RE: filmscanners: Nikon film flatness (was Glass slide mounts)

["Neil Cotty" <neilc@apphosting.com>]

and you thought this thread had died.. <G>

Well, someone asked if the AN coatings of Glass Slides would show in a scan
and I can say that with Quickpoint slides of the type I have at least, it
most certainly DOES. You get a sort of grassy looking star pattern that is
terrible especially in skys or continuous tone areas. Huge yuk!

Basically I've decided I either use Glass slides and mount them reversed
away from the AN coatings, or if I get Newton rings then stuff them in the
FH-3 or in a std Slide mount (urgh).

I am really wondering whether or not I should have got a Polaroid.
Especially since I've found how easy it is to correct dust problems etc in
PS6 not being a digital type before. This sharpness issue is a real pain
IMO. Some scans I just can't get sharp, even with some of my best chromes
(tack sharp under a loupe and shot on Leica glass, tripod mounted yadda
yadda) and PS sharpening using various methods, actions etc just introduce
too much noise when I want to blow them up to say Super A3. Have to live
with it now I guess... Hmph.

I've basically settled on the above mounting procedures with manual focus
point selection in NS3.1, 14bit scanning, 16x sampling, ICE/GEM etc off,
Color management off and color editing the file in 16bit mode in PS. Scanner
pumps out 130mb files - ok on a grunt box PC like mine but a MPITA for a lot
of others out there I bet having lived with a 433 Celeron laptop for ages. I
do sharpening in 8bit, LAB mode using various PS actions. Any other
suggestions for improving sharpness gratefully received! :)

I really would love to see a crop from Polaroid scan of the same chrome side
by side with one from a LS4000. Would be interesting..

'ave a good one,
Neil