scan that is the problem for me, not the iQSmart itself.
I guess the main problem is that there is no way for me to zoom in to see what I'm looking at. So it is hard to set any accurate endpoints. Plus obviously I'm dealing with many separate exposures so what endpoints to pick would be problematic to begin with... though I got reasonable scans with the cheaper equipment.
So the issue is how to get a reasonable crop analysis when I'm working with a tiny visual representation. Or how to turn off the crop analysis and do everything in Photoshop. I was hoping the DT file would do that, but it seems not.
Anyway, that is what I'm struggling with and am seeking someone to hire to help me, so if anyone knows anyone, please contact me, thanks.
Susan
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If the crop of one frame is the same as all the other crops simply create the first crop, then start the scan and simplly move the crop to each subsequent frame and execute sucessive scans.
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Here is what the preview of a scan for me might look like: (http://www.susanbowenphoto.com/resume/images/oxygen-screen.jpg)
It is all one long crop the full length of the scanner bed. With Oxygen designed the way it is (it seems I can't rotate or enlarge the preview?), the width of the preview is only about 1.5" on the monitor. I didn't manage to get a rotated monitor to work with my G5 (which would help). I enlarge my monitor resolution to 800x600 to get the image larger.
The best workflow seems to be to shrink the crop, move it around trying different crop analyses and then clicking on the thing to enlarge the crop back to full frame. (Pretend the too dark adjustment is the one I want.) But my preview is too small to have much control.
By the way people can see my images here: http://www.susanbowenphoto.com (http://www.susanbowenphoto.com)
I guess I'll play around with it some more before giving up. Thanks.
Susan
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what about making a user mask for the size of the film you are scanning, then after you scan, line up the susequent set in the same mask.
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Felix: I may not be understanding you correctly.... I do have a user mask the size of the film (size of about 1/2 of a roll).... my mask is one long narrow opening... I am not scanning per exposure, but the whole (half) roll at once.
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This set-up screen makes me think no one trained you on using this scanner...is that the case?
I've made notes on your screen grab of a few things that seemed out of wack but there is almost nothing on your set-up that I would use.
The circled mag glass is how you see an enlarged portion but it works by rescanning and creating another preview. Hardly worth the time.
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Stretchd: You are right, no-one trained me and I don't really know what I'm doing. I do turn off sharpening, but I haven't
been using an output profile (Adobe RGB?). I don't know what to use for an input profile other than the generic. These are color negatives (with the orange cast)... do you know a way to profile them?
The zoom tool doesn't give enough control over size and how big the blowup. I haven't found it useful at all.
What else do you find wrong in my setup? Keep in mind most people are only doing single frames when they scan. At 1600 ppi I end up with a 500MB file.
I'm looking to learn, so fire away.
Susan
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Hi Susan,
If it's ok with you let's take this one step at a time.
How will your final image be used (Type of output and size of that output)?
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Keep in mind my aspect ratio is usually 1:7.
I always want the option to make them big... occasionally I've made them 2' high (x 14'). Usually they don't go larger than 8' wide (14" high). Most often they are just 4" x 29". They originate as 2.25" x 16". I'm rounding here.
My previous scanner had a maximum optical resolution of 1600. I intended to scan at a higher resolution with the Creo but found my files were just too big so I kept it at 1600. With the option to rescan if some big mural project came around needing it to be larger.
As I said, I scan the two ends of the negative, splice once to start off with a file that is the entire roll of medium format film (at that point 16 bit), which is 1 gig in size. I then crop down to about 1/2 of a roll, eventually convert to 8 bit with a final file size of 250mb.
Susan
http://www.susanbowenphoto.com (http://www.susanbowenphoto.com)
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Good morning Susan,
So you make prints that are @ 29" x 4" or something like that? What's the smallest and largets you've made?
Are you happy with your scans when you open them in Photoshop?
BTW...Nice work!
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I was saying 4" x 29" is the smallest..... 24" x 14 feet would be the largest.
All these posts are because no I'm not happy with the iQsmart scans. I'm trying to get a handle on what I'm doing wrong. Probably all the images on my website (or almost all) are from my older Epson scanner.
Susan
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What it about the scans you are not happy with?
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I think the main issue is that I can't get the preview big enough to see what I'm doing, crop analysis-wise. I guess muddy colors is one of the complaints. I'm not getting the right exposure so to speak.
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"I think the main issue is that I can't get the preview' big enough to see what I'm doing, crop analysis-wise."
The preview is going to appear small on the type of work you do. There's no way around it.
"I guess muddy colors is one of the complaints. I'm not getting the right exposure so to speak."
Have you ever heard of a scanning term called "a safe set" ?
I'm going to post this and take another look at your screen grab.
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Nope, never heard of a 'safe set'.... what is that! Thanks.
Susan
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Hello Susan,
Are you still thinking about selling your IQSmart3?
Michael