Drum scanning is a messy business -- but it's worth it.
In this picture you can see what the mounting station looks like.
Original transparencies and negatives are coated with a light oil or gel and held flat against the drum surface by a sheet of clear scanning foil. Our skilled operators can get up to 42 35mm transparencies mounted on each drum.
The foil is then firmly taped around the edges to ensure that no oil escapes into the scanner mechanism when the drum is rotating at speeds of up to 1800 rpm.
So why do we bother with this messy process?
1. The resulting scans are cleaner – as the oil is squeezed over the surfaces of the transparency/negative dust and debris is removed along with the excess oil.
2. Imperfections on the surface of the originals are filled in with oil and become less noticeable because this reduces the the amount of light refraction as they pass through the scanner optics.
3. Reducing the amount of refraction as light passes through the transparency or negative also means that we get more contrast and greater detail in the scan. The small size of the drum scanner's light source also ensures that flare from light or clear areas of the original image is kept to a minimum.
4. The image is held completely flat against the drum surface so there is no distortion, no focus problems and there are no Newton's Rings.
These are important points which differentiate professional drum scanning from amateur CCD scans and/or dry/glassless mounting techniques.
If you want more information about our drum scanning services don't waste time searching around the web site, call us on 020 7739 5554. We'd love to talk to you about your scanning project.
