Dumb 9000 ED questions. 1, 2, 3 of x

  • Thread starter Thread starter Alan Browne
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A

Alan Browne

Okay the beast is sitting here and I've taken a dynamic, saturated,
beautiful 120 chrome and turned it into a dull lifeless scan.

Dumb question 1: I assume that as it is LED sourced that there is no
need to "warm it up" (as I did with fluorescent sourced scanners).

Dumb question 2: The chromes are curled a bit (rolled) and are certainly
not flat in the holder. What is the depth of field of the scanner?

Dumb question 3: If I "import" the image from Elements as soon as the
scan ends, what is the next step to get the image over to Elements.
It's "there" but as soon as I quit Nikon Scan 4.0.2, then Elements quits
too.

Thanks,
Alan
 
Okay the beast is sitting here and I've taken a dynamic, saturated,
beautiful 120 chrome and turned it into a dull lifeless scan.
Click to expand...

That's very weird. What do the histograms look like,
in NikonScan? Is your monitor calibrated in any way?

A "dynamic, saturated" chrome should have histograms
in each channel that cover pretty much the full range.
In fact, the challenge (on such a chrome) can be to get
the histogram to comfortably fit into the scanner's range.

Dumb question 1: I assume that as it is LED sourced that there is no
need to "warm it up" (as I did with fluorescent sourced scanners).
Click to expand...

That is true -- no need to warm it up. The scanner does its
internal calibrations just after you turn it on from the main
power switch. NikonScan won't get past its splash screen
until that process is complete.
Dumb question 2: The chromes are curled a bit (rolled) and are certainly
not flat in the holder. What is the depth of field of the scanner?
Click to expand...

Pretty narrow. The lens in the LS-8000 has a very
wide aperture -- I'm guessing about f/3.5 or so. You
need to work to get the film flat in the holder. You
can operate the focus control in such a way as to
measure the film flatness -- by taking the focus at
any point you choose within the frame.
Dumb question 3: If I "import" the image from Elements as soon as the
scan ends, what is the next step to get the image over to Elements.
It's "there" but as soon as I quit Nikon Scan 4.0.2, then Elements quits
too.
Click to expand...

I'd suggest using NikonScan in standalone mode.


rafe b
www.terrapinphoto.com
 
Alan said:
Dumb question 2: The chromes are curled a bit (rolled) and are certainly
not flat in the holder. What is the depth of field of the scanner?
Click to expand...

Very small indeed. After some months of struggling to get scans that
were sharp I finally gave up and bought the glass holder - expensive but
a significant improvement. Poor design by Nikon that the scanner as sold
is not capable of scanning 120 properly - although that is the reason
most would have bought it.
 
Stewart said:
Very small indeed. After some months of struggling to get scans that
were sharp I finally gave up and bought the glass holder - expensive but
a significant improvement. Poor design by Nikon that the scanner as sold
is not capable of scanning 120 properly - although that is the reason
most would have bought it.
Click to expand...


strange. works quite well on my 9K: the 120 carrier has a
"stretch bar" inbuilt that works quite well to keep my 6X7
output fairly flat. at least to the point where I can hardly
see any reflected light unevenness. of course like anything,
if I try to abuse its limits it then buckles the film.
 
Noons said:
strange. works quite well on my 9K: the 120 carrier has a
"stretch bar" inbuilt that works quite well to keep my 6X7
output fairly flat. at least to the point where I can hardly
see any reflected light unevenness. of course like anything,
if I try to abuse its limits it then buckles the film.
Click to expand...

What I do is I use the AF mechanism to measure the film plane position at
multiple points across the frame and then manually set the focus to the
middle of that range. If that range exceeds the DOF of the scanner, I reload
the film and try again.

Note that this is required with both the regular and the glass holders. If
you are using a mask to hold the film off the lower (not AN) glass, then it
can buckle more than the DOF. Sigh.

David J. Littleboy
Tokyo, Japan
 
strange. works quite well on my 9K: the 120 carrier has a
"stretch bar" inbuilt that works quite well to keep my 6X7
output fairly flat. at least to the point where I can hardly
see any reflected light unevenness. of course like anything,
if I try to abuse its limits it then buckles the film.
Click to expand...


Have you tried measuring the focus at multiple
points within the frame? How much variation
do you see?

I found that with the glassless carrier, the
curvature at the ends of each strip would
cause some soft focusing in these two
frames. For the frames that were not along
the edges, it was relatively easy to get
good uniformity of focus.

"Manual" focus procedure:
1. hold down CTRL key
2. click "focus" icon
3. move cursor to desired
point in preview window
4. Click


rafe b
www.terrapinphoto.com
 
Raphael said:
Have you tried measuring the focus at multiple
points within the frame? How much variation
do you see?
Click to expand...

yes. not much. AF point doesn't seem to vary a lot in
a normal frame. mind you, the film itself is very flat:
I never scan before leaving it a coupla days in a
sleeve inside a folder, after the lab.
That seems to get rid of any curling.
I found that with the glassless carrier, the
curvature at the ends of each strip would
cause some soft focusing in these two
frames. For the frames that were not along
the edges, it was relatively easy to get
good uniformity of focus.
Click to expand...

Thanks, will be on the lookout for this.
Not getting much of it yet but it's something
indeed to watch out for: the glassless carrier
doesn't suppot the ends well.

I've found that if I "stretch" the film a lot using
the glassless carrier bar, it buckles a bit and
makes focusing a chore. But if I just clamp
the edge of the film and tighten up gently with the
bar, the film stays flat all the way across the frame.
At least, reflecting a light on its surface doesn't
show any indication of "stretch buckling".

haven't tried a glass carrier yet, still recovering
the finances from the scanner purchase!... ;-)
 
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