[filmscanners] Re: Black and white scans on LS4000 ED and other issues

["Simon Lamb" <simon@sclamb.com>]

Responses in the text below:

Major A wrote:

Simon,

>> I tried scanning some Delta 100 black and white negs on a Nikon LS4000 ED
>> and the quality was awful, using either Nikon Scan 3.1.3 or Vuescan.  I
>> tried scanning as monochrome, as colour and as colour positive and
inverting
>> in Photoshop. In all cases the preview image looked fine but the actual
scan
>> showed tiny white spots all over the images.

> I use an LS-30 and have the same problem. The little specks are dust
> or similar defects on the negative. ICE doesn't work for silver-based
> film list Delta 100. You would see the same thing on colour negative
> if you turned ICE off, I think.

I also use an LS-30 and do not see the problem as badly as with the LS4000,
probably due to the reduced ppi resolution.  However, using the Flextight
Photo and the Sprintscan 120 on the same neg produced a much, much cleaner
scan.  I suspect the LED light source of the Nikon scanners, which is not
shared by the Photo or SS120, might have a part to play here.  I can
certainly bear out Art Entlich's comments that dICE is less needed on other
scanners because they do not pick up the dust and scratches as much as the
Nikon scanners, although the scans are just as sharp.

The problem is very much less on colour negative film (in my experience) and
of course a small amount of dICE fixes any remaining issues with dust and
scratches anyway.

> The real problem I have with it is grain exaggeration. I can get much
> less grainy scans from a paper print.

>> I can't seems to get a good black and white scan at all. Can anyone tell
me
>> how to get good black and white scans?

> Nikons only support RGB readout, therefore using monochrome and/or
> negative settings in the scanning software is always a lottery. I use
> straight RGB scanning, then convert to grayscale and adjust the
> look-up table in ImageMagick or GIMP (no M$ on my computer).

I almost always use positive RGB settings to scan BW images, then invert and
convert to greyscale either through desaturating or the channel mixer.  On
most scanners I have tried (must be about all of them by now!) this works
fine (the best probably being on the SS120, although on that scanner I used
RAW BW format and manipulated the raw file in PS for excellent results).  I
cannot get a good scan from the LS4000 ED though.

>> When scanning colour slides (Provia 100F and Kodak EBX 100) the scans
have
>> too much red in them.  Is this a facet of this scanner?

> Shouldn't be. The scanner has separate exposure times for the three
> channels which can be set by the software. I have no idea what
> Nikonscan, VueScan and friends do with the exposure. SANE lets you
> select each of them separately, and offers both auto-exposure modes
> supported by the scanner. With this method, you can play around until
> you get perfect white balance. The response to the exposure times is
> very much linear, so a little calculation can speed up the process
> substantially.

As to the redness in the scans, just about every colour slide I scanned,
mostly Provia and EBX, showed a tendency towards red and the blues also
needed work.  I guess calibrating the scanner and producing a profile would
help here.  Why don't manufacturers issue target calibration slides and a
software routine with their scanners so that this can be done, as it is an
important part of the colour managed workflow.

> Also, SANE gives you a general multiplier, so that you can change all
> exposures by the same factor and keep the white balance as it is. This
> way you can make best use of the available dynamic range of the
> scanner. Judgement is done with the histogram (Nikonscan & Co. might
> have one as well, I wouldn't know...).

>> When scanning a strip of slides (or negs) in the strip film adapter, the
>> left edge of the preview image and scanned image is not straight, it bows
in
>> at the centre and into the image area.  Has anyone else seen this?  It is
>> annoying as I had to crop a part of the image when I didn't actually want
>> to.

> Oh. Have you checked that the mask in the film strip loader has a
> straight edge? Since the light passes through the film pretty much at
> a right angle, I wouldn't expect curling to have such an effect.

The left edge on the film strip loader is not straight and I am sure I read
somewhere on this list, or perhaps on the scanner forum on Imaging Resource,
that others had this problem.  Can anyone else verify this?

>> Also, the preview in Nikon scan looks very clear whereas the actual
>> completed scan image in the Nikon Scan window looks muddy and grainy, and
>> you can see the white spots, that I mentioned above, on the image.

> The opposite of SANE then...

>> Any help, answers or opinions on these would be welcome.

> Try SANE, it lets you select scanner options directly. Currently there
> is no dust removal, but I'm working on it...



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