Reproduction of paintings-Better light VS DSLR

[fotoflynn]

Howdy

Ideally  I would like to use the better light Scan Back for  art reproduction work. But the price tag is a reach for me, not only  the scan back  but then there is every thing else  to go with it; 4*5 camera, a big tripod  a good lens, continuos light source.  And of course the better light puts out these huge files ,so you need a some what tricked out Mac pro.  and before you know it your spending  anywhere from $15.000 to 25g's in one day. a bit scary for me.  
My understanding is that the reason better light is so good at art repro is because none of the
color info is interpolated, that and the file size is good for large out put. (9800 or Z3100)

My theory and my question is better light vs a DSLR.  It seems  to me that the DSLR(Canon) is definitely not in the same league as the scan back, but how far off is it.  10% or more like 50% difference.   I would like to offer the artist the best quality. but the ratio of price vs quality seems important too. Making it more affordable for the so called starving painter.  Also what I like about the DSLR  is the set up ; much more portable and also the time difference .  A single pop vs a 10 minute scan can mean half day or 2 days copying an artist portfolio.  I would like to get as close as possible to museum standards with out breaking   my bank account or the artist.

 I would love to hear any thoughts, comments or experiences about this?

Also would a CCD DSLR be better than a CMOS DSLR for color info ?

Travers

[howiesmith]

Keep in mind that if your clients can't afford it, neither can you, unless you just give it away.

At $25k, how many paintings do you have to copy at the going rate to just break even?  Even a DSLR can cost a lot of money.

Don't forget the final print either.  A museum quality print that can stand a scanned image may be very expensive in itself.

Until you are sure of your market and client base, I would hold off.  A good marketing plan sounds like what you need now.  Is there anything else you could do with a 4x5 system to help defray the cost?  Or a DSLR?


This may be even more a business decision than a photo question.

[jani]

This 8.6 gigapixel image was the result of 1145 shots. Apparently, they decided that this was easier and/or better and/or cheaper than the scanning back approach.

The scanning back approach has one big advantage, and that is that you don't have to worry about merging a bunch of photographs to make it work, unless you aim for superhigh resolutions like the one mentioned above. There is also a pretty big disadvantage in that if some of the light conditions change during the scan, you run a risk of extra work, and maybe a high likelyhood of having to redo the scan.

With a bunch of DSLR shots, the problems are much the same, but you may get away with redoing only a few shots. Mind your coordinates, though!

Good answer from howiesmith, too.

[Morgan_Moore]

Howdy

Ideally  I would like to use the better light Scan Back  [a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=85179\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

A used tethered only 'multishot' digital back may offer good value and excellent quality

say an eyelike m6 or M11 with a horseman digiflex and nkkor copy lense

or on a V series hassy

Even the m6 at four shot gives '24mp' equivilant better than a 1DS2 and 16 bit color

A cheap DSLR mounted on a 54 camera like the cambo ultima will beat a 1ds2 too

Ther are ways of 'bodging' together S/H 54 bits and bobs to get the cambo ultima effect

Stitching images seems feasable if you are in a stationary enough environment for considering a scanning back

(stitching with a 54 camera - the lense stays still so there are no distortion or vignetting probalems)

SMM

[Jack Flesher]

Everybody that does Art-Repro or historical archiving seriously -- like for museums and institutions -- uses the Betterlight scan back.  If this is to reproduce paintings for your local artist, then a DSLR may be just fine.

Cheers,

[digitaldog]

Not in the same league for this kind of work. You really need true color capture (a three shot or scanning back) if you want to do this right. Look, I love my 5D, great camera but its not the right tool for the right job you describe. I'd suspect you can find a used scanning back or three-shot at a decent price. It's not about needing the biggest file (that can't hurt), its about capturing true color data of an original that's real, real demanding.

[fotoflynn]

Hey to all

My idea is to allow painters  to sell limited editions  pigment prints along  side  with their painting. So if  a customer really likes a certain painting but can’t afford the $ 3000 price tag they could buy a giclee print instead for $300.   That way everybody is happy. the painter might not get the sale of the painting but he/she still makes some money and the customer gets a  nice reproduction of the painting. Now where I come in is my dilemma. for now I am looking for a cost quality ratio that is acceptable to everyone  in the loop including my bank account.

I did a test early this week at my friends studio  A show down between the H25 and Mark 2 1DS ((I wish  had a Better light 6000E but I don't)   Of course this is almost a joke these cameras are in different leagues of their own.  and yes  the quality of the H25 beat the canon hands down in my humble opinion.  Though when you a add a little  unsharp mask
and tweak the curves, you start getting closer to the H25.  My biggest  problem with the h25 was that it was too good or too punchy. It made the actual painting look weak  and flat in comparison to the h25 print that I made on my r2400 .  On the the other hand M21ds seemed closer to the painting in terms of contrast in the mid tones.  the one thing I did like about both was that the color seemed very close to the original, which was my biggest fear.  Next week I am going to test the M2 1ds but do multiple exposers and then merge them  in CS2 HDR/GF and see how the quality does.  Meanwhile I’ll keep scanning E-bay for used BL  Scan backs and multi pop megavisons.

thanks to all for your input and have happy T-Day unless your  Canadian (of course you guys already had thanksgiving) so happy belated T-day

Travers
SF, CA
USA