RE: filmscanners: Nikon Scan & VS Negative dynamic range

[Alessandro Pardi <alessandro.pardi@inferentia.it>]

Julian,

thanks for the VERY useful information - I had missed this contrast setting,
too. This is really a saver on most images, and I find that it also
definitely improves color balance, not only contrast. The only drawback is
that often the resulting histogram is very narrow (sometimes it covers only
about half the available range), and so you get the infamous combing as soon
as you touch levels or curves to increase the contrast a bit. I'd really
like to have a continuous control, rather than three fixed values, for
contrast. There is, of course, the "Contrast" slider, but I understand from
your post that this is just another post-scan tool, and therefore not as
effective.

Alex Pardi


-----Original Message-----
From: Julian Robinson [mailto:jrobinso@pcug.org.au]
Sent: venerdì 7 settembre 2001 06.44
To: filmscanners@halftone.co.uk
Subject: RE: filmscanners: Nikon Scan & VS Negative dynamic range


OK mystery solved at last.  I looked at the manual for the first time 
(which must say something about ease of use of NS3.1!) and there it is - 
"Lo-contrast" is a facility only available on the LS2000 and the LS30.  I 
attach the relevant page so that you can see (as a GIF 30k, I hope this 
doesn't exceed our list limit but I am sure it'll be chopped into bits and 
dropped into the sinners bin if so) .

<snip>

Incidentally, the manual also includes an excellently informative flow 
chart (p109) to show where different bits of processing are done, something 
I always wanted in the LS2000 manual, and something I never understood till 
now.  This shows that the only adjustments that take effect at the scan 
level (as opposed to post-processing) are Scanner Extras functions, ICE and 
Analogue gain.  Of these the only ones which affect exposure are 'Analogue 
gain' and 'prescan lo-contrast' so these are two very important 
functions.  To lose the latter with the recent scanners is a bad move IMHO 
and means - use Vuescan.  Unless there is something I've missed.