I seem to be getting variable results when using vuescan to scan
negatives with fs2710 scanner, particularly kodak films. While the
resolution and sharpness are good the colors can often seem a somewhat
flat.

After switching to the advanced work flow method I get better results.
I suspect problem is ensuring the best film type is selected for the
film being scanned. If I am using Fuji superior 100 I get the best
results while Kodak Gold is the worst. The output is set to jpeg and
48bit tiffs which I had hoped would give me a tiff backup and a jpeg
as a quick base for most work.

Having thought about these problems I am now thinking of saving raw
and jpeg as with the raw I can go back and change the film type to try
and get a better colour profile without excessive reworking in
Photoshop. This leads me to a couple of questions about the factors
that affect raw output in vuescan.

1) If I want to use advanced workflow with raw files as input then I
will need a scan of a clear piece of film as reference to set the film
base levels.

2) do all negative frames, including the blank frame, need to be
scanned at the same exposure as exposure does affect raw output and
presumably also the film base settings.

3) for the FS2710 should I be using 48bit or 24bit output, auto seems
to use 48bit. Some of the FS2710 documentation talks of 10bit colour
levels for this scanner while there some comments that this is only
used internally.

4) As the fs2710 is a relatively basic scanner that only appears to
allow focusing, exposure and resolution to be set. With Exposure and
resolution being fixed and focus being checked on preview presumably
there are not other settings that can affect the scanner its self.

It would be great to get a more consistent scan from Kodak as I seem
to end up shooting half with Kodak and half with Fuji. While negatives
are more difficult to get the colour balance right they do have a
range of densities that the scanner can cope with, unlike slides, and
they are far more forgiving regarding exposure. Oh and they are
cheaper to get processed.


gary