[filmscanners] Re: Nikon 8000 banding

["Anthony Atkielski" <anthony@atkielski.com>]

Dave writes:

> Solution is to use only one line. Nikon has
> no other fix.

Maybe, but I'm not at all sure that this banding problem is as bad as people
make it sound.

I can see banding on my scans in extremely dark (that is, nearly black)
areas that are directly adjacent to nearly white (that is, nearly clear
film) areas, but it's not very obvious, and typically I cannot see it at all
unless I boost the shadows.  Additionally, I really have to look for it
closely.  I've scanned a fair amount of 35mm slides and 120 slides thus far,
and I have yet to encounter banding bad enough for me to contemplate a
single-line scan.  I figure that if I have to _look_ for it, it's not worth
worrying about.

Also, on negatives, I haven't seen banding problems at all that I can recall
offhand, although I haven't scanned as many negatives as transparencies up
to this point.

On 120 scans in particular, the bands, if they are present at all, represent
only a very tiny fraction of the total image; I think you're more likely to
see grain than banding.

When bands do occur, they seem to be limited to the periphery of the image.
Virtually identical areas of light and shadow show some evidence of banding
near the edge of the scan, but not further inward from the edges.  The
contrast must be very high indeed and the shadows really dark to show
anything at all (and I'm looking at a Velvia scan shot in direct sunlight
right now as I say this, and I had to search around to find any banding).

It all depends on your standards, of course, but in my case, it's a
non-problem.  Besides, if I ever really need something guaranteed to be
completely free of banding, I could scan with a single CCD line.  But
overall, the 8000ED does such a nice job that I don't worry about banding.
It gets shadow detail even out of Velvia that I didn't even know was there.



----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Unsubscribe by mail to listserver@halftone.co.uk, with 'unsubscribe 
filmscanners'
or 'unsubscribe filmscanners_digest' (as appropriate) in the message title or 
body