Why our Scanning Process is one the Best in the Entire World:

It is because we use BetterLight® scanners
which are champions among the large format,
camera mounted scanners.
Their portability gives them a tremendous edge
over stationary, room-sized scanners.

BetterLight® scanners' image-capture ranges from 216 to 416 megapixels.

Click here to go to the BetterLight® Web site and see more about this amazing scanning device.

BetterLight® Scanner
vs
Professional Digital Cameras

Imagine the difference in picture quality between a consumer grade 2 megapixel camera and an 8 megapixel camera. Quite a step up in quality even at the consumer level.

Now, think about the quality you would get if you had your art digitized with a 216 megapixel camera-mounted scanner. That is 10 times the quality that some studio digital cameras provide! The Super 6K-HS™ is engineered to create file sizes as large as 618 MB with the ability to scan an area of about 4 ft by 6 ft at 200 dpi.

Yet a digital image's quality is derived from more than just a massive number of pixels. It is the technology in how those pixels are used that sets the BetterLight® system apart from digital studio cameras...

BetterLight® scanners are superior.
They Do Not Average a community of neighboring pixels
as Standard Studio Digital Cameras must do.


BetterLight® scanners are designed so that each pixel reports its own pure color --unlike digital studio cameras that must average adjacent groups of pixels to derive a color.


And, because BetterLight® pixels maintain their own identity, they also retain their individual sharpness.


Studio cameras that "average" a community of pixels leave fuzzy spots which are seen as an overall softness when compared to the Betterlight® images which remain tack-sharp under the same magnification.

Click Here for more really neat technical Info.
(warning: Geek Alert)

BetterLight® Scanner
vs
Professional FILM Cameras

Film cameras that are less than 8x10 can not match the clarity that a BetterLight® scanner can achieve. Below is an example...

The Picture to the left is an image of rice paper which was scanned using a BetterLight® scanner.





The picture at the left is an image of the same rice paper taken with a professional 4x5 film camera using fine grain film.
The lens, distance, and other factors are equal to the image captured by the scanner.

What makes the difference?

Ans: The pixels of the BetterLight's tri-linear sensor are smaller than film grain.
Film grain record clumps of light, while the BetterLight® scanner reports pixel-size data.
The same type of fuzziness occurs from studio digital cameras because their bayer pattern technology requires neighboring pixels to be clumped together.



In addition to that,

Film has a built-in color bias

that approximates the lighting conditions

that will be used.

Film has an intentional color bias that affects its ability to accurately reproduce the original colors of your art.

How the film was stored, and the age of the unexposed film also affects its color accuracy.

An additional factor affecting the colors that appear on the film are the post-exposure development processes. And, although film types have defined manufacturing tolerances, each batch does vary slightly.


Yet, color modifications do not stop there: Once developed, the film must be scanned and that process introduces another imperfect color interpretation. The drum scanner is not the problem: again, it is the film—the film does not exactly match the scanner's color profile for that type of film. (It is very possible that the scanner's color profile is based on a piece of film that was manufactured a year or two before.) So, the scanner's color profile is built on the expected color bias that is usually present within that type of film. That color profile is what determines the colors that make up the digital file; and, if the profile does not match the film, then the colors will not be correct.

So with film (and transparencies) the color of your original art is modified during various steps before it becomes digital (i.e., before the computer can read it).

With a BetterLight® scanner, the colors become digital in one step. This ensures that the myriad of colors found within your original are more faithfully interpreted.

We use a NorthLight® HID Lighting System

Legacy Fine Art Printers combines the BetterLight® scanner
 with the NorthLight® HID lighting system. This enables us to deliver some of the finest art imaging possible.


The color index of this system is about 95 CRI, meaning that the colors in your art will be interpreted more faithfully.

But impressive image capture does not stop there....

We use world class camera lenses

RODENSTOCK LENSES

In addition to using some of the best lights and scanners, we also employ some of the finest lenses in the world: Rodenstock® APO-Sironar-S™ lenses. These incredible lenses provide superb contrast and faithful color interpretations of your art. The huge image circle provided by these type of lenses allows the captured image to sit comfortably within the prime choice of the image circle.