Digital Transitions sent me their latest 4×5 Nexus Transmissive Profiling and Verification targets to evaluate, and I believe they solve many long-standing challenges with profiling transmissive processes. Instead of being exposed to photographic emulsion like previous IT8 targets, these targets are made with spectrally diverse colorants. The resulting color gamut of the targets is quite large and dynamic, allowing a much more complete characterization of the capture process. Perhaps more importantly, the end result is camera/lighting-specific and unlike legacy IT8 targets, is agnostic to film emulsion.
As we all know, scanning is finally breathing its last breath with 100+ megapixel camera capture quickly taking its place. Capturing film with a high-end camera system, instead of scanning it, has become the norm for its quality, speed, and the joyful flexibility of working with a Camera RAW file instead of a scanned TIFF. While we’ve had the ability to create custom profiles for reflective photography and run reports certifying FADGI pass/fail results, the results have been disappointing for transmissive photography until now. The results of profiling with the DT Nexus Transmissive target are immediately apparent visually with natural saturated colors, clean shadows, and, most significantly, deep saturated colors like purple, mahogany, and dark chocolate. The results now pass FADGI 3 star and even FADGI 4 star when fine exposure controls are present.
The DT Nexus software is designed with Capture One integration in mind. DT Nexus can trigger Capture One commands remotely, like shutter release, and install the final ICC profile, which makes the whole process surprisingly elegant. While DT Nexus can’t make DCP profiles for Adobe Camera RAW workflows, I used their reference file in Basiccolor Input6 to make some excellent DCP profiles that compare equally with what is achieved through Capture One with ICC Profiles. I work with a variety of clients with different equipment and software and have found that this solution works well regardless of what camera or workflow software one might be using.
To make a long story short, the days of using film-based transmissive profiles are over, as Digital Transitions has created a much better solution that works fantastically well with quantifiably superior results. For those interested in high-quality and FADGI-certifiable film capture, DT Nexus Transmissive Profiling and Verification targets are a must.