2009/5/9 Stephen Bain stephen.bain@gmail.com:
On Sat, May 9, 2009 at 2:07 AM, David Gerard dgerard@gmail.com wrote:
How correctable is the colour? Is the light so bright it blows out highlights on the sensor? (These things basically use the same sensors as compact digital cameras.) Correctable I can deal with (I could even script it), blown highlights are another matter. Does it only save as JPEG or also as PNG/TIFF?
If, instead of using the bundled software, you get something like VueScan [1] then you should be able to acquire directly from the device (if it's supported; VueScan supports something like 1200 scanners) in your favourite RAW format. You're still limited by the quality of the optics in the device, but at least you'll be able to do all your own processing. [1] http://www.hamrick.com/vsm.html - though it's not free software
I've had others recommend VueScan, but I don't see the Ion scanner listed there, and it doesn't appear supported yet:
http://groups.google.com/group/comp.periphs.scanners/browse_thread/thread/5c...
A pity, as most of the Ion scanner's issues appear to be truly appalling software.
The next best idea appears to be a Nikon Coolscan second-hand from eBay. (There seems to be a cycle of people buying them, scanning a whole box of negatives and selling them a year later.) The USB ones are a few hundred pounds, the SCSI ones are cheaper but jokes about SCSI requiring black candles and the sacrifice of a goat exist for a reason.
- d.