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Good rundown of hi-end commercial film scanners


Daniel D. Teoli Jr.

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The Kinetta is on that list.

 

But as with most of these kinds of lists, it's grossly inaccurate. It's amazing to me how sloppy these organizations can be when putting these together. For example, on the ScanStation, (which we have and know well), they say it does 16-35mm and no "obsolete" formats. It also does 8mm and Super 8, 9.5, 17.5, 28mm, and can scan unslit double 8mm. They're wrong about full overscan with edges (though only partially - you can only do it with smaller gauges). They're wrong about HDR. They're wrong about the audio formats (it can do optical and magnetic audio, not just optical). 50% of the information they give on that page about the ScanStation is wrong.

 

There are several incorrect items on the Director scanner as well.

 

There are similar incorrect items on the Northlight.

 

All of this stuff is basic information one can get from looking at the manufacturer's web site. My guess is they asked a FIAF member what their scanner supports, and all that stuff is customizable with most of the manufacturers.

 

There was a paper that went around last year about the best archival scanners for color scanning that was so hopelessly riddled with factual inaccuracies that none of the conclusions they drew could really be taken seriously. Kind of amazing.

 

But this is a good starting point, at least, for a list of what's out there.

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The Kinetta is on that list.

 

But as with most of these kinds of lists, it's grossly inaccurate. It's amazing to me how sloppy these organizations can be when putting these together. For example, on the ScanStation, (which we have and know well), they say it does 16-35mm and no "obsolete" formats. It also does 8mm and Super 8, 9.5, 17.5, 28mm, and can scan unslit double 8mm. They're wrong about full overscan with edges (though only partially - you can only do it with smaller gauges). They're wrong about HDR. They're wrong about the audio formats (it can do optical and magnetic audio, not just optical). 50% of the information they give on that page about the ScanStation is wrong.

 

There are several incorrect items on the Director scanner as well.

 

There are similar incorrect items on the Northlight.

 

All of this stuff is basic information one can get from looking at the manufacturer's web site. My guess is they asked a FIAF member what their scanner supports, and all that stuff is customizable with most of the manufacturers.

 

There was a paper that went around last year about the best archival scanners for color scanning that was so hopelessly riddled with factual inaccuracies that none of the conclusions they drew could really be taken seriously. Kind of amazing.

 

But this is a good starting point, at least, for a list of what's out there.

 

They are no experts me think. Same a 'curators of photography' at museums. None of the museum curators are museum quality photogs themselves...(or even photogs at all.) They are academics with art history degrees. People in the scanning biz will always know more than people just looking in.

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