Ralf, Your experience is mine exactly. As I said in my post a couple of days ago, the Nikonscan 3 manual definitely says that lo-cont is available on the older scanners only LS2000/30. Not available on the LS4000 / 40. I don't know if this means you get blown highlights with them, or whether they think they have fixed the problem some other way. I am waiting on an answer to this from Nikon and hopefully Jack ASF Phipps. Cheers, Julian At 18:37 09/09/01, you wrote: >Hi everybody, > >sorry for the long-winded subject. My inbox file crashed some days ago, >but I remember this issue to have been dealt with in a previous thread. >However, I think it is so serious that I found it worth starting a >thread on its own. So, here we go: > >When I bought my LS-30, I first found it impossible to get decent >highlights out of negatives with Nikon Scan 2.0 and later 2.5. They >would inexorably produce blown-out highlights, no matter what the color >management, auto adjust and analog gain settings were. Vuescan would fix >the problem but, with its poor implementation of ICE, not allow me to >scan my old negatives properly. > >By accident, after some days of frustration, I found a menu called >"prescan mode" in the "scanner extras" section and tried "alternative" >instead of "normal" (NS 2.5 and later: "lo-cont" instead of "auto") and >just couldn't believe my eyes because this well-hidden menu item was the >one that brought my LS-30 to usability, which meant no blown highlights >whatsoever. > >Now, I remember from the messages I lost that this menu item has been >cancelled with the LS-40 as well as the LS-4000. Is this really true >and, if yes, does it mean the return of blown out highlights without any >remedy? 95% of my animal pictures are on negative film, and my LS-30 >won't last forever. Will I have to get another LS-30 then, or a LS-2000, >instead of one of the newer models in order to get good negative scans? >I am really confused because the LS-30 won't be available forever, >neither will the LS-2000. I am even thinking of getting another unit >although my present one works fine, just in case it breaks down some day >and all those LS-40 and LS-4000 come with those built-in blown-out >highlights. > >Any advice would be greatly appreciated. > >Greetings from Germany - > >Ralf > >-- >My animal photo page on the WWW: http://schmode.net >Find my PGP keys (RSA and DSS/DH) on PGP key servers >(use "TrustCenter" certified keys only)