Thanks, Bill; that gives me a very basic understanding of how a drum
scanner differes from what we mere mortals would buy. Knowing it is
based on a tube (valve) explains why it is superior... lots of us old
farts know tubes/valves rule! :-D
I posed my question about desktop scanners not having as good dynamic
range as DSLR sensors to my optical engineer friend. (Gene works for a
division of Kodak that was recently spun off and purchased by ITT. He
is working on a team developing the next generation Hubble telescope.)
He really didn't know why, as basically the technology is the same. He
suspects that it's a case of the market and economics not being on the
radar of product management.
Earl
bs.pearce@xxxxxxx wrote:
>>In all the discussions of film scanners, it appears to me that
>>reasonably priced scanners (i.e., non-drum) are not designed well enough
>>to deal with dynamic range. Am I interpreting correctly? If so, then
>>why not?
>>
>>
>The drum scanner is a very different beast. It's amazing what money will do.
>
>First is the photo multiplier tube. To get all that dynamic range, that's
>what it takes. Why not one in a desktop scanner? They're in comparison
>large, they are expensive, and, well, they are a tube. Try selling that!
>(last summer, I met the daughter of the inventor of the PMT. He was an
>engineer at CBS in NYC, and made essentially no money off it.)
>
>The other thing money buys is software. Where your scanner has drivers and
>some fundamental operating software, those things have dedicated software
>that includes things like unsharp masking on more levels that you can
>imagine. It's ironic that the image from a drum, certainly the gold
>standard, has been manipulated more than we could ever imagine before it
>gets to the parts of its software that can be changed.
>
>I think that's where the Imacons fall down.
>
>Bill Pearce
>
>
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