Film Friday: Large format scans from Markus Hofstätter’s ultra-large format scanner rebuild: Digital Photography Review

Left: A crop of the first scan Hofstätter made with his large format scanner. Right: Aforementioned scanner taking up the entire back of his hatchback.

Last week, we shared the first part of a two part series wherein large format photographer Markus Hofstätter shared how he revived a 73kg (160lb) ultra-large format flatbed scanner over the course of three months so he could scan his large-format photographs with the highest detail possible. This week, for part two, we’re sharing the results of his scanner.

After three months of painstaking revival, Hofstätter finally got his Screen Cézanne EFT-S5500 scanner up and running. With all of the hardware and software in place, the next step was to start scanning.

For his first, Hofstätter scanned a 30cm x 40cm collodion wet plate shot on an ultra large format camera with a Voigtlander Heliar Universal 360mm F4.5 lens. As you can see from the shot below, the scan turned out wonderful, with ridiculous levels of detail, particularly around the eyes.

A 30cm x 40cm collodion wet plate photograph scanned with the 73kg (160lb) ultra-large format flatbed scanner. Click to enlarge.

Hofstätter notes there is a bit of a science to ensure the large reflective scans don’t catch light bleeding form the scanner, but aside from a bit of precautionary measures, Hofstätter says there’s ‘not much need of any post-processing,’ which will hopefully make up for the three months he spent building this behemouth.

Below are a collection of large format photographs scanned by Hofstätter on his new scanner:

You can read Hofstätter’s full blog post and see more behind-the-scenes photographs on his website.