Flatbed Scanners

In article <MxI_d.2948$>,
"Deadlegs" wrote:

What scanners are photo retouchers, color correction professionals using for scanning
colour and b&w photographs?

If by "professionals" you mean advertising, print design, and high-end retouching professionals, look into Crosfield, Scitex, or Linotype-Hell scanners. They typically run from $45,000 on the low end to $340,000 on the high end.

—
Art, photography, shareware, polyamory, kink, and more!
www.xeromag.com/franklin.html

tacit wrote:

In article <MxI_d.2948$>,
"Deadlegs" wrote:

What scanners are photo retouchers, color correction professionals using for scanning
colour and b&w photographs?

If by "professionals" you mean advertising, print design, and high-end retouching professionals, look into Crosfield, Scitex, or Linotype-Hell scanners. They typically run from $45,000 on the low end to $340,000 on the high end.

News to me….since when does the average "professional" graphic designer use a $45,000 scanner? Not that I know.

Brian.

In , Brian wrote:

News to me….since when does the average "professional" graphic designer use a $45,000 scanner? Not that I know.

Average professional graphic designers use scanners that cost a whole lot more than $45,000–they just don’t own them.

In the professional print industry, here’s how it works:

A graphic designer designs an ad or a brochure or whatever. He uses his little home consumer-grade scanner to make crude scans. These scans are called "FPOs;" FPO stands for "For Position Only."

When the client approves the look and design of the job, the designer then takes the originals to a trade shop or service bureau. The service bureau scans the originals on a high-end scanner, and these high- resolution scans–which are CMYK, not RGB–are placed in the designer’s layout for final output.

Professionals don’t do final scans on home consumer-grade scanners; that’s part of the purpose of a trade shop or service bureau.

—
Art, shareware, photography, polyamory, kink:
http://www.xeromag.com/franklin.html

Tacit wrote:

In , Brian wrote:

News to me….since when does the average "professional" graphic designer use a $45,000 scanner? Not that I know.

Average professional graphic designers use scanners that cost a whole lot more than $45,000–they just don’t own them.

In the professional print industry, here’s how it works:
A graphic designer designs an ad or a brochure or whatever. He uses his little home consumer-grade scanner to make crude scans. These scans are called "FPOs;" FPO stands for "For Position Only."
When the client approves the look and design of the job, the designer then takes the originals to a trade shop or service bureau. The service bureau scans the originals on a high-end scanner, and these high- resolution scans–which are CMYK, not RGB–are placed in the designer’s layout for final output.

Professionals don’t do final scans on home consumer-grade scanners; that’s part of the purpose of a trade shop or service bureau.

Thanks very much for that information Tacit. I think things must be done a little more professionallly where you are than over here in Australia. Over here, a lot of graphic designers do scan on relatively inexpensive scanners and actually use those images. It may, of course, depend on the intended end use, but I have even used graphic designers myself who have definitely used their own scanners, costing more in the order of $2,000 or less. In our Agfa photo processing labs here, going back about 2 yrs ago, I enquired once what a scanner they were using would cost, and the guy told me $1800 (keep in mind this is Australian dollars). That is very typical of the type of scanner used here.
Glossy magazines would not be produced using such equipment, of course. There is also a guy in Melbourne who produces 95% of Melbourne’s modeling agencies composite cards and he only uses a $2000 scanner. He scans the images and places them on the comp card, prints them off on a colour laser with a laminate finish, and all is done. I have seen him produce them, as I had some comp cards done myself for tv ‘extra’ work.

Brian.

I have enjoyed this thread. I live in Australia so inclined to take Brian’s advice as it fits more with my budget!
My market is local domestic and does not warrant access to high end scanners. BTW Dan Margulis has a chapter in his book Prof. Photoshop which compares high end versus flatbed and the results are surprising. Yes high end alway best but not that much better from all accounts in terms of shadow detail which is where the main advantage of high end seems to count. I have been working with an HP SJ3C for years but its no longer serviced by HP. The deskscan software is not of high quality and its calibration poor. Hence trying to replicate an original is both frustrating and time consuming.

I need enough resolution/bit depth/OD to work with at high magnification to aid photo restoration (Colour and B&W). It seems I don’t need the high res photo scanners as I already have slide and film scanner. I am loooking a prosumer models.

Hope this clarifies my particualr situation.

"Brian" wrote in message

Tacit wrote:

In , Brian wrote:

News to me….since when does the average "professional" graphic designer use a $45,000 scanner? Not that I know.

Average professional graphic designers use scanners that cost a whole lot more than $45,000–they just don’t own them.

In the professional print industry, here’s how it works:
A graphic designer designs an ad or a brochure or whatever. He uses his little home consumer-grade scanner to make crude scans. These scans are called "FPOs;" FPO stands for "For Position Only."
When the client approves the look and design of the job, the designer then takes the originals to a trade shop or service bureau. The service bureau scans the originals on a high-end scanner, and these high- resolution scans–which are CMYK, not RGB–are placed in the designer’s layout for final output.

Professionals don’t do final scans on home consumer-grade scanners; that’s part of the purpose of a trade shop or service bureau.

Thanks very much for that information Tacit. I think things must be done a little more professionallly where you are than over here in Australia. Over here, a lot of graphic designers do scan on relatively inexpensive scanners and actually use those images. It may, of course, depend on the intended end use, but I have even used graphic designers myself who have definitely used their own scanners, costing more in the order of $2,000 or less. In our Agfa photo processing labs here, going back about 2 yrs ago, I enquired once what a scanner they were using would cost, and the guy told me $1800 (keep in mind this is Australian dollars). That is very typical of the type of scanner used here.
Glossy magazines would not be produced using such equipment, of course. There is also a guy in Melbourne who produces 95% of Melbourne’s modeling agencies composite cards and he only uses a $2000 scanner. He scans the images and places them on the comp card, prints them off on a colour laser with a laminate finish, and all is done. I have seen him produce them, as I had some comp cards done myself for tv ‘extra’ work.

Brian.