At the end of the week before last I shared my first few black & white scans from my newly functioning Noritsu LS-1100. You can see them here. The next step was to share some thoughts about the process of getting the damned scanned up and running… Unfortunately I then went on to have a bit of a manic week. Actually, ‘bit’ and ‘manic’ aren’t really the words, it was totally chaotic!
We had a big photography shoot Monday through to Wednesday, then on Thursday a business exhibition where we had a stand, were taking the official photos and making a little video for a thing called TTLChats I’ve started with a mate. Then on Friday we were shooting a bunch of narrative/cutaway footage for a video we’re making for a company called BeerBods (if you like beer, check them out!).
I wouldn’t normally think to mention any of this stuff on here really, but for the fact that within all of that nonsense I still managed to find the time to run a roll of Portra 400 through the Noritsu LS-1100. The reason I’m telling you this is to emphasis a point a that I am going to touch on in my now very-nearly-finished post; that being, the Noritsu LS-1100 is one super efficient scanner!
This was probably one of the main, if not the main reason I bought this thing! It is very, very fast, and doesn’t need too much supervision. Even without any real experience of how to use it – in the middle of a ridiculously busy week – I still managed to extract files from it that were at very least good enough for me to run through Lightroom for a few final minor adjustments.
The best of it, I managed to scan the whole roll in not much more than about 20 minutes, total! That’s inclusive of all the time it took for me to tweak the scan setting, and for the scanner to kick them out at 4000 x 6000 in TIFF format. I literally did it whilst I was eating my lunch on Tuesday!
I’ll come back to all this in my next post. For now, I just want share a few images…
These were all taken with a Contax G2, a 90mm 2.8 Sonnar and Portra 400, processed by AG Photographic. They were then scanned using the Noritsu LS-1100 and Irfranview, and then run through Lightroom to correct for a few rookie mistakes.
This first few shots is of Brian Wilce (a cider making client) and his Unimog:
The light – especially its colour – is a bit horrible here, but it’s nice having the ability to scan in this way, with this much control over exposure.
Conversely, I really like the light in these.
This next shot feels like a particular success in terms of the light. I was able to expose and then scan it exactly how I saw it – I’m not saying that doesn’t happen when outsourcing scanning, but with light like this, it’s unusual in my experience to get it exactly as you saw it.
And I’m just happy with this little series of Connie!
I can’t begin to tell you how much it pleases me to feel like I have this amount of control over my process – not to mention how satisfying it is to feel like I am seeing some pretty good results without too much trouble. So far, very, very happy!
Cheers,
Hamish
Hamish, these shots (save for the ones where the light wasn’t perfect) are really beautifully rendered. Gorgeous, in fact. They seem to have more depth to them – although I’m not 100% sure that’s the right word. Congratulations. I think the Noritsu was a great acquisition.
Thanks Rob! I think some of the 3D look might be also down to the 90mm Sonnar. It’s warm contrasty tones, like the slightly warmer contrasty tones of my 50mm Sonnar do seem to gel well with the Noritsu!
Incidentally, and not in a weird way, I have been thinking of you lately. My next roll to go through the Scanner will be one I shot with my Hexar… I can’t quite put my finger on how I feel about that camera, but keep coming back to your love for it in my thought processes…
Never mind the scanner, that’s a Unimog! My favourite Mercedes even a knackered old one 🙂
Having said that, the scans look to be really good. Very clean with excellent tonal rendition. Looks like you made a good choice.
I’m very happy so far! Note the lens… shot a whole roll with the G2, and didn’t entirely dislike the process 😉
great colours! That lime green stone wall with that faded blue pavement in the first picture is stunning. That’s a film I haven’t used it yet.
Use it! Most people seem to go down the pastel/insipid colours road with it these days, but actually there’s so much more to it than that!
That’s awesome! Can’t wait to reading how you managed to get this thing up and running!
Hamish,
Just 20 minutes for a complete roll, wow! Can’t wait for your definitive post on your Noritsu.
Nice to see a view of Gas Street Basin. In the 1970’s this was a regular location for my walk arounds to try out new lenses or cameras, and much has changed since. It is now a yuppie paradise denoting nothing of its historical heritage, a far cry from way back then. Things change but in doing so it has lost all its character. Not even the decoratively painted narrow boats really compensate, IMO.
The colours are stunning! My old Plustek 8200i is more than capable for black and white film, especially taming HP5 pushed to three stops, but I can’t for the life of me make it work for color. High time for me to start my search for one of these Noritsus then…
The best place to start is the facebook group 🙂
Hamish, you have a Hexar AF as well? I have one and I’m considering selling it to fund a Contax G1 or G2… Not that I dislike the Hexar, it’s amazing! But I’ve loaned a G1 one for a while and that was absolutely divine!
The G2 is on loan… I must admit, I’m not the biggest fan…
I am warming to the Hexar I little, but I’m not entirely sold on it too if I’m honest….
I can see the attraction to both
Those are beautiful scans, Hamish. The colors and shadows are wonderful.
Thanks very much, Tom! Thanks for all your help getting this far!
Hey Hamish, I’m actually thinking of writing up a review to submit to 35mmc (if you interested) of my recently acquired Nikon 5000 ED scanner. I hope it will be useful to some of your readers, especially since recent reviews of this scanner are hard to come by.
I would be very interested to read that!! I’ll email you