FAQ Section:
Have a question about sync sound filmmaking? Here are the most frequently asked questions together with their answers in, what we hope you will find to be, easy to understand language.
- What is meant by 'lip sync sound' filmmaking ?
- What is meant by '60hz. sync' or 'pilotone sync' ?
- What is 'crystal sync' and how does it work ?
- What is 'time code' and don't I need that for sync sound to work ?
- My camera runs at 24fps., why can't I just use it as is for lip sync sound ?
- Can any camera be used to shoot lip sync sound ?
- Why do I need to modify my Super-8 camera for sync...it has a PC contact already ?
- What is a 'resolver' and what is meant by 'resolving' ?
- What is a magnetic film recorder ?
- What is 'slating' ?
- What is the difference between recording sound for transfer to magnetic film as opposed to sound for transferring to video ?
- Can I use a stereo cassette recorder to record lip sync sound ?
- Can I use a DAT recorder to record lip sync sound ?
- Can I use a MiniDisc recorder to record lip sync sound?
- If I am shooting at 30fps for video transfer, how will this affect the sync sound recorder ?
- How can I tell if my camera is running at 24fps ?
A. Very simply, the entire filmmaking process of shooting, recording, transferring, dubbing, editing, and projecting whereby the end result produces the appearance to the viewer that the on-camera speaker's lips appear to be precisely synchronized with the words he/she is speaking. Since, unlike videotape, the filmmaking process is split into the two seperate mediums of picture and sound, the requirement for maintaining lip sync throughout the various production and post-production stages becomes very important.
Undeveloped films, Disposable cameras to CD or USB. If you have undeveloped 35mm colour negative films, disposable cameras, or APS film that you only want scanning to CD with no prints then the cost is just £6.00 per film or camera plus p&p. This includes developing the negatives and scanning to CD (provided by us). A film scanner s dynamic range determines its ability to distinguish variations of highlight and shadow detail. If you re going to purchase a film scanner, look for one with a high dynamic range (3.4 “3.8 Dmax) and a high optical (actual) resolution (3,000 “8,000 dpi). Good film scanners for 35mm films range in price from $1,000 to $3,000. For scanning 35mm film, dedicated film scanners are a must. Flatbed scanners are notoriously poor doing 35mm, but can do remarkably well with 120 and 5×4. At least this is the case with my ageing Canon 9900F, and which I keep for accessing my 6×6 and 5″x4″ negs, now that I don’t do my own enlarging. 35mm Film: Make your old photos look virtually brand new again with the special film scanning guide frame and Film Adapter Unit by scanning one film strip at a time at a maximum 9600 color dpi 1. Auto Document Fix: Auto Document Fix delivers beautiful and easy-to-view scan results by advanced image analysis and area-by-area data correction.
A. The term 60hz. sync is a method of producing lip-synchronized motion pictures. In the early days of double-system sound recording, both the motion picture camera and the magnetic film recorder (see 'What is a magnetic film recorder') were driven by 'synchronous' AC motors. In North America we use an electrical frequency of 60hz. and a voltage of around 120vac. A synchronous motor is designed in such a way that it's rotational speed is in direct relation to the frequency of the AC current powering it rather than the voltage level of this current.
So, even though the voltage might vary up or down, a synchronous motor would always run at a constant speed regardless of these fluctuations. Since both the film camera and film recorder were equipped with synchronous motors, they would both always run at the same speed (i.e. 24fps @60hz.). Thus, early picture and sound synchronization was achieved by the ability of the synchronous motor to maintain an accurate speed.
This was all well and good as long as you remained in the studio and had a source of AC current to plug everything into. When it became necessary to take the camera out of the studio and away from any source of AC current a method had to be devised that remained compatible with the equipment already in wide use throughout the industry. Early attempts at so called 'portable' double-system sync had the camera and recorder tied together by a cable. What would become known as cable sync was accomplished by deriving a signal from the camera to indicate the exact speed at which it was running from moment to moment. Therefore, when the camera was running at exactly 24fps, a small electrical generator fitted to the camera's drive motor would produce a signal of exactly 60hz. (again the 24/60 relationship!) This sync signal was then sent by a cable to the battery operated tape recorder where it was recorded on a separate channel of the tape as a sync track. Cameras now had to only have a motor that ran relatively constant (i.e. constant speed motors) since any speed fluctuations between the camera and the recorder would be reproducible when the sync track on the tape was played back, later. (see 'What is a resolver...'). The term Pilotone was originally a trade name for this process and is now more or less synonymous with the phrase 60hz. sync.
A. Crystal sync is another method for producing lip synchronized motion pictures. The main difference and the biggest advantage of using this method over cable sync (see above) is the elimination of the umbilical cord between the camera and tape recorder.
In crystal controlled sync systems both the camera and recorder are electronically referenced to their own independent crystal oscillators. A crystal oscillator produces a very precise output which can be calibrated to a high degree of accuracy. The speed of the camera is locked to exactly 24fps.(or 25fps for Europe) by a controlling circuit which has a crystal oscillator as a reference. The crystal at the recorder only has to produce a precise signal from its crystal oscillator, it does not actually control the speed recorder. The final output from this crystal sync generator is a signal having a frequency of exactly 60hz. (50hz. for Europe) This sync signal is then recorded on the tape as a sync track, just as in the cable sync system we described, above. Since there are no interconnecting cables to contend with the cameraperson is free to move about without having to drag the soundperson as well. Also, because of the crystal accuracy involved, any number of crystal cameras can be covering the action and the film from each freely intercut in complete synchronization with the sound track.
A. Time code was originally developed for video tape editing in an effort to make that process more accurate. Over the years it has been adapted for film production, as well. The main difference between time code and 60hz. sync has to do with time code's ability to stamp each and every frame with it's own special time marking. Since every frame has it's own unique code it is possible to not only locate a specfic point in the film or audio track but, it is also possible to sync up to any specific point between the two mediums (also known as chasing). With 60hz. sync every frame looks like every other. If it were not for the slate markings created at the head (or sometimes the tail) of every scene it would be almost impossible to match up picture takes with audio takes (known as synching up the dailies) during the editing process. Time code, while a very useful tool for the advanced film producer, is not a requirement for double-system sync sound film production. You can make a film with perfectly synced audio by using the same old 60hz. system people have been using for years. Just make sure you use a slate to mark your scenes! (see 'What is slating')
A. The camera may say '24fps' on the speed selector but, unless it has been factory-equipped with a crystal controlled motor drive system, there is no guarantee the speed is exactly 24fps (or any other for that matter). Most 16mm and Super-8 cameras not designed for lip sync sound filmmaking have no need for a precise running speed and the added expense such a system would entail. Therefore, although they may incorporate various forms of mechanical or electronic techniques to keep the camera's speed relatively constant they all fall far short of a crystal-derived lip sync system.
A. No, not exactly. If the camera was not designed at the factory for use in double-system sync sound, there are certain requirements of the camera in order for it to be either used 'as is' to shoot lip sync sound or in order for it to be adapted or modified for double-system sync sound filmmaking. Not all cameras will work. With each camera it is a must that it at least run at the industry standard sync sound speed of 24fps (25fps for Europe). Athough most 16mm cameras offer this speed as standard, not all Super-8 cameras come from the factory with this speed capability and this precludes many of them from sync sound use. If the camera runs at 24fps. and also has a PC contact (photoflash contact) or frame-rate switch it can be used 'as is' to shoot double-system sync sound using a special device called a Digital-to-Pilotone Converter. This Converter is connected between the camera and the tape recorder to affect the sync sound process during shooting. (see 'pilotone sync') Some Super-8 and 16mm cameras can also be modified for crystal sync filmmaking (see 'what is crystal sync'. Crystal sync offers the important advantage of allowing the camera and recorder to be completely independent of each other with no cables connecting them together.
A. This is a very common question regarding a common misconception. Most high-end Super-8 cameras came from the factory equipped with PC (photoflash contact) connectors. The original purpose for providing a PC contact was to enable filmmakers to connect an electronic flash to their cameras for single-frame time lapse photography and animation. Each time the camera exposed a frame of film it would also automatically trigger the flash unit. Now since this switch (and that's all the PC contact is is a switch closure) works at all camera speeds in addition to just single-frame it was adopted by manufacturers of double-system sync sound equipment as a simple way of providing a speed reference. In other words, the PC switch contact acts as a sort of tachometer producing a sort of pulse for each frame of film exposed by the camera. At 24 frames per second the contacts will close 24 times per second, producing a 24hz. sync pulse. An electronic device called a crystal control unit can then use this pulse to tell it exactly how fast or slow the camera is running relative to a crystal-derived 24hz. (25hz. for Europe) master clock signal inside the crystal unit . The crystal control unit will then make the necessary speed corrections to affect a precise camera speed of 24/25fps. (see 'What is crystal sync...') Therefore, by itself the camera's PC contact does nothing to make the camera run in sync with anything.
A. Resolving is the process used to obtain lip-synchronization between two different mediums. A resolver is an electronic device that matches the speed of the sound recorder it is connected to (usually called the slave) to some other reference (known as the master). The most common use for the resolver is transferring audio recorded in the field to an editable medium such as magnetic film or video tape. Without the resolver it would be impossible to provide for an accurate, frame-for-frame relation between two dissimilar devices since their running speeds would be completely independent of each other. The resolver can overcome this problem by comparing the frequency of the 60hz. signal from the sync track recorded on the tape to the master frequency it has been set to. If the resolver detects a difference between these two frequencies it will create an error signal equal to this difference. The error signal is returned to the slave recorder causing a speed correction to take place until the two sync frequencies match each other exactly.
A. Magnetic film recorders or mag film recorders (or fullcoat recorders) are basically audio tape recorders that record on sprocketed magnetic film. This magnetic film has the identical physical properties as motion picture film and comes in sizes of Super-8mm, 16mm and 35mm. The difference is there is no image. The magnetic film is either completely coated with magnetic oxide or has a clear film base with one or more magnetic stripes running down it's length. If the film project is to be edited as a film (as opposed to being transferred to and edited on video), the field audio tapes will need to be resolved to magnetic film. At that point the sound can be easily edited frame for frame with the picture using a conventional horizontal editing bench or flatbed table.
Earlier mag film recorders used synchronous motors to lock their speed to 24fps referenced to the 60hz. AC line frequency. Current models use internal servo systems to control the speed of their motors and have more flexibility in terms of what they can be referenced to, be it the AC line, an internal crystal oscillator or an external pilotone signal from the field audio tapes.
A. Slating is the process of providing positive identification marks for the start of a lip-sync take on both the picture film and the sound track tape. These markings are very important in the editing stage to greatly simplify the process of locating the exact sync position between picture and sound. There are various methods for creating these markings although the original 'clapboard' technique is the simplest and is still quite common. Electronic slating devices are now often used especially in documentary film production where the clapboard would prove impractical. These include everything from the low-cost blinking LED versions to devices with digital readouts for take numbers to the more complex and more costly time code systems.
A. As far as the recording process, there is no difference. It is in the resolving process that you must be careful to select the correct master sync frequency! If you shoot film at 24fps and have it transferred to video on Rank, the film will actually be transferred at 23.976fps. Therefore, to maintain the correct sync relationship, the field audio cassettes must be transferred against a master clock frequency of 59.94hz. This is easily accomplished with a resolver by simply connecting a video reference to the external sync input. The resolver will substitute the external video reference at 59.94hz for the internal reference of 60hz. The field audio cassettes will now be resolved to video at the same rate as the film to video transfer.
A. It will not matter to the sync sound recorder whether you shoot at 24 or 30fps for video transfer. The crystal oscillator will remain at 60hz either way. If you are shooting at 30fps and will have your film transferred to video on a Rank scanner it will be transferred at 29.97fps. Therefore, to maintain the correct sync relationship, the field audio cassettes must be transferred against a master clock frequency of 59.94hz. This is easily accomplished with a resolver by simply connecting a video reference to the external sync input. The resolver will substitute the external video reference at 59.94hz for the internal reference of 60hz. The field audio cassettes will now be resolved to video at the same rate as the film is being transferred to video.
A. Yes. Stereo cassette recorders have been used professionally for sync sound field recording since the early '70's with excellent results. Normally, one of the stereo channels is reserved for recording the 60hz. sync signal from either the camera (if it is set up for cable sync) of from a crystal sync generator. This leaves the other stereo channel for the microphone signal. If the cassette recorder has been so modified, it can also be used to resolve (see 'What is a resolver...') the field audio tapes to either magnetic film or videocassette. Otherwise, a sound lab can be used to accomplish these transfers.
A. Yes. A DAT recorder can be used as long as the field audio cassettes are resolved correctly. A DAT recorder is very similar to a videocassette recorder in the way that it scans the tape during record and playback. A servo system is required to keep the spinning head and linear tape transport locked together. DAT recorders must have their own internal crystal oscillator in order for this servo system to operate. Portable DAT recorders like the Sony TC-D7, D8, D10ProII, the new PCM-M1 and the Tascam DA-P1, however, do not allow for any resolving other than their innate ability to play back in real time against their own internal clock. They cannot be slaved to some other external master source such as a videocassette recorder, for instance (see '...recording sound for...video'). If the DAT recorder will be used only for transferring the field audio cassettes to magnetic film and if the mag film recorder (see 'What is a magnetic film recorder') is also referenced to crystal, there is usually no problem. However, if you are having your film transferred to video on a Rank scanner, the film will be transfered at 23.976fps (not 24fps). Your DAT source material will now be running faster than your picture track! After just a couple of minutes the sync drift will be quite noticeable to the average viewer. The more sophisticated DAT recorders (certain portable models and some studio decks) do accept external sync references. These models are commonly used by sound labs for resolving DAT cassettes to magnetic film or videocassette. If you will be editing your film project on a non-linear system, you can also convert the data rate of the audio files after you inport them into the computer. A program like Goldwave for the PC will allow you to retard the speed of the audio 'wave' files downward by the necessary 1/10 of 1 percent (-.1%). Similar programs and utilities are available for the Mac/Avid system.
A. Yes, in some cases. As is the case with DAT recorders a MiniDisc incorporates a crystal-derived servo system to maintain the precise rotational speed of the spinning disc. The constant speed disc drive will allow you to record and play back digital audio at a precise real-time speed (i.e. 10.0 minutes recorded will play back as 10.0 minutes over and over). As with the low cost consumer DAT recorders, the MiniDisc recorders do not accept external sync references. They cannot be slaved to some other external master source such as a videocassette recorder, for instance (see '...recording sound for...video'). If the MiniDisc recorder will be used only for transferring the field audio cassettes to magnetic film and if the mag film recorder (see 'What is a magnetic film recorder') is also referenced to crystal, there is usually no problem. However, if you are having your film transferred to video on a Rank scanner, the film will be transfered at 23.976fps (not 24fps). Your MiniDisc source material will now be running faster than your picture track! After just a couple of minutes the sync drift will be quite noticeable to the average viewer. If you will be editing your film project on a non-linear system, you can convert the data rate of the audio files after you inport them into the computer. A program like Goldwave for the PC will allow you to retard the speed of the audio 'wave' files downward by the necessary 1/10 of 1 percent (-.1%). Similar programs and utilities are available for the Mac/Avid system.
A. If the camera is crystal controlled there will be some form of sync indicator to inform you of an out-of-sync condition between the crystal system and the camera. Usually a lamp or an LED is provided on the back of the camera, the camera's motor or the crystal control unit. It is also possible to test the camera for proper sync speed using any of the various speed-check devices on the market. These units use their own crystal oscillator circuit to drive either a strobe light or a series of LED's that, when properly positioned or viewed through the viewfinder will clearly indicate whether the camera is running at 24fps.
Updated 8/01
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Review Date: October 2004
| Affordable 'personal' film scanner | |
| 2400x1600 maximum resolution (3.84 megapixels) | |
| SCSI or parallel port versions available | |
| Slides or negatives | |
| APS film transport available as option |
Overview
Olympus has both a long history in film-based photography and more recently, a very well-deserved reputation in digital photographic circles, based on the performance of their excellent line of point & shoot digital cameras. With the ES-10 film scanner, they bridge the two worlds, offering an attractive way for film-based photographers to join the digital revolution.
Scanners vs. Digital Cameras
This is the first review of a digital film scanner to appear on The Imaging Resource (although a number of others are scheduled for the near future). In light of this, it seems appropriate to spend just a little while talking about the pros and cons of the combination of a digital film scanner and film camera relative to those of purely digital cameras.
Image Quality:Advantage Scanner
As good as digital cameras are becoming, they are still a ways from catching up with film: As you'll see from our test scans, the under-$500 ES-10 figuratively blows the doors off even the best of the current generation of digital point & shoot cameras, in terms of color quality and (particularly) image resolution.
Exposure Flexibility:Advantage Scanner
With a film scanner, you're not restricted to whatever ISO speed your digital camera happens to have: With current film emulsions ranging in speed from ISO 25 to ISO 3200, there's no comparison in this category - film wins hands-down.
Versatility - have it both ways:Advantage Scanner
There's a lot to be said for always having film to go back to for large or high-quantity reprints. (It's hard to beat good old silver-halide paper for low cost when you have a lot of prints to crank out.)
Leverage your existing equipment:Advantage Scanner
Those of us with substantial investments in camera bodies, lenses, and accessories for our 35mm systems are reluctant to give up all that 'kit' just to go digital. A scanner lets us take advantage of all that equipment, not to mention the opportunity to revisit previously-taken shots and enjoy them in the digital darkroom.
Immediate Feedback:Advantage Digital Camera
Of course, not everything favors the film/scanner combination: There's no substitute for the ability of an LCD-equipped digital camera to give you instant feedback on what you've just photographed. The ability to immediately review and re-shoot if necessary is invaluable, not to mention the ability to immediately discard your mistakes!
Per-Shot Cost:Advantage Digital Camera(!)
When it comes to figuring your cost per shot, there's absolutely no contest: Other than amortizing the cost of the equipment, the cost of each additional shot with a digital camera is effectively zero. (Of course, this changes as soon as you print the images out.) We've made the observation before that an effective film cost of zero can have a very salutary effect on your photography. Nobody need ever see your mistakes, and they won't cost you a penny: Experiment and go wild!
The Basics
The ES-10 is a compactly-packaged desktop scanner. At 5.1 x 3.9 x 9.3 inches (13 x 10 x 23.6 cm) and approximately 3 pounds ( 1.3 kg), it should fit easily on even crowded desktops. Available with either a SCSI or parallel-port interface, the unit can be configured to work with either Mac or Windows-based systems. (For this review, we tested the SCSI-based scanner, attached to a Macintosh.) The maximum resolution of the ES-10 is specified at 1770 dpi, for an image size of 2400x1600 on 35mm film, or 1910x1090 on APS format. The unit ships equipped for 35mm scanning, but an optional adapter (Model A-10, for $199) can be purchased to scan film directly from APS cartridges.
Olympus markets the ES-10 as a '3.8 Megapixel' scanner, perhaps hoping to point out to people that this is much higher resolution than common digital cameras. In fact though, the 3.8 megapixel rating really understates the difference between the ES-10 and typical digital cameras: Digital cameras are generally rated based on the total number of pixels in their sensors, but the actual resolution is reduced by the 'striping' of the sensor array to derive the red, green, and blue color information. Film scanners generally move a sensor array across the film plane, effectively putting red, green, and blue sensors behind every pixel of the scanned image. Thus, you really need to almost triple the pixels of a film scanner to arrive at the equivalent rating for a digital camera. In the case of the ES-10, this is almost true: The ES-10 actually uses two sensors -- one striped with red and blue color filters, the other being exclusively devoted to the green channel. The result is that you effectively have about 2x as many pixels as in an equivalently-rated digital camera. (If the translation hold as stated, this would equate to a '7.6 megapixel' digital camera!) As you'll see from our test images, the resolution of the ES-10 far eclipses any of the current generation of digital point & shoot cameras.
Another parameter by which scanners are measured is their 'bit depth,' a measure of both the accuracy and total density range the scanner can recognize. (8 bits is good, and common, 10 bit is better, high-end units digitize to 12 bits per R,G,B channel.) The ES-10 digitizes to 8 bits per channel, but averages multiple samples per pixel to achieve noise performance claimed to be equivalent to that of a 10-bit/channel scanner.
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Film Handling
The ES-10 comes with two film holders, one for mounted 35mm slides, the other for loose strips of 35mm film, either positive or negative. The holders are made of tough plastic, with a heavy hinge that also acts as a handle for manipulating the loaded holders. The slide holder carries a single slide in a 2x2 inch mount, more or less rigidly oriented. (In other words, once the slide is inserted into the holder, there is little play from side to side or rotationally.) On the one hand, this is very good, as you don't want to spend a lot of time fussing with the slide holder to get the film aligned properly. On the other hand, slides are sometimes rotated slightly in their mounts, and you'd like to be able to compensate for this during scanning. We could manage a degree or two of rotation in the ES-10's holder, but not much more than that. The good news is that you'll never be off by more than that amount when you scan perfectly oriented slides. The bad news is you won't be able to compensate for more than this amount of rotation on poorly-mounted ones. (On balance, we favor the tight alignment of the ES-10 over a looser, less certain arrangement: We'll take our chances with the occasional skewed slide mount.)
We found the ES-10's negative holder quite functional, but a little awkward to use, particularly with curled negatives. The film is held in alignment by a combination of ridges and notches on the mating halves of the film holder, which hinges open like a clam shell. The male projections of the alignment guides alternate top and bottom with the female notches, with the opposite half of the clamshell assembly carrying a mirror-image pattern that mates when the holder is closed on the film. The assembly is quite precise, and holds the film in good alignment, provided that the film is both flat and at least two or three frames long. We don't view the length limitation as significant, since few people will be concerned with single frames of negative film, and those who are can pre-mount the frames in reusable slide mounts to use with the slide holder. Curled film presented much more of a problem: We found it fairly tricky to get film loaded and aligned, and the clamshell shut properly if the film was curled. While it perhaps would have made for a more delicate and easily broken film holder, we would have liked to have seen notches or other restraints into which the film strip could be inserted to hold it flat prior to closing the shell.
Despite our complaints about the difficulty of loading curled film though, we found that the negative holder did an excellent job of holding the film flat once it was properly inserted. (A truly critical requirement.)
We found moving between successive frames of negative strips very straightforward and accurate. Each of the six frame positions on the negative holder are identified by a separate section of the hinge that forms the backbone, marked with an indented circle at the center of the frame. Detents clearly announce the centering of each frame with a comfortable 'chunk'.
We didn't have the opportunity to evaluate the optional APS (Advanced Photo System) film transport, which not only eliminates any possibility of problems with curled film, but which also provides for rapid 'index' scans of an entire roll at a time. (The model A-10 APS adapter is a $199 option to the basic ES-10.)
System Interface and Included Software
The ES-10 comes in both SCSI or parallel-port versions, for both Macintosh or Windows environments. We tested the SCSI version for the Mac, although (based on a perusal of the manual) operation appears very similar on both platforms. On the Mac, the software interface is via either a standalone program (which saves files to PICT format), or a Photoshop acquire plug-in, giving you the full range of Photoshop's (or other compatible host program's) file format translation capabilities. The situation under Windows is similar, with a TWAIN driver substituting for the Photoshop plug-in. Also included in the package, for both Mac and Windows environments is Pictra Album, a presentation and image-sharing software package, InMedia's Slides & Sound Plus, a multimedia presentation package, and Adobe's PhotoDeluxe. (Cross-platform support is commendably excellent.)
On our Mac host system, we found system setup to be very simple and straightforward: A shipping lock screw needs to be removed from the bottom of the unit before scanning, the power and SCSI cables must be attached, and the software installed. All of this took well under five minutes, and we were happily scanning almost immediately. The ES-10 includes switches to both set the SCSI ID (with no arbitrary restrictions on allowed SCSI ID numbers, a sometimes overlooked necessity), and to enable or disable the internal SCSI termination. Another nice touch for existing SCSI chains is the provision of two connectors on the back panel, allowing the scanner to be inserted anywhere in the SCSI chain. (Some scanners provide only a single connector, forcing them to be the last device in the SCSI chain, a profound inconvenience in some situations.)
Operation and User Interface
Overview
Essentially all scanner operations are controlled from the main window of the ES-10's driver software, shown above. (The user interface is identical, whether within the dedicated software program, or the Photoshop plug-in.) Sub-windows provide for color and tone adjustment (more on this later), and the creation of an index scan if you are using the A-10 APS adapter. Focus mode is also initiated from this window, although the focusing operation itself is manual.
Focusing
Given the extraordinary resolution achieved by slide scanners, focusing is generally an important issue. (Although some units do employ 'focus free' optics.) In the case of the ES-10, focusing is achieved by clicking the focus button on the main control screen of the driver program, positioning a 'focus bar' in the preview image, and rotating a small thumbwheel on the left-hand side of the unit's top deck. Clicking the focus button puts the software into focus mode, and allows you to place a cursor on the preview scan indicating the portion of the image you want to use to focus the scanner optics. In focus mode, the scanning software continuously scans a single column of pixels across the width of the film, calculates the total pixel-to-pixel contrast difference (an excellent measure of 'sharpness'), and displays the result on a thermometer-type display on the right-hand side of the screen. As you adjust the focus knob on the scanner, the thermometer bar display will move back and forth, indicating focus accuracy on a relative scale: The further the thermometer bar moves to the right, the sharper the focus is. If you go too far with the focus knob, the bar will begin to recede, leaving behind a small red mark showing the position of its furthest advance. In practice, a little back & forth will result in a sharply focused image with 15-20 seconds of effort. (We also found the focus adjustment fairly forgiving, the results of a fairly quick approximation being nearly as good as those resulting from a minute or two of obsessive twiddling.) The ability to choose your own focus point on the film is a decided plus, as choosing a high-detail area results in both faster and better focus results than using one with less detail.
Exposure and Color Adjustment
The ES-10 provides controls for both overall 'exposure bias,' as well as tone-curve-based adjustments for highlights, shadows, and gamma (think of this last as a brightness control for the midtones), either on an overall basis, or for each color channel (red, green, and blue) independently. The controls predictably do what you would expect them to, with the exposure bias slider providing a fairly strong adjustment to overall scene brightness, and the curve controls offering more subtle tonal and color correction.
The tone curve adjustment panel is accessed by clicking the 'Color' button in the lower right-hand corner of the main control screen. This brings up the 'Color' window, shown here at right. Here, the Red, Green, and Blue buttons select which of the three channels will be adjusted by the controls, while the RGB button lets you move all three channels together. Generally, you'll use the RGB control first to set the overall tonal balance of the image, and then make any necessary color corrections using the individual color controls. The 'Monotone' button converts color images to gray-scale ones. (We didn't experiment with it, but the manual mentions that you can create 'sepia' and other toning effects by converting an image to monotone, and then adjusting the RGB controls to create the desired effect.)
As you make adjustments in the various color settings, the preview image is updated to reflect the changes you've made. This does a fairly decent job of giving you feedback as you work. For best results though, you need to click the 'Preview' button again to generate a fresh preview based on the new settings, particularly if major adjustments were made. If you want to get back to where you started, the 'Reset' button will set all controls back to their neutral positions.
We found the color adjustment controls of the ES-10 to be powerful enough to deal with typical color-correction needs, but would liked to have seen a few additional features to ease the workflow a bit. Highest on our wish-list would be some way to save the control settings to a file for later recall: When switching between different types of color negative film, some color adjustment is almost always necessary, and it would be nice to be able to recall prior settings. (The scanner software retains the previously selected control settings between sessions, but if you switch to slide film, you have to start over again when you go back to negatives.) We found we could work around this by using the arrow buttons to adjust the sliders, recording the number of mouse-clicks we adjusted each up or down, but this was more work than it needed to be. If most of your work involves a single type of film though, this won't be much of an issue.
Perhaps a more fundamental issue in the software's user interface is that we couldn't get numeric feedback on the effect of our adjustments without hopping back and forth between the Color panel and the main preview screen. The preview screen will display the RGB values of the pixel under your cursor, whenever you move the cursor over the preview image. This display doesn't update in a 'live' fashion as you make adjustments on the Color screen though, making it a trial and error process to adjust highlight and shadow values accurately, or to neutralize color casts. (Our personal preference for color adjustment controls are histogram displays of the sort provided in Photoshop's Adjust/Levels tool.) Of course, having just mentioned Photoshop parenthetically, many of our complaints about color adjustment can be overcome by using the ES-10 plug-in within Photoshop, and then making your final adjustments in Photoshop itself, rather than in the scanner software. (Photoshop also allows you to save color-correction adjustments to disk for later recall, eliminating that concern as well.)
Resolution/Scan Size
The ES-10 control software operates in either 'pixel' or 'resolution' modes. The screen shot included earlier shows the control layout for 'pixel' mode, in which you choose from a set of fixed pixel dimensions for your final scan. This was the mode we ran the scanner in almost exclusively, as we wanted to be know the exact pixel dimensions of the images we were scanning, for future comparisons. Most users will probably find the 'resolution' mode more convenient though.
In pixel mode, you specify the desired size and resolution of the final image, rather than the pixel dimensions. This corresponds to the way most users will probably work: For instance, once you've established that 240 dpi is the file resolution that works best with your 720 dpi printer, you can simply select 240 dpi for the output resolution, and then type in either the width or height of your desired image output size. The scanning software will automatically compute the pixel dimensions required, and set up the scanner accordingly. While we didn't play with this mode extensively (give that none of our work was specifically intended for print output), we found resolution mode very intuitive and useful even in our limited experimentation. Were we to use the scanner regularly for printed output, we suspect this would become our mode of choice.
Previewing, cropping, and rotating
The ES-10 provides a good-sized preview image to use as a reference for color adjustments, but does not allow you to zoom in or out on the image for fine adjustments. We also would liked to have seen a control in the interface for cropping images prior to the scan itself. This is really minor point, as it is easy enough to crop once the image is in the image-editing application (if you're using the plug-in or TWAIN interface), but it would still be nice to eliminate the separate step.
A nice touch in the ES-10's user interface is the presence of the 'Rotate' button. Each click of this button rotates the preview image another 90 degrees clockwise. This makes it easy to handle accidentally-inverted images, and prevents the natural inclination to twist your head while viewing 'portrait' images laid on their side. The orientation of the preview image is preserved in the final image file.
Scanning Speed
(NOTE: The times reported here are for the SCSI-interfaced Mac-based product. Scan times for an ES-10 connected to a Windows PC via a SCSI connection should be quite similar. The parallel-port version will undoubtedly operate slower, especially at higher resolutions where the slower transfer rate of the parallel port becomes an issue.)
One of the things we liked about the ES-10 was its speedy preview: The scanning head intelligently scans in whichever direction is appropriate, depending on where it was left after the previous operation. Previews of 35mm film took about 12 seconds once we clicked the 'Preview' button. Full-resolution (2400x1600) scans took 80 seconds, while half-resolution (1200x800) ones took about 66 seconds. Based on our current (6/98) knowledge, these scan times appear to be average to slightly faster than average for personal film scanners.
Supported Film Types
One of the things we've learned in playing with film scanners is just how strange color negative film is! Proper color-correction of color negatives during scanning turns out to be quite an art: Not only do you need to compensate for (substantial) variations between film types and brands, but the orange 'masking' can also vary in density with the underlying image content. Overall, it's far from straightforward to sort out the necessary color transforms when scanning color negatives.
The ES-10 (and most other scanners we've seen) deal with this in part by having custom color profiles for different film types. In the case of the ES-10, profiles are provided for the following manufacturers and film types.
Test Results
As always with Imaging Resource reviews, we encourage you to let your own eyes be the final judge: Look at the sample images, download them, print them out on your own printer, and decide for yourself how well the ES-10 would meet your requirements!
Overall, we were quite pleased with the output from the ES-10, especially when we compared it to the output of high-end digital point & shoot cameras. There's no question (at least for now) that the combination of film + scanner blows away even the best digital point & shoot cameras. Direct comparison with our digital camera tests is somewhat confounded by the fact that we simply have different test targets for the two sets of devices. Even allowing for this discrepancy though, it's not hard to see the superior image quality this scanner offers over the best of the digicams. (Before we're accused of ignoring the many advantages of digicams though, we hasten to point out that they do have multiple benefits of their own, including immediate feedback, a low 'hassle factor,' and faster turnaround.)
We found the ES-10 capable of producing beautiful scans, albeit after a little preparatory twiddling of the scan controls. If you commonly use a single type of film for most of your shooting, you should be able to arrive at a set of default settings that reduce frame-to-frame tweaking to a minimum. In exchange for your setup efforts, scans from the ES-10 carry tremendous amounts of detail, and excellent color.
The default settings for slide scans tend to produce rather dark images. We found that setting the 'Exposure Bias,' 'Shadow,' and 'Gamma' adjustments upward slightly produced good scans with excellent tonal gradation. We don't have a good translation between the grayscale on our Q60 test target and numeric density values, but believe that the maximum-density performance of the ES-10 will be adequate for the vast majority of users. (On the Ektachrome Q60 target, the ES-10 resolved density steps down to about step 20.) Once the basic exposure adjustments are made, the resulting images show excellent tonal gradation, color saturation, and color accuracy.
As mentioned above, color negative film is flat-out weird! We tried a variety of color films in the scanner, but standardized on Kodak Gold 100 for our 'official' test images. (We could spend the rest of our lives trying all the variations and permutations of film manufacturers, emulsion types, and film speeds.) The provided set of preconfigured color profiles for color negative films from Agfa, Fuji, Kodak, Konica, and 'Others' provide a broad range from which to select basic color profiles: Chances are, even if you aren't using one of these specific film types, you'll be able to get decent results by experimenting a bit to find the best match for your film.
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In the case of our primary tests, using Kodak Gold 100 film, we chose the 'Kodak Gold' color negative setting on the scanner software, and achieved good results overall. The Davebox target sample shows an overall yellowish cast that was typical of this combination (and which could doubtless have been removed through proper adjustment of the scanner software's Color controls). In practice, and particularly since we weren't doing large numbers of scans with the unit, we found that a simple 'Auto Levels' operation removed the color cast in one step. Colors were very bright, clean, and highly saturated.
We found the ES-10's resolution to be very good, particularly in contrast to images from the digital cameras we've tested to date. While the ES-10's maximum resolution is 'only' 1770 dpi, and Olympus sells it as a '3.84 Megapixel' scanner, the actual results were quite impressive. Look at the fine detail in the 'House' clip, where the pine needles are seen against the sky. Look too at the resolution target clips. We found it interesting that the resolution of the ES-10 was quite different in the vertical and horizontal axes. It appears that the scanner is doing some interpolation along the vertical axis, and less or none in the horizontal direction. Visual resolution on the WG-18 target scan was roughly 1000 line pairs/picture height in the vertical direction, and 1300 horizontally.
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See for Yourself!
Take a look at the test images from the ES-10, download them, print them out, see if the scanner meets your needs!
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Conclusion
The ES-10 appears to be an excellent scanner for personal use: With minor tweaking, it produces images with resolution and color quality significantly exceeding even moderately-expensive (up to ~$1,500) digital cameras. While the combination of film-plus-scanner obviously lacks some of the convenience of the fully digital approach, a personal film scanner like the ES-10 could be the best choice for those reluctant to give up the flexibility of film.
View the test images from the ES-10
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