RE: Tilted Scans (was: filmscanners: Vuescan feedback )

[Collin Ong <collin@pcocd2.intel.com>]

On Wed, 7 Mar 2001, Tim Victor wrote:

> On Wednesday, March 07, Collin Ong wrote:
> > But, now dust will settle on the exposed flat surface of the other frames
> > on the strip!  This is such a problem with the Minolta Scan Dual II that I
> > turned that scanner sideways to avoid dust problems!
> 
> Interesting that you'd mention that, Collin. I always set up some kind
> of a dust shield on top of my Scan Dual II--a notebook or clipboard or
> something--to try to keep junk from settling on the unscanned frames.

I did both.  I turned the scanner on its side, then cut up a cardboard box
that enclosed the entire scanner and the protruding film holder.  I still
got dust on the strip between the time that I air-blew it clean and the
time that frame reached the scanner.  

> Incidently, I did have the bright idea of scanning the frames in reverse
> direction, from 6 down to 1, so that each frame would remain inside
> the scanner while it was waiting to be scanned. But VueScan refuses
> to do this. If I enter "6-1" in the Frames box, it only scans frame 6. If
> I enter "6,5,4,3,2,1" it sorts the list and scans in ascending order to
> spite me!

I believe that the main culprit is the totally nonsensical scan order, as
you pointed out.  The SDII scans frames from out to in, which maximizes
the time the frames spend exposed to the environment.  Combine that with
the fact that the scan direction for each frame is in the *OPPOSITE*
direction, which means that after scanning, the *slow* transport has to
move back across the frame to get to the next one.  I have no idea what
Minolta was thinking when they designed this scanner (if indeed they did
the design themselves).

Ed Hamrick: is there any way you can reverse the order the frames are
scanned in?  This would greatly improve the usability of this scanner.



Thanks,
Collin