Scanner vs. Camera
Introduction
When it comes to digitizing a whole roll of film, camera scanning has a clear speed advantage over using a traditional film scanner. Nevertheless, after getting a high-end Plustek OpticFilm 120 scanner, I pretty much stopped camera scanning. Shooting more film lately and longing for shorter digitization times, I reopened my new digital darkroom with the Olympus OM-D M1II.
In order to decide whether it is time to sell my Plustek 120 or not, I decided to do an image quality comparison!
The Contestants
Image quality wise, the Plustek 120 is one of the best scanners currently on the market. It is able to digitize 35mm and medium format film while resolving unbelievable levels of detail. For exhibitions I scanned medium format film with this scanner and some of the images where printed 3x4m with astounding quality.
The Olympus OM-D M1II is a high-end digital flagship camera offering features which make it perfect for camera scanning. With its High Res mode, it shoots multiple images capturing an 80mpx RAW-file with full colour information.
Paired with the superb Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 60mm f/2.8 Macro, you get one of the best camera scanning setups money can buy.
The Test Negative
In order to compare the two scanners, I used a test negative that I shot for a different purpose on 35mm Ilford Delta 400. The negative was quite dirty and scratched up, which offers some pretty interesting insights as you’ll see below.
Comparing “Best Possible” Image Quality
Not taking scanning time into account, this test compares the optimum quality one can get out of the two contestants.
Plustek 120 Settings
Set to the maximum resolution of 10.600 dpi (resulting in a 143mpx file)
Multiple Exposure turned for maximum dynamic range
Olympus OM-D M1II Settings
Adjusted to capture a HighRes shot (resulting in a 60mpx file after cropping)
Exposure adjusted to minimize noise levels
Digital Processing
It was necessary to adjust tonality and to sharpen both images on the grain level to enable a meaningful comparison.
The reference image shows the approximate locations of the crops.
As the resolution differs, the Olympus images where upscaled in Affinity photo to match the Plustek files.
Images
Camera
Scanner
Camera
Scanner
Evaluating the Results
Regarding resolution and sharpness, the Plustek 120 has a slight edge over the Olympus OM-D. The grain is resolved a little bit better. It is difficult to decide whether this is a relevant difference or not, as I feel like that the OM-D is already resolving 99% of all the information available.
Regarding dynamic range, I can’t spot a difference, even when playing with the levels slider.
It is interesting though that the Plustek 120 digitizes more scratches and fine dust than the Olympus OM-D. I think this is because the OM-D “scans” only the emulsion side of the film, while the Plustek 120 seems to capture information from the non-emulsion side as well.
Comparing Relevant Image Quality
My assumption is that 12mpx is more than enough for 99% of all photographic applications. It is the resolution at wich I usually deliver my images to clients. So I decided to compare three different scans downscaled to 12mpx:
Plustek 120 scan @10600 dpi
Olympus OM-D High Res scan (~60mpx after cropping)
Olympus OM-D Standard Res scan (~20mpx)
Images
Plustek 120 @10600dpi
Olympus Standard Resolution
Olympus High Resolution
Evaluating the Results
At 12mpx, there is no difference in resolution or sharpness visible.
The slight difference in contrast and tonality is because I did not adjust the examples to exactly match each other.
And the Winner Is?
The Plustek 120 is a dedicated high-end film scanner, and in terms of pure image quality, it is therefore no surprise that it delivers slightly better results than any camera scanning setup.
We have to take into consideration though, that only high-end scanners starting around 1.800 € can deliver the same versatility regarding input format as a camera scanning setup while at the same time offering (slightly) better image quality.
The Olympus OM-D delivers very competitive results, and I’m convinced that 99% of people won’t notice the difference even when pixel peeping. Camera scanning is considerably faster though especially when batch scanning a roll of film - it can be done in around 5 minutes (without post processing).
Nonetheless, I will keep my Plustek 120 for now and see how satisfied I am with camera scanning process in the long run.
