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Even my first film scan of a 4x5 Ektachrome
was so dead on that no post scanning editing in Photoshop
was required.
Photos © 1999, David B. Brooks, All Rights Reserved
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Less than a year ago I tested
and wrote a report on Epson's Perfection 600 scanner. Before the
report was set in type Epson sold out of every Perfection 600 scanner
in stock, and the report was canceled. Let's hope Epson has produced
enough of this new Perfection 636 scanner so you get to read this report.
And, you should, because for anyone who has been a photographer for
a while and wants to try "the digital darkroom" the Epson
Perfection 636 scanner is an ideal entrée. You get for just under
$400, a basic scanner for $299 and $99 for the film scanning accessory.
Most significant, you don't have to compromise your expectations
of picture quality as part of this bargain.
The expectation of obtaining good quality scans using the Epson Perfection
636 is largely revealed in the basic specifications. This standard 8.5x11"
format flat-bed scanner has 600dpi overall optical resolution and scans
at 36-bit color depth (12-bit gray scale). In addition, Epson's
MicroStep Drive technology increases the hardware resolution to 600x2400,
which can then be increased further to 9600x9600dpi by software interpolation.
These high-performance values are made possible, and support the unusually
effective film scanning accessory, by limiting the 600x2400dpi scanning
to a 4x11.7" strip in the center of the scan area. The TPU transparency
adapter provides illumination for a 4x6" area in the center of
the overall scan area, with 4x5, 120, and 35mm film templates especially
designed for the purpose.
In support and software the Epson Perfection 636 provides drivers and
utilities for both the Mac OS and Windows (a fast PCI SCSI interface
card is supplied for PCs). This includes LaserSoft scanning software,
with the ability to upgrade to the full professional version of LaserSoft
SilverFast. Built-in Text Enhancement Technol-ogy and Auto Area Segmentation
as well as the Xerox Textbridge Classic OCR application to make the
conversion of scanned text documents easy for all purposes, including
fax input and output. These kinds of information communications functions
are aided by Epson including in the bundle Presto! Page Manager and
Broder-bund's PrintShop Press Writer applications. The package
is rounded out by the inclusion of Adobe PhotoDeluxe Business Edition
to use for all kinds of photo-imaging tasks.
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Using The Epson Perfection
636 Scanner. Everything from unpacking to setting up and loading
the software is quite simple and straightforward. This new Perfection
636 was ready to do its first scan in just a matter of minutes. The physical
design is compact and very clean. The TPU to scan film is quite simple
and ingenious making it easy to use, and it can be stowed away when not
in use quite readily. Epson provides their own TWAIN driver as well as
the LaserSoft scanner driver, with the former intended primarily for scanning
text documents and to use TextBridge, Presto! PageManager, and the Broderbund
applications. LaserSoft is intended for photographic and similar scanning
of art and images using PhotoDeluxe or other similar applications a user
may have. Coincidentally, I had a typed letter I needed to scan and used
Textbridge to do OCR so I could put the information into my word processor.
This use of the scanner was exceedingly easy, not even requiring a reference
to the documentation, though I'd not used the Xerox software before.
While I was set up to scan reflective copy, I opened Photoshop and the
LaserSoft acquire dialog to scan an Ektacolor IT-8 ICC color reference
print target. Using the LaserSoft manual controls, I set the highlight
and shadow points on the respective areas of pure white and black in the
IT-8 image, and otherwise made a straight scan. Then with the scanned
IT-8 image open in Photoshop, I used the pointer with the information
dialog open to read a selection of the color patches in the target image
to compare to the ideal values I have on file from Kodak. The values I
read were quite close to what they should be, and were also consistent
in their variance from one color to another as well as in a selection
of different density gray patches. These very good indications really
whetted my appetite to see what this inexpensive Epson would do scanning
film with the TPU.
My choice for a first scan was a 4x5 transparency made on Ektachrome duplicating
film used in a camera to do a night shot of the Los Angeles city center.
It is, from past experience, a difficult image to scan, but I soon found
using the LaserSoft software that I was able to make the necessary adjustments
to obtain the best balanced scan of this transparency yet. Night scenes
of cityscapes present a wide range of tones as well as a lot of variation
and detail in shadows and highlights. The advantage of the LaserSoft controls
is that you can precisely determine both the brightest highlight and darkest
shadow, and then within that range adjust the levels of shadow mid tone
and highlight separately to produce an ideal balance of values. Then if
there is any color shift either overall or a skew of color balance between
highlights and shadows, you can make color balance adjustments overall
or applied just to highlights, mid tones, and shadows separately. Although
seemingly complicated as described, the LaserSoft controls are extremely
simple and logical, providing very obvious ways to adjust images.
In the color balance dialog you have a color wheel with a center button
that can be moved in the direction of correction, or you can go to the
bottom of the dialog and change each balance of RGB values with one of
three sliders. These color balance adjustments can be applied overall
to the entire image or separately to shadows, mid tones, and highlights
by clicking on the appropriate icon at the top of the dialog window. The
same goes for the image density adjustments. The dialog window offers
a typical graph-type curve tool, which can be manipulated directly, as
well as moving any one of five sliders below which control contrast, overall
brightness, highlight, mid tone, and shadows, so you can lighten or darken
each of these three ranges of value. When you adjust the sliders, what
you have done is reflected in changes in the image curve graph above.
The LaserSoft software adjustment tools by their design provide ways to
learn by action and reaction just how to adjust image values. And, if
you want to scan with even less effort there is a single button which
automatically adjusts the image to preset ideals correcting brightness,
contrast, and color balance.
After my initial tests I continued to make scans from 120 size and 35mm
film, including a variety of different kinds of positives, color negative
as well as black and white negatives. The LaserSoft scanning software
provided very good control of the image characteristics of these diverse
sources and produced good to excellent results consistently. I was also
impressed by the fact the speed of this new Epson Perfection 636 is quite
comparable to even scanners costing considerably more in typical flat-bed
operations as well as film scanning at high-resolution settings. Obviously
considering the 600x2400 optical resolution limit, scanning 35mm film
originals does not produce the same level of detail definition you would
obtain from the better 35mm dedicated slide scanners, but to make prints
up to 8.5x11" any difference is slight. With larger film sizes the
scans the Perfection 636 can produce should result in prints and other
output as large as most individual photographers are likely to require
and as large as any desktop printer is currently capable of making.
The Bottom Line. Over the last 10 years I've used a considerable
number of different scanners and have made thousands of scans. What I've
been able to do right off the bat with the Epson Perfection 636 is as
good or better than most of those scans, and comes amazingly close to
the quality I've achieved with the best of these scanners. That
this is possible at a cost of under $400, for scanner and film adapter,
is quite amazing to say the least. It is very well suited for use by anyone
who has photographs they want to scan that are in a variety of formats
and sizes as well as to scan text documents and other information on paper
for a variety of other purposes. So I would recommend the Perfection 636
to anyone new to computer photo processing and as a first choice for the
startup of a digital darkroom as a hobby, unless their scanning would
be limited exclusively to 35mm film images. For more information about
the Perfection 636 scanner, contact Epson at (800) 463-7766 or visit their
web site at: www.epson.com.
Technical Specifications
General
Specifications: Flat-bed single pass color scanner; 600x2400dpi
maximum hardware resolution with MicroStep Drive technology; 9600x9600
maximum interpolated resolution; 600dpi CCD sensor optical resolution;
36-bit color scanning with 3.0 dynamic range for transparencies; 12-bit
gray scale scanning
Outstanding Features: ColorTrue® Imaging technology;
Built-in Text Enhancement Technology (TET); Built-in Auto Area Segmentation
(AAS) technology; One-button scanning; OCR/document management; Batch
scanning
Software Bundle: LaserSoft Perfection 636 Scan Software;
Adobe PhotoDeluxe Business Ed (Win); Adobe PhotoDeluxe 2.0 (Mac);
NewSoft Presto! PageManager for Epson; Xerox Textbridge Classic; Broderbund
The PrintShop PressWriter
Dimensions: Width 11.29"; Depth 16.73"; Height
3.46"; Weight 9.9 lbs
Scanning Speed: Line art--approx. 2.7 msec/line; 256
gray scale--approx. 8.1 msec/line; Full color--approx. 8.1 msec/line
Interface: SCSI
Compatability: Windows '95, '98; NT 4.0 and
5.0 TWAIN compliant Macintosh System 7.lx, 7.5, 8.x
Light Source: Cold Cathode Fluorescent Lamp (CCFL)
Photoelectric Device: Color CCD line sensor
Maximum Scan Area: 8.5x11.7", and 4x11.7"
for 600x2400dpi resolution
Color Depth: 36-bit internal/24-bit external
Gray Scale: 12-bit internal/8-bit external
Street Price: $299
Optional Features, Price: 20-page Automatic Document
Feeder, $199; 4x5" Transparency Unit, $99
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