Scanlight v4 — the full calibration, as a template for posting yours

Rigs

m1entus Staff #1

This is the only rig the app has a measured calibration for, and it is what every frame on the marketing site was shot on. I am posting it in full so there is a shape to copy when you post yours.

#The rig

Part What it is
Light Scanlight v4 — three narrow bands
Wavelengths 665 nm · 525 nm · 450 nm
Identifier in the app scanlight-v4
Frames per exposure set three, one under each diode
Empty gate three more, one under each diode

The three bands are the whole point. Photograph a negative on a white light table and the camera measures it through its own red, green and blue filters — and those are wide, and they overlap. The red channel sees some of what the magenta dye is doing. Light the negative with one narrow band instead and almost the only thing modulating it is one dye layer.

#What "calibrated" means here

It means the app knows how this particular light lands, so a density read under it means what it says. On a different light source the colour will land somewhere else, and I cannot tell you where until I have seen it. That is not modesty — it is the honest state of the table: there is one entry in it.

#Posting yours

Say these, and I can work out the rest with you:

  1. The light — make and model, or the LEDs if you built it. Peak wavelengths if you know them.
  2. The camera — body and lens, and whether you shoot RAW.
  3. The stand — how the film is held flat, how you trigger.
  4. A frame — ideally with the rebate visible, plus the three shots of your empty gate.

Tip

The empty-gate shots matter more than the picture. They are what turns a reading into a density; without them there is nothing to measure your light against.

The measurement is not a favour I do once. It becomes an entry in the app, ships in the next build, and then anybody with that light gets it for free.

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