----- Original Message ----- From: "David Miers" Subject: RE: Film Is Dead / A Contrary View
> > > > -----Original Message----- > > From: William Robb [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > > Sent: Saturday, July 10, 2004 3:32 PM > > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > Subject: Re: Film Is Dead / A Contrary View > > > How long does it take you to scan an entire roll of film on your > > duoscan? > > About 45 minutes probably for a 24 exposure roll assuming that the exposure > is somewhat consistent averaging 30 Mb of data per image. > > > Data transfer speeds are a major limiting factor. A 24 exposure roll > > of film creates nearly a 1 gig file. > > At the moment, this is the speed limit for producing enough work to > > pay for the machine. > > The Noritsu people that I have talked to all think that data tranfer > > rates need to increase by a factor of 10 or some such to get a decent > > speed increase out of the machines. > > > > > Ok for a 4 x 6 image, yes a lower resolution file would be sufficient. I > just did some calculations for 8 x 10 and that resolution would still give > you a print factor of 300 dpi, so again sufficient. However beyond that it > seems to be not enough. The majority of images are small prints so they can > fly at high speeds. However the larger enlargement work is rare and they > make the better dollar rate as well. Since only doing a few large images > here and there, I don't see how doing a higher resolution scan would majorly > interrupt their work flow. You indicated that they at least do a higher res > scan for 8 x10 images. You would think such a machine would be capable of > 6000 x 6000 resolution if they needed it for more professional custom work. > > I can well imagine that this kind of machine wouldn't be particularly > attractive to places like Walmart, but many of the better labs wanting to > offer the 1 hour service, may well want to cater to professionals or serious > amateurs still using film. > There aren't enough professionals or serious amateurs using film anymore to be able to support a piece of equipment that will cost in the range of half a million dollars. These machines have pretty good interpolative routines. I am generally quite surprised by the quality of prints we get from files that one would think are way to small to print. Mini labs are mass market machines. The pros who want the big files are doing their own scans. William Robb
