[filmscanners] Polaroid SS4000 shadow detail

["" <Al@greenspace.freeserve.co.uk>]

Hi folks,


I recently managed to get one of the last SS4000 units at a reasonable price 
(reasonable by UK standards that is!).

As I expected, scans are sharp and noise is very well controlled.  However, 
trying to bring up the shadow detail in dense slides, the  shadows get very 
blocked up and start looking weak and posterised.  I got much better shadow 
definition from my old Elite but that was only after months of finding the best 
workflow to do this (raw scan from Elite software processed with Vuescan).  
Since my initial attemps with the Elite we no better, I suspect I'm simply not 
getting the best from the SS4000 yet.  After all, they are both 12 bit scanners 
with probably a similar OD.

I've tried the "underexposed slide" option in Insight (it shipped with 5.0.3 by 
the way is 5.5 any better?) and, although the colours and general balance is 
good, the shadow definition is poor.  Scanning as a normal slide and using the 
other tools improves it but not amazingly so.  I've tried Silverfast 
(briefly!), tried exporting a raw file from Insight and processing it in 
Vuescan and also tried doing everything in Vuescan.  I get different results 
but still not as good as the Elite yet.

Any suggestions from SS4000 users?



Thanks,




Al Bond




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