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Benchmark for LS30

Nikon announces scanning times of as low as 20 seconds for their LS-30 Film scanner in full resolution but many users have experiences much longer times. (See the discussions on Nikon Technical Discussion Group)

I have done some timings myself on a P133 Machine (160MB RAM, Tekram DC390) running Linux 2.2.0.
Here are the results:

Software 24 bpp RGB at 2700 dpi 24 bpp RGB at 1350 dpi 32 bpp RGBI at 2700 dpi 32 bpp RGBI at 1350 dpi

Linux / xscanimage / sane 1.0.1 /coolscan 0.4.1 - no data transfer 25 sec. 25 sec 42 sec. 40 sec

Linux / xscanimage / sane 1.0.1 /coolscan 0.4.1 - including data transfer 50 sec. 30 sec 1:45 55 sec

Software 24 bpp RGB at 2700 dpi 24 bpp RGB at 1350 dpi 40 bpp RGBI at 2700 dpi 40 bpp RGBI at 1350 dpi

Win95 / Nikon Scan / TWAIN /incl. dust removal 2:15 35 sec 6:40 1:40

Win95 / Vuescan / scanning only / no saving / 80 MB buffer 25 sec 25 sec 48 sec 48 sec

My comments

The first line has been measured with a modified version of the coolscan backend, that takes the image data from the scanner and throws it away so there is no additional delay for the next read command. This is to measure the maximal performance of the scanner. The Vuescan performance is similar to this when selecting a huge scaninng buffer (80MB). It looks like the minimal scaning time that is possible at full resolution in RGB is 25 seconds, in 32 bpp RGBI is 42 seconds and in 40 bpp RGBI is 48 seconds.

The last two columns are scanning times for reading RGBI images (including the infrared channel). Under SANE and vuescan, only the scanning times are measured, not the actual dust removal. Under TWAIN the scanning and dust removal is measured together (as there is no option to seperate them).

The TWAIN driver sacrifices a lot of performance by mixing scanning and image processing tasks.

If you have done similar measurements please send me the results so we can see how machine dependent this is.

sane-devel@mostang.com / SANE mailing list

This page was last updated: June 29 1999

Software	24 bpp RGB at 2700 dpi	24 bpp RGB at 1350 dpi	32 bpp RGBI at 2700 dpi	32 bpp RGBI at 1350 dpi
Linux / xscanimage / sane 1.0.1 /coolscan 0.4.1 - no data transfer	25 sec.	25 sec	42 sec.	40 sec
Linux / xscanimage / sane 1.0.1 /coolscan 0.4.1 - including data transfer	50 sec.	30 sec	1:45	55 sec
Software	24 bpp RGB at 2700 dpi	24 bpp RGB at 1350 dpi	40 bpp RGBI at 2700 dpi	40 bpp RGBI at 1350 dpi
Win95 / Nikon Scan / TWAIN /incl. dust removal	2:15	35 sec	6:40	1:40
Win95 / Vuescan / scanning only / no saving / 80 MB buffer	25 sec	25 sec	48 sec	48 sec