PS vs digital ice

[DBN]

Hello everyone,

I'm new ere...
I just upgraded to PSCS...

I have kidnapped my grandmothers Old Old photos...
in hopes of restoring them.. most are cracked and damaged in various ways...

I do have Katerin Eisman (sp?) book...


my question is :
has anyone used one of the flatbed scanners w/ digital ice?

if so is it that good?

would it be better to spend the time to hand retouch each
(also factor in a while to learn how..smile) or get the DI scanner.

Any advice is appreciated..

Dan in Japan

[Vikki]

I haven't had any personal experience with Digital Ice, but I have some thoughts on it. (I've read a few reviews, and seen a few pictures too.)
I think it would not be a replacement, but rather an aide for restoration work. If I were using it, I would scan with the Digital Ice turned on, and then again with it off. I would then layer the two and use layer masks to work with the two. I can see DI being used like a dust & scratches filter.
If DI works like the other plugins offered, I wouldn't set my expectations too high. I wasn't all that impressed and they only work some images.
Having said all that, I would still probably buy a scanner with that feature. If it only worked on part of the image, that would be less work I'd have to do.
Vikki

[larryf]

Digital ICE is actually pretty neat technology. I do not own a flatbed, but my Nikon Coolscan does come with Digital ICE3 (cube).

I have scanned some bad scratched negatives, and it turns out good. Unlike the Dust and Scratch filter in PS, Digital Ice does not soften the image. In fact, when I compare my scans with and without Digital ICE applied, the difference is hardly visible.

However, Digital ICE DOES NOT work with black-and-white negatives. I do know why, but I can always shoot and and convert my image to b&w in PS.

[Leah]

I haven't used Digital Ice on a flatbed scanner, but on my film scanner it works marvels - small specks of dust, hairs, etc. gone with no appreciable effect on the rest of the image (e.g. softness, etc.) even if you zoom right in. I have no idea how they do that. I would recommend a DI scanner to anyone.

BUT if the flatbed works anything like the film scanner DI won't take care of the level of damage you're talking about - or at least, if it has a setting on which it will then you're likely to start losing image detail. So you're going to have to learn some restoration the hard way .

[DBN]

Thanks for all your valuable ideas and opinions...

Daniel

P.S. Think I'm going to get a flatbed w/ DI.. I can use all the help I can get...LOL

[Jim Collins]

Digital ice works great with color negative film and slides. I use it fairly extensively with the Nikon Coolscan 4000.

I also have digital ice on the scanmaker 6800. It is a flat bed scanner and the digital ice is for prints only. You get mixed results using it. It can help repair some scratches and really minor tears. I even use it to help remove patterns or textures on the print paper. Overall, if you expect similar results as to what your would get with a film scanner, you will be disappointed. Having said that, I still tend to use it, as it helps reduce some of the retouch up work that I need to do on certain prints.

Jim