Battle of Our $60,000 Film Scanner Setup: Frontier vs. Noritsu

[@robdixon5016]

Ran SP3000 and installed dozens of them. Great stuff

[@ThePhotoDept]

this video rules.

[@bebox7]

Great to finally see someone showing the difference in changing the density. I see so many comments from people disappointed with their scans and blaming the camera where it is really just the laziness of the lab not to quickly bump the density by a couple of taps especially with flash or underexposed shots. The Frontier will default to a middle ground of trying to balance the whole scene which works for some shots in broad daylight but not for others.

[@edshotsdotcodotuk]

On the Fuji you can press “pressure” to have the machine hold the 120 film in place. Surprising how this essential button has been missed by many through the sands of time 😊 I work at Brighton Film Lab aka Colourstream and we still use an Agfa dlab for our main bulk work. It’s still one of the fastest machines around just limited by file size on the scans hence why we have the Fuji too. I’m usually putting in 3-5 density in on Fuji 35mm scans as it results in far cleaner shadows if anyone wants to brighten the image. The Agfa has rich and more balanced exposures just odd colour casts on some films.

[@mr.negative_film_store]

lol “where are my film scans”, the most common question at labs across the world 😂

[@alexrobinson7090]

Great video! I worked with a bunch of different Frontiers over the years and it's really cool to see the difference between them and the Notitsus. When you're working through dozens and dozens of films you get really fast at using the density and colour keyboard and in switching the hard/soft highlight and shadow settings etc. I feel like the quality of film photography I see shard nowadays isn't as good as what we saw in the past and I think a large part of this is there aren't enough skilled lab operators like you guys who know how to drive these machines properly.

[@jamesjuranke]

So good! Thanks for the share and good to see you guys doing more content on KZbin, keep it up :)

[@marcel.5494]

These guys have seen everything 😂

[@austinfassino]

you have no idea...

[@ivanfenenko]

Amzing video!

[@Anthony-fz9ye]

Any recommendation on which machine is better when scanning Aerocolor IV/Santacolor? I’ve got about three rolls scanned at various places, the first time the colors were gorgeous and natural. The other couple of times the colors came out terribly red and I couldn’t get nice balanced colors no matter how hard I tried in Photoshop. Thanks.

[@rammoh]

Full lab tour next please

[@CharlesLoukas]

I am in the UK a local mini lab used an Agfa mini lab it produces great prints was scanner Agfa ? I presume so do you have one ?

[@HubertPoliquin-r6x]

I was wondering, what type of computer monitor do you use at the lab ? Is it 4k monitors ? And with what do you print 4x6 print ? I think i saw a fuji dx100 printer ?

[@GeorgeChipo]

Very useful and interesting video. Have been considering switching to Noritsu from Frontier in recent years, but still can't tell if Noritsu gives a bit more shadow detail on a cheaper film, like Kodak Gold. Also, that magenta factor is not really for me, since the colors that Frontier gives have become an inseparable part of my work in the last 15 years.

[@jaimeduncan6167]

My personal opinion, if you do a lot of color, stay with the Frontier. The way one can adjust the color to get very good colors is just amazing. Also I believe you are probably very good with the Frontier, it's intuitive it becomes second nature. On the other hand, if you have a lab that gest lots of B&W film or you are mostly a B&W shooter the Noritsu sounds like a great update. All the extra controls of the Noritsu are good, but normally we do it after the scan in the computer.

[@Moiguay]

Amazing show guys! I have a lab to lab question here. How did you manage to get 5 minutes for XL scans on noritsu? We also have the HS1800 but it takes twice as long. The “scan” maybe is 7 min, but the writing of the files themselves take maybe 3 more minutes. What are your controller PC specs?

[@jaimeduncan6167]

A complete video about the Frontier to show what it can do: kzbin.info/www/bejne/qGjZgKh3p6mhrrc it's just amazing if you are willing to work with it and not do a preset, as the lab basically have to do due to volume. Even so I agree that the B&W of the Noritsu is better to my taste.

[@chriscard6544]

I prefer the frontier output in color

[@jonaskuck8892]

❤️

[@mikulasroubicek4642]

the B&W comparison was unfair, inconsistent and not done apples to apples. SP-3000 is very capable of doing exceptional B&W scans, if you take the time to get the most out of each frame and are familiar with the look/curves of individual film stocks. the first two B&W Frontier scans here were kind of scanned for the highlights, to the detriment of overall tonality (crushed blacks and skintones were off), could have easily gone a stop lighter with the density and perhaps do Highlight Soft. the third frame was a step too bright. nobody ever mentions that the Frontier has pretty usable contrast curve presets available both during scanning and in MS01, not to mention you can actually quickly do color/density tweaks (and more) in MS01 and thus export scans that require next to no editing, if the image was exposed correctly (and shot in decent light).

[@lachlanlau]

oo ibm model m keyboard

[@tassadar1977]

That felt mat needs a clean. Really triggers me lol

[@GS-vb3zn]

And what’s crazy is that my DSLR beats them both.

[@SebastianBinderberger]

If you got plenty of time to tweak one roll maybe but not in a commercial enviroment :)

[@jerrylee188]

but it costs you time to set up, remove dust, not to mention the editing time, so pros and cons!

[@budsurtees4224]

Taking an image of an image instead of directly scanning it is better? Nah. You just won't get the resolution, bit depth and optical density of a scanner with a camera. And then there's the problem of pixel jitter if your environment is anything but completely still.

[@counterscam6547]

@@budsurtees4224 but the scanners are also just taking a picture of the film with a camera. If you look at the diagram at 1:19, it just resembles a DSLR scanning setup with a digital sensor, lens, and lightbox.