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Xpan and Coolscan 5000


phovsho

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The Coolscan will not scan the entire Xpan neg. I have an Xpan and the coolscan 5000 and scan the panoramic negative as two different images and then stitch them togethre in PS. Looks great.

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Last question on Coolscans I promise.

Does anyone know whether the 5000 will process Hasselblad Xpan panoramic negatives ?

M

I have no problem to scan 6x 6 Rollei film with my Epson V750 cheaper .

I make it at one time without PS and it seems very good !

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I recently acquired an Xpan and love the perspective. Nice companion to my MP. But I wasn't thrilled with the time involved with manually scanning 20 images by hand for each roll, regardless of whether it was using a flatbed, Coolscan 9000 or Imacon. I generally prefer scanning at the highest resolution so I won't have to do it again. I discovered that a Coolscan 5000 with roll attachment SA-30 is able to scan an entire roll of transparency film in one pass, recognizing the left and right sides of each Xpan image. So now it's quite simple to set up a batch scan with ICE and up to 16x multiscan (no auto exposure or color correction) and just walk away for a few hours. I use Nikonscan and save as NEF. Later I simple auto merge (stitch) the images in CS3, which doesn't take much time and is fun. I can tweak both RAW images before merging, as long as I do exactly the same to both files. Surprising latitude this way, even with Velvia 50. At 4000dpi, each final image is 16.6"x45" at 240 dpi, and weighs 117 megs. Perfect stitches and awesome quality.

 

The Coolscan only seems to recognize both sides of the image if the filmstrip begins with black. So you have to scan upside down and flip the images. I get around this by finishing the roll with a blank shot in standard 35mm format. This allows me to scan right side up, and get left and right images in the proper sequence. Plus, if any of the edges are goofed up (sometimes happens toward the end), I can simply scan upside down to get the missing files. I haven't been able to get negative film to work for batch scanning Xpans -- but I enjoy chromes anyway for fine grain and color.

 

Bottom line is that for me, the Coolscan 5000 not only works for Xpans ... it works extremely well.

 

HSL

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The Coolscan 9000 or 8000 is the best option for scanning Xpan negatives or slides. Other options may work as well, but they are less convenient. It all depends on how many times you scan such images. Given the high cost of a Coolscan 9000 or 8000 it is only worthwile if you scan a lot. However, the advantage is also that the Coolscan 9000 or 8000 scans MF images and can process several 35mm stripes or slides at the same time. If you scan Xpan images your best option is to use the special glass holder with rotation (FH-869GR).

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The Xpan II rocks. It's a great and versatile camera and a terrific entree to the world of REAL panoramic. I scan with an HP Scanjet 4050. No problem. The Scanjet also handles medium format panoramics from the Linhof 617.

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Hi Lager

I just ordered a 5000. Out of interest how long does a stitch take i photoshop? Is PS the way to go for cleaning up scanned images?

Thanks

M

 

the stitching takes no time at all, depending on processor and such I would say around 20 seconds of software computing. Sometimes you have to do the aligning "manually" which is not really hard but requires a few extra seconds. I quite enjoy the job as it's one more step in creating the picture. I've found that it's a lot easier if you do no image tweaking in the scanner software, just scan it as is and do all the enhancing in PS (or some other program). Good decision in buying the 5000. Good luck and have fun!

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