[filmscanners] Re: comments on using NikonScan/PC

["" <al@greenspace.freeserve.co.uk>]

Ed wrote:

> As I understand ICE, it only softens exactly where the dust spot was,
> and not on any other part of the image, so I'd assume the total
> "softening" (if true) is only noticeable when a slide is very dirty or
> has unusually sharp, fine details?

If the infra-red channel only picked out dust, it would work exactly this way.
However, if you use the option in Vuescan to view the infra-red channel, there 
still
remains some faint vestiges of the image.  I guess ICE must use a threshold to
ensure only the more prominent dust spots and defects are removed.

The loss of detail can be quite subtle and, if the result with ICE still looks 
good, it
might not be noticed.  I noticed it when looking at the fine detail of a jacket 
zip:
without ICE, the shape of the teeth can be made out but once ICE is applied the
teeth merge together.  I tried this on both a Minolta Elite (which has the 
original
version of ICE) and the Elite II (which has ICE3) and the result was the same.

I think the loss of fine detail is unacceptable - why go to the expense of 
getting
high resolution lenses for your camera and a scanner which can resolve a good
part of the detail just to have ICE throw some of it away?



Al Bond

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