Re: Flatbed scanners vs Pro Photo CDs
Re: Flatbed scanners vs Pro Photo CDs
- Subject: Re: Flatbed scanners vs Pro Photo CDs
- From: Jan Steinman <email@hidden>
- Date: Tue, 5 Dec 2000 12:51:11 -0800
You can digitize all the worthless bits you want -- they're still
worthless...
Why do you believe that the bits are worthless? ...the extra bits
definitely provide more editing headroom, and the dMax spec is
pretty honest rather than being wildly optimistic...
The "placebo effect" is a powerful effect indeed. If you think you
see something there, I'm not going to argue with you.
However, I am extremely skeptical that there is anything you can
harvest from a room-temperature CCD that justifies a 14-bit ADC.
Five-figure CCD scanners that actually produce 14 useable bits ALL
use cooled sensors, because the thermal signal-to-noise ratio from a
room-temperature high-density CCD sensor is only about 30-36
decibels -- about 10 to 12 bits worth. If you quantize to 14 bits,
your least significant two bits are just thermal noise.
But hey, don't take MY word for it, take the MARKET'S word for it!
Why in heck would anyone pay $29,000 for a Cezanne CCD 14-bit, active
cooled flatbed when they can have a $399 Epson! :-)
If you want more "editing headroom," simply use Photoshop's high-bit
mode on ANY image -- their stochastic bit-depth conversion (which
hides nasty quantization error noise) will add in the equivalent
amount of noise for you... :-)
Well, this has gotten religious, and I'm outa here. Failure to reply
to this thread should not be construed as agreement on my part.
--
: Jan Steinman <
mailto:email@hidden>
: Bytesmiths <
http://www.bytesmiths.com>