[filmscanners] Re: Nikon LS4000 Depth of field

2002-04-29 Thread w shumaker

At 11:46 AM 4/26/2002 +1000, Julian wrote:
>If you want to check your scanner, I describe an easy way on
>
>http://members.austarmetro.com.au/~julian/photography/ls2000-focus.htm

Very interesting and straight forward test. Would it be possible for
the scanning software to take multiple focus points and adjust the focus
position as the ccd scans the film? Another feature for VueScan?

Wayne


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[filmscanners] Re: Nikon LS4000 Depth of field

2002-04-28 Thread Arthur Entlich



[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:


> It would just gall me to spend that much on a scanner and still have to worry about
> focus.  (I cut my teeth on a Minolta Elite which had fixed focus and yet was sharp 
>over
> the whole frame.)
>
>
>
> Al Bond


A fixed focus scanner would likely be such because it has a very wide
DOF.  These scanners, in general, use a long optical path, allowing for
a more DOF, but sometimes this design has other problems.  As film
scanners have heightened their resolution, ability to focus has been
incorporated because even fixed focus has its limits which might have
been less obvious when resolution wasn't as high.

Art



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[filmscanners] Re: Nikon LS4000 Depth of field

2002-04-28 Thread

Julian Robinson wrote:

> If you want to check your scanner, I describe an easy way on
>
> http://members.austarmetro.com.au/~julian/photography/ls2000-focus.htm

What a very useful page.  Have you had any feedback from LS-40, LS-4000 or LS-8000
users on the effective DOF on these scanners?  Are these different from your
measurement on the LS-2000 of 24 Nikon focus units for general use and 12 focus units
for the grain critical sharpness?  (I know this assumes, quite possibly wrongly, that 
the
focus units in Nikonscan are constant between the scanners.)

>From recent posts, it's certainly clear that some LS4000 owners take a similar 
>approach
to you to find the optimum focus point and still cannot always get the entire film 
plane
within the effective DOF.

I'm curious whether the design changes needed to achieve 4000dpi have made the DOF
better or worse.  From the number of posts about DOF problems, it sounds like it has 
got
worse but only this sort of test separates the facts from hearsay.

Ironically, the (mould damaged) films I have that would benefit from ICE  are also 
quite
bowed so solving one problem could easily introduce another :-)



Al Bond


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[filmscanners] RE: Nikon LS4000 Depth of field

2002-04-28 Thread Alex Zabrovsky

Thanks Julian.
I'll take a look to your stuff and will get back.

Regards,
Alex Z

-Original Message-
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On Behalf Of Julian Robinson
Sent: Friday, April 26, 2002 3:46 AM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: [filmscanners] Re: Nikon LS4000 Depth of field


At 02:00 26/04/02, Alex Z wrote:
>I wonder whether the IV ED also suffers from this problem since I suspect
it
>has almost the same hardware (except of the sensor).
>In fact, I remember noticing uneven sharpness descending near slide mount
>edges, but wasn't sure this is scanner's fault or the slide has been
exposed
>that way (didn't have time to check the original under the loupe or play
>with manual focus point adjustment then)

Yes AFAIK all Nikon scanners are the same - must be Nikon's design choice
to use relatively large aperture lens, perhaps to make up for lower light
output from LEDs?

I don't know why they don't make the lens variable aperture, since they
seem to have at least 2 stops of extra light (or exposure anyway, maybe it
is partly extra exposure time) available using analogue gain control.  Why
not stop the lens down 2 stops and use max analog gain for normal exposure
operations?  Then you'd get a significant increase in Depth of Field and
greatly reduce the unsharpness problems at edges and corners.

If you want to check your scanner, I describe an easy way on

http://members.austarmetro.com.au/~julian/photography/ls2000-focus.htm

I'd be interested to hear your results on a couple of typical negs/slides,
and also interested if you have trouble with the complexity of my
instructions.  I've had one person tell me they couldn't understand it, but
a number seem to have found it useful so I am wondering if I need to
re-word it.

Julian



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[filmscanners] Re: Nikon LS4000 Depth of field

2002-04-28 Thread

Dickbo wrote:

> I might also point out that comparing the Nikon scanner with the Polaroid
> Sprintscan 120 is utter nonsense because in the UK a typical asking price
> for the Nikon is £1299.00 while for the Polaroid it is £2,899.00
>
> I would suggest that it is easier and cheaper to put glass around a film
> image than it is to fork out the additional £1,600 not to have to so do.

I must have missed a post somewhere - I don't recall this comparison being mentioned 
but it
would certainly be an odd one given that the SS120 is an MF scanner!  It would be more
sensible to the compare the SS4000Plus (or the Microtek 4000tf) to the LS4000.  Given 
that
the I've seen the 4000tf priced at around £800, the arguament then becomes why fork 
out an
additional £400+ and still have to put glass around the film.



Al Bond


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[filmscanners] Re: Nikon LS4000 Depth of field

2002-04-26 Thread

I wrote

> > Firstly, does the setting of focus point in this way work for 100% of
> > shots or are badly bowed slides still compromised?

Tony Terlecki replied:

> No it doesn't because film can be bowed differently depending on the mount,
> etc. You personally need to find how far from the focus plane is acceptable
> for you and then take it from there. I sample various points on the film and
> then make a decision. It's time intensive but by far the best method. I
> also now do my best to ensure film is flat before scanning - I don't mount
> film anymore and also try and flatten it out prior to scanning (weighting it
> under books etc.). If all else fails then I cut the frame from the strip and
> mount on a glass mount.

Tony,

Thanks for your input.  I don't think remounting the slides is an option for me - a 
lot of
them are my wife's and she doesn't trust my dexterity enough (probably rightly so!).

I guess I'm not surprised that positioning the focus point in a single position isn't 
a totally
effective fix - if it were Nikon would have incorporated it into Nikonscan.

It would just gall me to spend that much on a scanner and still have to worry about
focus.  (I cut my teeth on a Minolta Elite which had fixed focus and yet was sharp over
the whole frame.)



Al Bond


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[filmscanners] Re: Nikon LS4000 Depth of field

2002-04-26 Thread dickbo

My dear sir if an individual spent their entire life being concerned with
negative possibilities as against first hand actualities, then they would
most certainly have developed a substantial facial twitch.

I do not have a facial twitch and I do not concern myself with that which
has not yet been seen to happen.

- Original Message -
From: "Peter Marquis-Kyle" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Friday, April 26, 2002 5:16 AM
Subject: [filmscanners] Re: Nikon LS4000 Depth of field


dickbo discounts the problems of glass mounted slides deteriorating:

> I have several carosel's here which contain glass mounted Kodachromes at
> least 30 years old and nothing has happened yet. The worst that cane be
said
> is that every now and again it is necessary to re seat them in order to
> remove newton rings.

But there's a logical flaw in saying "I never saw it, so it doesn't exist".
Storage conditions -- temperature, humidity, presence of fungal spores --
will
have an influence. I have seen enough mouldy glass mounted slides to take
this
issue seriously (I live in the sub-tropical zone). As to out-gassing, I
would
keep an ear open to what the conservators say.

Peter Marquis-Kyle



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[filmscanners] Re: Nikon LS4000 Depth of field

2002-04-25 Thread Tony Terlecki

On Wed, Apr 24, 2002 at 11:59:16PM +0100, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I know there are regular posts about the limited depth of field of the
> LS4000 and one work around was to set the focus to some point
> between the centre and the corner of the frame.  (I believe this is
> how Vuescan focusses by default on this scanner.)
>
> Although I think most people accept this is a valid concern, I'm still
> unclear how effective this approach is in getting round the issue.
> So two questions for those who have used the LS4000.
>
> Firstly, does the setting of focus point in this way work for 100% of
> shots or are badly bowed slides still compromised?
>

No it doesn't because film can be bowed differently depending on the mount,
etc. You personally need to find how far from the focus plane is acceptable
for you and then take it from there. I sample various points on the film and
then make a decision. It's time intensive but by far the best method. I
also now do my best to ensure film is flat before scanning - I don't mount
film anymore and also try and flatten it out prior to scanning (weighting it
under books etc.). If all else fails then I cut the frame from the strip and
mount on a glass mount.

--
Tony Terlecki
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Running Debian/GNU 2.2 Linux


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[filmscanners] Re: Nikon LS4000 Depth of field

2002-04-25 Thread Arthur Entlich



dickbo wrote:

> Just mount in glass and the problem ceases to exist, not only that your
> originals are better protected.
>


Most, if not all, photo archivists will tell you today that glass
mounting of slides is considered to accelerate aging due to chemical
off-gassing getting trapped between the glass and slide.  Also, the risk
of fungal growth or other moisture related problems are higher with
glass mounted slides.

You are correct that they are better protected from handling errors.

Art



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[filmscanners] Re: Nikon LS4000 Depth of field

2002-04-25 Thread dickbo

Just mount in glass and the problem ceases to exist, not only that your
originals are better protected.

- Original Message -
From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Wednesday, April 24, 2002 11:59 PM
Subject: [filmscanners] Nikon LS4000 Depth of field


Hi,

I know there are regular posts about the limited depth of field of the
LS4000 and one work around was to set the focus to some point
between the centre and the corner of the frame.  (I believe this is
how Vuescan focusses by default on this scanner.)

Although I think most people accept this is a valid concern, I'm still
unclear how effective this approach is in getting round the issue.
So two questions for those who have used the LS4000.

Firstly, does the setting of focus point in this way work for 100% of
shots or are badly bowed slides still compromised?

Secondly, does Nikonscan allow you to set the manual focus point
permanently to the optimum point or does it have to be reset for
each scan?

This issue seems to be the only real negative aspect of this scanner
(well apart from the price and Nikon's notoriously poor customer
support!).

I hadn't intended to the stretch my budget to an LS4000 but recent
posts on it's ability to get right into the shadows on dense slides
(apparently without streaking or banding) have made me more
interested in it.  (I think I have also pursuaded myself that I do need
the extra resolution of a 4000dpi scanner.)  Given that the Canon
FS4000 doesn't seem, by all accounts, to perform quite as well in
the shadows and that Polaroid SS4000Plus may never reach
Europe, my options are rather limited!



Al Bond





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