[filmscanners] Re: Scan quality - Vuescan versus Nikon Control 2.2

["ThomasH" <herthh@attbi.com>]

Richard Piotrowski wrote:
>
> As an introduction to digital photography I bought the used LS-20 scanner
> and played with it using Vuescan and Nikon scanning software.
> I like the color balance of Vuescan, but I have noticed, that Nikon Control
> 2.2 gives me much better results on the areas with one color (like the sky)
> and progressing density.
> With Vuescan it looks like scanning with less bits, it is more grainy and
> transition from darker to lighter areas is unpleasant.

Which version of Vuescan are you using?
What film material are you scanning?

Vuescan has indeed a bit of a weakness with areas having larger
parts with a similar color. Sky and faces in portraits are quite
often looking "grainier" compared to the NikonScan output. Using
the size reduction factor in Vuescan improves the scans
significantly. The advantages of the size reduction factor are
described in Vuescan manual. I have the LS-4000 and I use size
reduction 5 with 4000dpi in most cases.

But since Vuescan outperforms practically every other scanning
software in terms of the almost always correct color balance and
a very good autoexposure, sooner or later you will stop using
NikonScan and turn toward Vuescan. Not even ICE+GEM will stop you.
NikonScan is a source of grief and "blood sweat and tears" because
it fails so often to reproduce colors and to expose many of the
images correctly. The ASF's GEM makes the image appear very smooth
indeed without a significant impact on the sharpness, but so many
of these images have bizarre and improper color balance. Especially
the green in shadows turning into a nasty magenta-grey brew spoils
the most of the outdoor images.

You might also consider the use of the Vuescan grain removal with
the most materials. I scan only slides and basically only Provia
100F has grain fine enough to completely switch off the grain
removal. Sensia 100, Agfa CT-100 and RSX-100 materials look better
with "light" grain removal. 200 ISO needs usually "medium" or even
"heavy" grain removal. Make some experiments to figure out the best
setting for the materials which you scan.

Thomas.

> Am I doing something wrong or is it a normal behavior of Vuescan?
> I am scanning at 2700 dpi and 24 bits.
>
> Any help will be appreciated.
>
> Regards, Richard

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