The Difference A Good Scanner Makes

So, long story short, I’ve been scanning. A lot. Mostly stuff shot by my Dad and my Grandparents over the decades. All of them have been on slide transparencies.

For the longest time, I was using a Minolta Dual Scan II to scan the slides, as it was the best I had, and the best I could afford.

Fast foward to December of last year. I finally got a new scanner. One that was made in the last two years too! (The Minolta, in contrast, was over 10 or so years old.)

Being the annoying perfectionist I am, I decided to redo every single slide all over again, at higher resolutions, and with multi-exposure and ICE.

And boy, am I glad I did! Below is the same slide, taken in Alberta circa 1976 by my Dad.

The top is scanned on my old Minolta, the bottom on my new Plustek Opticfilm 8200i.

(Click to make bigger)

Minolta Dual Scan II
Minolta Dual Scan II (1999) — No Multi-exposure
Plustek Opticfilm 8200i
Plustek Opticfilm 8200i (2012)– Multi-exposure

A major, major upgrade in every possible sense. Better colour representation, better dynamic range, better resolution, everything.

I tried to replicate the scans as best I could so that they matched eachother, but it’s tricky to do so in Lightroom.

This is mainly just to show how much a difference a good scanner makes (especially one with multi-exposure.)

Matt

It’s Like High School All Over

Watched the Grammy’s last night. Seeing everyone trying to one-up the other in the “witty and clever tweet” department reminded me of this piece posted to the Times on Saturday.

It feels as if we’re all trying to be a cheeky guest on a late-night show, a reality show contestant or a toddler with a tiara on Twitter — delivering the performance of a lifetime, via a hot, rapid-fire string of commentary, GIFs or responses that help us stand out from the crowd. We’re sold on the idea that if we’re good enough, it could be our ticket to success, landing us a fleeting spot in a round-up on BuzzFeed or The Huffington Post, or at best, a writing gig. But more often than not, it translates to standing on a collective soapbox, elbowing each other for room, in the hopes of being credited with delivering the cleverest one-liner or reaction. Much of that ensues in hilarity. Perhaps an equal amount ensues in exhaustion.

NYTimes: Valley of the Blahs: How Justin Bieber’s Troubles Exposed Twitter’s Achilles’ Heel

Giving Credit

A short post.

Can you think of any creative mediums, besides photography, where giving credit to the creator is either completely forgotten, viewed as pointless, or seen as odd to most people?

“It’s just a photo.” You never hear that about anything else.

Posts navigation

1 2 3 … 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 … 16 17 18
Scroll to top