Lumière d’Argent

This is a follow-up on my Epson r2400 death announcement.

There actually was a way. Not that the Epson support would mention anything about it, mind you. I came across an interesting page on MIS excellent support site about resetting the waste ink counter on Epson printers. The method described there actually did not work on the R2400 but they also mention that service manuals are available on http://www.2manuals.com/. I went there and downloaded not only the manual but also the software for Epson service technicians. That software allows to adjust a number of parameters in the Epson printers, including resetting the ink waste counter.

My first attempt did not work because I tried on Windows Vista. It does work on Windows XP, though, and it allowed me to reset the counter to zero and get a working printer again.

Stephane :: Nov.28.2009 :: Gear, Printing, Software :: No Comments »

I have printed with an Epson R2400 for the last four years. Yesterday, it stopped working. When switched on, it makes a very brief noise and then the paper feed and ink buttons leds start to blink. Searching the Internet, it turns out it is most probably the wasted ink tank that’s full.

But wait a minute. I installed an external wasted ink tank specifically to avoid this to happen. Yes, but the printer has no way to determine the actual level in the tank, so its internal software counts the (milli)liters of ink it sends there and after a fixed quantity decides it is game over. There is software that allows to reset that counter, but it does not seem to work, apparently the printer is not responding. So that failure was actually programmed in the printer. It is not a bug, it is a feature…

I have left a message on Epson technical support web site, we’ll see.

Stephane :: Oct.14.2009 :: Gear, Printing :: 1 Comment »

Reading about different film/developer combinations, I came across a post on Flicker discussion where Philip Leser mentioned that he really liked Neopan 400 in Diafine. He made extensive tests with several films in Diafine, including plotting characteristic curves. He came with this curve for Neopan 400 in Diafine:

This is very very good. So I tried and indeed, Neopan 400 in Diafine creates great negatives. Grain is moderate. Much marger than Acros, of course, but invisible on a 12×16" print from medium format.

I wonder if I need anything else for my RZ67, really.

Stephane :: Jun.14.2009 :: Film, Gear :: 2 Comments »

Last year, Colin Jago talked on his blog of an interesting software for negative scanners: Colorneg.

I downloaded the trial version and gave it a go. It did indeed produce fine results but at that stage I was reluctant to add yet another software. Moreover, at the time, I was not really using film all that much.

Since then I have started again to use my Leica and so the question of B&W film scanning and processing became current for me too.

For digital processing, depending on my inconsistency among other things, I currently use Aperture, Photoshop CS3, Bibble Pro, QuadtoneRIP and some nice PhotoShop plugins.  Still reluctant to add yet another software piece, I tried different things. Clearly, VueScan is best at driving my Epson scanner. Its B&W output is adequate but not exactly great and the control it offers does not suit me. Besides, I like the idea of scanning to RAW. I find the curves to apply to VueScan RAW files quite steep and I produced unwanted effects that way.

I then noticed the DNG option in VueScan. It produces a DNG raw file, just ready for Adobe Camera Raw. That software was designed precisely to do what I need: correctly map a gamma 1 file to the more useful gamma 2.2 or 1.8 or whatever is in QTR Lab space. It works beautifully. The trick to invert the picture in ACR is to use the point curve, select the Linear setting and invert its slope. The controls in ACR allow to produce a very good starting point for further finishing in PhotoShop.

Stephane :: Oct.19.2008 :: Film, Scanning, Software :: No Comments »

Among comments I got in different forums after the previous article, some pointed out I could have got even better results had I used a higher resolution. Others said 3200dpi was way above the Epson true resolution.

Well, I must admit I had chosen the 3200dpi resolution because I knew 6400dpi was ridiculous and 3200dpi gave still a manageable file size from a 35mm negative.

So I made some more tests.

I started at 6400dpi and that produces a huge file that shows big square pixels when sharpened. It looks like a the 3200dpi file at 200% on screen. Useless.

4800dpi has the same problem.

2400dpi, when enlarged to 3200dpi shows no detectable difference at 100% Needless to say, it would show absolutely none on print. So, 3200dpi was indeed too much.

1800dpi, when enlarged to 3200dpi shows a loss.

It appears the optimum is 2400dpi with this scanner. Still respectable considering the price and its multi-format capabilities.

Stephane :: Dec.27.2007 :: Printing, Scanning :: No Comments »