Why scanner calibration is not possible for Negative film?
The process of calibrating a scanner requires the use of a precision Target. Nobody produces Colour Negative Targets, because the orange mask on negatives varies so much with exposure that, even if someone did, they’d only work if your negatives were exposed the same way as the target. We use the HutchColor HCT target for creating ICC scanner profiles on high D max scanners. Designed for extremely demanding users, it has around twice as many patches as IT8.7/1 or 2 targets, a better sampling of dark colours and almost three times as many grey scale steps. These features, combined with the fact that each HCT target is individually measured, help it characterise a scanners performance more accurately, especially when the scanner has a high D Max.
