Ulf Westerberg wrote:
> My only experience of slide-scanners is the HP Photosmart...
> What leaves very much to be desired in the HP is the dynamic range, details
> in shadows
> are easily lost....
> Sharpness is nothing to brag about IMO. Every image has to be adjusted in
> Photoshop for this, the original comes out soft ...
> I was quite disappointed with the HP Photosmart. I should add that there is
> no way to adjust sensitivity etc...
Okay, I too own an HP PhotoSmart scanner although I haven't had time to
use it much. I also have a problem with the scanner producing soft scans
from slides. Scans from prints and negatives are very sharp. Out of
frustration I called HP directly and talked to a real live person. After
he took me through all the troubleshooting steps:
1) Make sure that the slide is emulsion side down when inserted into
the scanner.
If that doesn't work, reset and recalibrate the scanner.
2) a. Unplug the unit from its power supply.
b. Open the scanner lid and reclose it.
c. Plug it back in and recalibrate the scanner, using the software
tools.
When the above steps failed to produce a sharp scanned image from a
slide, he admitted something to me. The slide scanning feature, which is
supposed to take into account the thickness of the slide mount, is setup
at the factory and there is no way that it can be adjusted through
software or manually. It seems that HP is aware of this problem.
But, just before I gave up he said that HP would send me a replacement
scanner AND would keep sending me replacements until I was completely
satisfied with the product. Of course I have to send the other unit(s)
back, but I was really taken aback by a computer company, any company,
that would offer to go to these lengths to satisfy a customer.
The second problem, losing shadow details is something I haven't
noticed yet. A couple of underexposed slides scanned did of course
produced underexposed images but adjusting the midtone and lowtone
levels helped bring out the details with out sacrificing quality.
So, don't give up yet. Call HP and complain. In the meantime I'll post
an update as soon as I get the replacement scanner.
Hopefully, maybe soon. I'll get my woefully out of date and hurriedly
slapped together web page some attention and stick some images out
there.
PS. I asked the techie if HP was planning to produce an adapter for
scanning medium-format negatives/slides. He just committed to no
comment.
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