Re: filmscanners: Hazy bleed in hi contrast blacks on LS2000

[Arthur Entlich <artistic@ampsc.com>]

1st question:

How many people smoke near where the scanner is located?  Or cook fried 
foods?  Or was the unit moved that day from a cold to warm place?

The most common cause of halos in a scanner which seemed fine in the 
past, is an accumulation of residue on the lenses optics of ccd surface. 
Sometimes it could be water condensation from moving the scanner into a 
new environment or if you have a very steamy situation (hey, just what 
kind of images are these anyway ;-)) but if it is that, it will resolve 
in a few hours.

Of course, if you don't normally scan high contrast images with a lot of 
black, you might not have noticed that this problem was developing over 
time (residue on the optics).

Before panicking, however, it could be improper exposure.  All CCD 
scanners suffer from some blooming, and this can be made worse by 
incorrect setting causing overexposure, which can occur with a lot of 
black background and the scanner using autoexposure.  Assuming, however, 
that the part of the image that isn't black looks properly exposed, it 
likely isn't that.  If the non-black portion is overexposed, you need to 
reset the white and black points manually before scanning, and rescan.

Otherwise, it sounds like it may need a trip to your friendly Nikon 
service facility, which will likely charge you close to the resale value 
of the scanner to clean it. ;-)

Actually, I think they charge about $200 US.

Like any optical products, (and most electronic, as well) having them in 
smoky environments is asking for functional problems down the road.

Art



IQ3D@aol.com wrote:

> Hi All
> 
> We have been using the LS2000 for some time now and have been very pleased
> with the results. Just recently however we have put through a batch of 
> slides
> with subjects against black backgrounds. The scans have all got a hazy halo
> round all the bright areas such that on an A4 print there is about 15 - 
> 20mm
> around the bright area which is less than total black.
> 
> Has anyone else experienced this?  Does anyone have any idea what might be
> causing this?
> 
> Many thanks
> Chris
> 
> Chris Parks
> Image Quest 3-D
> The Moos
> Poffley End
> Witney
> Oxon
> OX8 5UW
> England
> Tel: +44 (0)1993 704050
> Fax: +44 (0)1993 779203
> Web: www.imagequest3d.com