On 7/21/2014 9:51 AM, C.H.Ling wrote:
...
The Nikon Scanner flare problem is certainly starting to rise up
again. It's time to do another cleaning. That'll cost me an afternoon,
but it's worth the effort. Focusing is certainly another issue,
especially with slides that have been projected. Projected slides have
a lot of curvature to them caused by heating up. (I've run into this
problem with some enlarged negatives). You can get the middle in
focus, but the edges are gone.
Nikon's flare problem does not solve with cleaning, I have clean the lens front and removed the 45 deg. mirror for a
complete cleaning, problem still exist. Actually, many years ago, I have sent the scanning to Nikon for cleaning but
got zero improvement. For negatives, it is ok but not high contrast slides where the white meet dark.
... With the recover of my Nikon 4000ED, now I have more options for scanning:
- normal slides - 4000ED with Nikonscan for color accuracy.
- high contrast slides - 5D II copy with multi-exposures.
- normal negatives - 4000ED with Nikonscan for fast excellent output.
- faded negatives - 4000ED with Vuescan for better post processing.
- seriously unexposed negatives - 5D II copy for lesser grain.
This and the thread about Tina's Imatest are interesting, not least in what is
ignored.
As far as I could tell back when these were all available new, my conclusion from tests, esp. Victor whatshisname, was
that the Nikon, Minolta and Canon were all within a whisker of each other for resolution and DR.
But, the Nikon and Minolta had shallow DOF that led to focusing problems and the semi coherent light source in the Nikon
tended to exaggerate dust, scratches, etc.
So I bought a Canon, used, as by the time I decided it had been discontinued. I've always been happy with it, and all
the more so as the flare problem with the Nikons arose here. It has enough DOF that focus has never been a thing to
worry about, the relatively diffuse light source has worked well and I've been able with little trouble to get good
scans of various kinds of film.
I'm also not sure how much more resolution there might be on the film. With older slides and negs, the scanner at 4000
dpi is clearly out resolving the film/lens/whatever. With my later shots using careful technique, best lenses and the
later emulsions, I see a lot more detail in the scans. Multiple passes can tease a little more detail out, whether
through reducing grain aliasing or what else, I don't know. Still, the difference isn't going to be visible in any but a
huge print. And it seems to me that it captures all that's on the film.
Not a solution for someone like Tina, for whom batch loading is worth some small other compromises. But for relatively
low volume folks like me, it's awfully darn good. I've written before, more than once, about work flow that minimizes
time sitting around waiting for the scanner.
As to the SCSI connectivity in a recent thread, it's nice to know I should be able to get mine going with SCSI on my 64
bit Win7 machine. But I ran across a post somewhere where a fellow compared SCSI to USB on a recent machine with Hi
Speed USB 2.0. He reported that the slow speed he had experienced before was gone, and USB was essentially the same
speed as SCSI. He theorized that there were some failings in communication protocol between the scanner and many early
USB 2.0 chips/ports.
Although I've not tried a comparison, mine seems similar in speed connected to a USB 3 port to my memory of SCSI on the
earlier machines. I just connected it to USB and the driver was auto installed. Instant gratification. It's only USB
1.1, but if that's as fast as the data comes out, it doesn't matter.
I've been patiently waiting for a nice Canon SF4000US at a reasonable price as backup to the one I have. One arrived
today, for about $150, delivered. Looks perfect, and just scanned a 'stick' of four slides without a hitch. With
'new' scanner, film holders and VueScan, I'm set for the long haul. :-)
Scan Happy Moose
--
What if the Hokey Pokey *IS* what it's all about?
--
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