As luck/fate would have it, I'm now seeing very similar
banding to what Lawrence Smith reported and demonstrated
with his sample slide a day or two back. In a nutshell:
vertical banding on a landscape-format negative (horizontal
banding on a lansdcape-format slide) that looks a bit like
venetian blinds. Very regular and periodic.
I've seen it now on both slides and negatives. The
problem may be related to overly-dense transparencies,
but then again maybe not.
I'm not sure if this banding has always been here on
this scanner, or if it just appeared. In any case it's
pretty awful, at least on some images.
I just got off the phone with Nikon Tech support
(800-NIKON-UX) and they did offer the following solution,
which did eliminate the banding: In the Tools Pallette,
under "Scanner Extras", item "CCD Scan Mode" -- check the
"Super Fine Scan" box.
Not entirely sure what this does -- the Nikon manual says
it uses one CCD row rather than three -- but it did
completely eliminate the banding. The price is that the
scan takes three times as long (!!!)
Must admit the Nikon tech was a bit surly this time...
barely responding to my comments and queries, and most
certainly not admitting to any systematic fault with
the scanner.
OTOH, I did manage to speak to a tech at 7:30 AM, after
just a couple of minutes' waiting, and got a working
solution, albeit a slightly painful one. That's not too bad.
rafe b.