6x6 scanning

ScanGear seems to know that 6x6 format film is loaded and automatically places a selection on each frame. ScanGear has the options for 6x4.5, 6x6, 6x7, 6x8, 6x9 and 6x12. I also managed to scan in three frames of 6x6 to produce a full 6x18 scan. This scanner is versatile. I did have some Newton ring problems earlier in the day, but these vanished as the glass plate became warmer.

Three colour shots	Selecting Monochrome Neg. still produces a cast
Selecting Grayscale in the Output cures the cast	Marching ants found each frame
1200 dpi at 100%	2400 dpi at 100%
Lovely Newton ring example	Three 6x6 frames scanned as a single image

Although you don't need as much resolution for medium format film scans I would have liked the image to be much sharper. The above scans have all had USM applied in Photoshop, below is an example of how the scanner applies its own USM. As previously stated the options are either On or Off. Fortunately with medium format film the USM seems to work.

No USM at 1200 dpi	With ScanGear USM at 1200 dpi
600dpi	1200dpi
2400dpi	4800dpi

It has been suggested that I would achieve a better result if the scan was made at a the full 4800 resolution and then downsized to 2400 or 1200. Well here is the result of that exercise.

Scan at 4800 dpi	4800 reduced to 2400 dpi
4800 reduced to 1200 dpi	1200dpi scan

The quality of bw medium format scans is reasonable, the only thing that gavve me cause for concern was in the way that ScanGear handled the actual scans. Many of them were too contrasty or dense, cropping the picture caused my settings to be lost, despite the fact that I had Auto tone turned off. The workaround for this is to make all your adjustments to the preview and then select the Manual Exposure and click the Apply button. Now you can adjust the cropping without the corrections being lost. To exit this press the Exit button. A spokes person for Canon told me that LaserSoft (SilverFast) are developing a scanner interface for this unit - about time!