film scanner

Definition: Scanner for digitising photographic film i.e. designed for transmission originals. * Consists of light-source and array of photo-detectors focused onto the film stage which lies between the light-source and the detectors: the film is scanned either by moving the film over the array or by moving the array. Differences in light and colour are registered by the array and converted into digital data which are sent to a computer to be used.
Photographer's secret weapon
The film-scanner of the 1990s was the biggest transformation in conventional photography since the invention of colour film: with comparatively modest outlay any photographer with a computer can produce reproduction-quality scans at home, in comfort and no further outlay. It turned the publishing industry on its head, together with the Apple computer and PostScript printers, fully democratising pre-press for the first time in its four hundred year history.

Previous Term: film recorder  Next Term: F-line