July 22, 2004
New scanner - Epson 4870
This is a full 6x6 cm negative scanned on the Epson 4870 scanner I bought a couple of days ago. I think that I made the scan a little dark, I'm going to play a little and see how it works out.
The subject is an Atomic espresso machine, I think circa 1950's. This is one that a housemate from my warehouse days owned. I've since rescued one for myself from a second hand shop. I think it's the most beautiful coffee maker I've ever come across - and the coffee is pretty good for a stovetop too. It's sitting on a cupboard in the kitchen of the warehouse I was living in at the time, lit from a window. The image was shot on a Hasselblad, with the standard 80mm lens.
I also purchased an Epson R800 inkjet printer - and I'm absolutely impressed with it. The images are hard to pick from a photo print, only a slight 'thinness' in the midtones - but this might just be my inexperience. They're certainly a hell of a lot better than the first darkroom prints I made, with a darn sight less mess and inconvenience. I'd still prefer to use a darkroom, since nothing beats the sight of a beautiful print fresh from the tray - but my transient lifestyle has ruled that out for years. Thankfully the Epson is a very acceptable alternative, even the matte prints are great - and the results from a scanned 4x5 transparency are stunning.
Posted by david at July 22, 2004 11:49 PMI Purchased the R800 4 weeks ago, most impressed with print quality, also able to buy ink cartridges at a little over $15 each which is a bonus. On scanners, I have been using a canon 2400 for a few years & recently puchased the 9900F...finally it works great, after the first 3 were found to have the same "prescan" fault, a crook batch so I was told.
Posted by: Bruce Povey at July 28, 2004 04:04 PMi LOVE those coffee machines.
Anyway, I am currently in the throes of cediding what kind of scanner to buy. I mostly shoort MF film, has the 4870 been up to the task in your opinion?
Posted by: hamish at October 26, 2004 05:06 PM