More 35mm scans

Page 3 focused on the F-3200 ability to scan direct to a memory card, unfortunately this method of scanning doesn't give the user many options nor does it give you access to the full 3200 dpi resolution. On this page I will look at scanning via the computer.

I have loaded up the 35mm mounted slide holder with eight transparencies, due to the way the holder is constructed these have to be placed in a horizontal orientation. I will be using the slide covers for the scans, so lets see how long it takes to fit all eight covers......... including loading the 35mm slides it has taken 1 minute 31 seconds to fit the covers, perhaps not as long as I thought it would be, but nevertheless an extra step.

Starting with the scanner from cold, warming up and creating the first previews took 2 min 06 seconds, subsequent previews took 29 seconds. I am using Epson Scan software in Professional mode, you have the option to preview in Thumbnail view or Normal view. I will be using the Normal view for this review as it gives you more precise control on cropping, the thumbnail view auto crops the images.

Epson Scan in Thumbnail view	Epson Scan in Normal view
Zoomed Thumbnail view	Zoomed Normal view

Scanning the HMS Belfast image at full resolution took 1 minute 9 seconds.

The full scan at 3200 dpi produces a 37.7mb file size
Detail at 100% from above image no USM	USM applied via FocalBlade 1.03
Epson 4870 scan	Epson 4870 with FocalBlade USM

I have included scans made with the Epson 4870 so you can see how the F-3200 compares. The 4870 scan took 2 minutes 15 seconds. The F-3200 has the advantage in both speed and image sharpness, but only by a very small margin. The 4870 has better shadow detail. Both scans had the same amount of USM applied via FocalBlade 1.03. Given that the 4870 can also scan at 4800 dpi, has Digital ICE and scans printed material up to A4, the overall advantage must go to the 4870.

The F-3200 has a software dust removal facility, this will remove dust to a greater or lesser degree, and it will also clean up image details, take a look at the flags below - I would not recommend the use of this feature.

4870 has Digital ICE	F-3200 uses Epson Scan Dust removal

35mm strip film holder

The second 35mm film holder accommodates two strips of six exposures 35mm film. Again this is a well constructed item and also has a glass/plastic backng plate behind each strip. Things get realy weird here, the glass plates are frosted or sand blasted, which I assume is to prevent Newtons rings. I will test for loss of image quality on this. Placing the two strips was easy enough, just slide the film under the two end clips and close the holder. There is a central push point which clicks down holding the film securely. The two strips I used for this review are quite flat, but if a slightly curled film was used then this operation could take some time as only one end has clips.

Two strips of 35mm film	Handy recess to grip the film
Film held securely by two clips	Reverse side of all holders have traction guides

For scanning strips the thumbnail method of previewing is quicker than Normal, although as said earlier it is not as precise. With thumbnails you can quickly rotate the previews and then see a magnified preview of each frame, whereas in the normal mode you would have to select each frame with a marquee and individually zoom in.

All 12 previews in thumbnail mode	Images can be quickly previewed

The scans made using greyscale mode have a great depth to them, with good detail in the shadows and highlight areas being kept well under control, perhaps I just got the exposure right.

Scanned in Greyscale
Film grain do you remember this,	Sharpness is OK

The Epson Scan software made the selection process easy on strip scanning. However, most of my films are 36 exposures so this could become quite tedious.

As stated earlier on this page, the glass backing plate on the strip holder is frosted. I was keen to see if this would degrade the quality of the scan. I scanned a mounted image and then scanned the same image again using the strip holder. Now here is an unexpected result. The unmounted slide actually produces a sharper scan. I can only deduct that there is a design flaw in the mounted slide holder. I don't think the film on the mounted holder is in the correct plane of focus, of course this will vary according to the thickness of each individual mount. I used ultra thin GePe mounts.

Mounted slide scan	Same image unmounmted using the strip holder
No Unsharp Masking has been used on any of the above samples

The design team at Epson should take another look at the mounted slide holder, it's clearly not giving the results that I would have expected.