The Scanhancer 5LE: a hands-on review

The Scanhancer 5LE is a device developed by Erik de Goederen from Holland, and is intended for use with the Dimage Scan Multi Pro scanner from Minolta. Detailed technical and order information is available online at the website http://www.scanhancer.com/.

The genesis of this device must be related to a dissatisfaction of many Multi Pro users, especially those mainly working with negative film, who complained about the scanner being very sensitive to grain and dust. Actually, the Multi Pro is very sharp by design, which may lead to a harsh rendering of gradients and film grain.

The idea behind the development of the Scanhancer is to insert a diffusing material between the scanner lamp and the transparency being scanned, with the intent of "smoothing out" the illumination.

I bet many Multi Pro users had wondered about a way to overcome this behaviour of the scanner. but only Erik was bold and patient enough to believe in the diffuser idea, experiment materials and verify the results. The details about the early developments can be found in the message archive of the Multi Pro User Group at Yahoo.

Several prototypes were prepared an tested with the support of "volunteer beta testers" from the User Group, and the 5LE version eventually received the approval for distribution to the Multi Pro user community. Testing of different materials is still continuing in the mean time, and Erik is trying to obtain a new version of the scanhancer specifically suited for Black and White film.

The Scanhancer 5LE is basically a plastic sheet with an opal appearance. It is available in pre-cut measures to fit the standard Multi Pro holders in the following sizes:

 - medium format (6x9cm)

 - 35mm single frame

 - 35mm mounted slide

 - 35mm 5-frame (needs modification of holder)

Considering its hand craft, the scanhancer is very well manufactured and fits perfectly on the Minolta holders.

To put it into operation, you just need to lay it on top of the film holder. The only operating issue to keep in view when using the scanhancer is that it partly absorbs light. To compensate for this, you will need to increase the exposure accordingly. Fortunately, this can be easily accomplished with Minolta's latest sw driver of the Multi Pro, version 1.0.2.

Test - negative film

Version 1.0.2 of the Multi Pro driver was a great step ahead as long as grain and gradients rendering are concerned (see my test here). Despite some bugs and limitation on the handling of the dynamic range, it provides acceptable results with negative film, especially in comparison with what other scanners can offer.

I was therefore quite curious to know if the Scanhancer could do still better. The picture below shows a comparison of a Kodak VPS negative scanned at 3200dpi, glass holder, dICE on, with and without Scanhancer. No sharpening applied.

The images speak for themselves: there is no match. The Scanhancer scan wins under every aspect: grain, gradients, detail. A fantastic result.

The results may vary according to the specific film you are using. The benefits of the Scanhancer are however always present to some extent. The example below illustrates a Kodak vph-2 negative rather underexposed and therefore difficult to scan.

The differences here are a little more subtle. However, the Scanhancer scan is still clearly better.

Scanhancer and slide film

Multi Pro users are generally satisfied of how the scanner handles slide film, except for the well known pepper grain issue of Fuji films, and some graininess of Kodachrome.

However the Scanhancer is there by now, so let us see how it fares with slide film.

The following photo was taken on Fuji Provia 100, MF, 50mm lens, and illustrates the Geant / Rochefort range of Monte Bianco / Mont Blanc, on the borderline between Italy and France.

I scanned the slide at 3200dpi, 4x multisampling, dICE on, glass holder, with and without Scanhancer (see detail below).

Again, there is no match and the winner is... the Scanhancer. This is honestly more than I expected by this small piece of transparent plastic. The grain almost dissolved, but what is most surprising, all dICE artifacts have disappeared!! A great result.

Another detail in the Rochefort ridge / sky area:

Again, all edges are rendered smoother and without any artifacts with the Scanhancer, while all detail is retained.

Results may vary depending on the specific slide film being used. Also the type of subject may reveal more or less improvement. However, according to my experience, using the Scanhancer provides results which are always at least equal or better.

Scanhancer and Kodachrome

The details below belong to a Kodachrome 64 slide, scanned with the 35mm mounted slide holder, at 4800dpi. Different combinations with / without scanhancer and dICE are presented.

It is usually not recommended to use dICE on Kodachrome. With the Scanhancer, however, no artifacts are produced, so I would say that it is worth trying dICE even on your Kodachromes.

The advantages of the Scanhancer become more evident in uniform, light areas of the image, where grain is greatly reduced and gradients get smoother. A very good result in my opinion.

The dark side

Does the Scanhancer have any weak points? Unfortunately, as anything else on this Earth, the answer is... yes. Well, actually, these weak points are not at all related to the Scanhancer itself, but rather to the fact that the Multi Pro scanner was NOT originally designed to work with the Scanhancer. I think Erik made almost a miracle to achieve the results illustrated above, including some very good ergonomics, with a development which was made completely independently from Minolta.

Issue n.1 - uneven illumination.

The Multi Pro comes with a calibration mechanism to take into account minor CCD element sensitivity differences and lamp illumination. It is always advisable to allow the scanner to warm up for at least 15-20 minutes, so that lamp illumination becomes more stable and even. This is true of any CCD scanner, however.

Inserting the Scanhancer in place brings a new variable in the equation, but unfortunately the Multi Pro cannot be calibrated with the Scanhancer in place. This can cause some slight differences in the illumination of the transparency being scanned. At the moment, there is no final solution to this issue, although a good warm-up is usually a good cure to the problem.

Issue n.2 - banding in very dark areas

As already said, the Scanhancer absorbs some light, so it is necessary to compensate for that by increasing exposure. This pushes the CCD envelope when you deal with very dense slides (no problem with negatives, which are inherently less dense). In this case, some banding can appear. The picture below is a scan of a Provia 100F slide, 35mm format, with some very dense areas. Not only they are dense, but I also wanted to "bring them up", to show more detail in the shadows, a situation that really pushed things on the tough side.

The details below illustrate scans made at 4800dpi, dICE on, 4x multisampling, with and without Scanhancer.

The Scanhancer scan shows less grain but some banding as well. The exposure sliders were all the way to the right (Master +2, RGB +2), while in the other scan it was sufficient to have the master set to +2 and RGB to 0. We are really approaching the limits of the Multi Pro / Scanhancer combination.

16x multi-sampling improves things as usual (see detail below), although some slight banding remains.

The final solution to this issue would be a more powerful / adjustable lamp, but this is obviously out of question, unless Minolta makes some design changes to the scanner. UPDATE : a possible solution to this problem was devised by Giorgio Trucco (www.giorgiotrucco.com), basically focused on increasing the voltage of the lamp power supply from 18V to 24V. The amount of light passing through the transparency increases, scanning times decrease, as does banding in dark areas. At present, however, I am not in a position to give any other details on this solution.

A possible (although time-consuming) workaround is to make two scans: one aimed at getting the highlights and midtones (with the Scanhancer) and another scan with increased exposure for the darkest areas (without the Scanhancer) and then combining them.

I have to make clear once again, however, that this problem only becomes visible with extremely dark areas that need to be brightened up. I bet many users will never even notice the issue.

Conclusions

The Scanhancer provides some remarkable improvements which far outweight the few and obvious limitations of a design made independently from Minolta. In short : if you own a Multi Pro scanner, the scanhancer is a must-have. Get it. It will make a very good scanner even better.