LaserSoft Imaging

Targets are needless to say essential to the calibration process, yet finding one'sway, at least my own, among those offered is a bit of a jungle. I think I understand the difference between the two main categories of targets, with "individually measured" being more precise and thus more expensive. I am not quite sure about the other differences, thus my questions.

1. Transmissive and Reflective targets. For the two types of film to be scanned, with transmissive being for slides and positive and negative film. Positive film requires an additional step with NegaFix. Am I right?

2. Target formats are adapted to the format being scanned, let us say 35 mm targets fir slides or 10x15 targets for photos?

3. Kodak or Fuji can be used indifferently with other supports. It is said that Fuji quality is superior, although some people say it is best to use Kodak with Kodak support. Is all this right?

4. When calibrating a printer, although the procedure used in SF8 seems to be simple, I am not certain about the correct target to use. Reflective 10x15 OK? Does it matter?

5. What is a "Resolution Target" for?

Can someone help me understand this quagmire. Thank you.

Dear customer,

Transmissive targets are used for general slide calibration.
Reflective targets are used for reflective material.
The two scan modes require separate calibrations.

The size of the target is not relevant for the material being scanned.
The calibration process itself is a hardware calibration of the scanner.
Only Kodachrome film is special here because of it's blue color cast.

The Resolution target is used to determine the optimum scan resolution for your device.

kind regards,
Arne Ketelhohn.

Thank you Arne, this helps.

Because I have used both Kodachrome and Fuji slides, I should then purchases both targets. Right!

If the size of the target is not relevant, then why are there different sizes? Can you explain how these are used.

Now, I have another question relative to IT8 and printer calibration. My printer is an Epson Stylus Photo R800, but I discovered SF8 auto calibration does not support this printer. Have I missed something?
Cheers,

Paul Robberecht

Dear Paul,

That is correct for Kodachrome and Fuji you need two separate targets.

Larger targets have several advantages.
They are more resistant to scratches, are easier to handle and they cover a larger area of the scan plane (which means less influence by sensor noise).
Of cause a transparency target must fit in the transparency area of your scanner.
Some scanners offer a limited transparency width.

kind regards,
Arne Ketelhohn.