Digital ICE v FARE?

[John]

How do you rate these two different Infrared cleaning systems for
scanners? Which is best? Which is quickest? What do you recommend?

I'd be interested in the opinion of anyone with any of the Epson and
Canon flat bed scanners with this technology.

Also a lot of the Epson scanners state what the optical density of the
scanners are e.g. 3.2, 3.4, 4.0 etc Canon don't seem to state this on
their scanners. Does anyone know why or what their figures are?

I had been looking at the Canon Lide range vs the Perfection of Epson,
but couldn't find any info on this. I understand that optical density
is good if you have a few slides etc to scan? And that the higher the
better e.g. 4.0 is better than 3.2.

Also, does anyone know what technology HP use in their scanners for
Infrared cleaning? And how would you rate their scanners compared to
Canon and Epson for quality, speed etc?

cheers

John

 

[bmoag]

In practice the difference between FARE and ICE isn't great-I have Canon
scanners that use fare and others that use some form of ICE. You need to
clean negatives/transparencies prior to scanning. Either dust removal system
is extremely useful when applied properly.
The rated latitude of the scanner, reflected in the d number, is a
manufacturer's spec and may or may not have any relationship to reality.
This is true of film and flatbed scanners. In general the higher the number
the better.
I am partial to higher end scan Epson flat bed scanners for use with
negative and transparency materials. However a dedicated film scanner will
do better than all but the highest end flat bed scanners. That being said,
if you have never used a film scanner you will not know what you are
missing, and what you are missing may not be very significant for your
particular purposes.

 

[Terry]

How do you rate these two different Infrared cleaning systems for
scanners? Which is best? Which is quickest? What do you recommend?

I'd be interested in the opinion of anyone with any of the Epson and
Canon flat bed scanners with this technology.

Also a lot of the Epson scanners state what the optical density of the
scanners are e.g. 3.2, 3.4, 4.0 etc Canon don't seem to state this on
their scanners. Does anyone know why or what their figures are?

I had been looking at the Canon Lide range vs the Perfection of Epson,
but couldn't find any info on this. I understand that optical density
is good if you have a few slides etc to scan? And that the higher the
better e.g. 4.0 is better than 3.2.

Also, does anyone know what technology HP use in their scanners for
Infrared cleaning? And how would you rate their scanners compared to
Canon and Epson for quality, speed etc?

cheers

John

This site has reviews on the 4990 and the 9900F.
http://www.photo-i.co.uk/Menus/reviews_frame.htm
Click on scanners to get to the reviews.