I have had a Nikon LS-30 scanner for over a year now and until recently it was being used occasionally to scan images that I needed to post to a web page or send via email. A couple of months ago, though, I started looking into how to capture the "most" from my films for archival purposes and was surprised by the initial results from using VueScan (which I had hoped would give me more than the 8bit pixel depth I am getting from NikonScan.)
I am using VueScan 7.5 (beta ?) and NikonScan 3.1.0, and the "default" settings for VueScan generally produces images that are washed out and lack in contrast. This is particularly pronounced for B&W negatives (TMY-400 & Tri-X) where the histograms for the raw scans show ~10 points less std deviation than the scans produced by the (default settings for) NikonScan. The lack of contrast is also present, though not as pronounced, when comparing the scans for T400-CN (C-41 B&W film) as well as color negatives or slides. Are there any obvious controls for VueScan that I need to be changing (other than the film type & scan resolution -- I don't seem to be able to find a manual exposure or Analog Gain control.) I have placed the JPG form of the scan files from NikonScan, VueScan and raw fladbed scans from 4x6 prints (from the local lab) of a couple of Tri-X and one T400-CN negative under the attached URLs (sorry about the large files) and would appreciate any insight into what I may be doing wrong as well as the answer to any of the the listed questions I have run into, in the course of this exercise. Thanks, Sassan. Tri-X http://63.197.150.190/sassan/photography/test-scans/Heidesee-pumphouse-NikonScan.jpg http://63.197.150.190/sassan/photography/test-scans/Heidesee-pumphouse-ViewScan.jpg http://63.197.150.190/sassan/photography/test-scans/Heidesee-pumphouse-print.jpg Tri-x http://63.197.150.190/sassan/photography/test-scans/Heidesee-boathouse-NikonScan.jpg http://63.197.150.190/sassan/photography/test-scans/Heidesee-boathouse-ViewScan.jpg http://63.197.150.190/sassan/photography/test-scans/Heidesee-boathouse-print.jpg T400-CN http://63.197.150.190/sassan/photography/test-scans/Village-after-Lentsch.NikonScan.jpg http://63.197.150.190/sassan/photography/test-scans/Village-after-Lentsch.ViewScan.jpg http://63.197.150.190/sassan/photography/test-scans/Village-after-Lentsch.print.jpg And the questions ... - What is the appropriate film (media) setting for T400-CN ("color negative" or "B&W negative") under either software ? - Likewise, how does one disable "autoexposure" entirely (NikonScan allows changing the Analog Gain but this seems to be changing the bias to the autoexposure readout. ) - Can VueScan reliably/repeatably get 10bit raw readouts of a given pixel or are the extra two bits simply random values being read independent of the value of the pixel ? I.e. Does a full resolution scan of Q60 produce a tiff file that matches that of LS-40 ? - Related to the above tow back-to-back scans of the same image (without any change to the registration of the film) seem to always produce scan files that differ measurably, if not significantly. I realize that compared to digital logic, CCD's can be more temperamental but I am wondering, if this is more noticeable in LS-30 compared to LS-40 or LS-4000 or they all use a similar CCD array ? - If I need to switch to a more capable scanner for consistent "archival" scans, beyond the auto slide-feeder, does LS-4000 offer real advantages over LS-40 ? More specifically: - Does LS-4000 cope with Kodachrome any better than LS-40/30 ? - Is the digital ICE capability of the LS-30 and LS-40 comparable ? - Is the Firewire interface in LS-4000 noticeably faster than LS-40's USB ? - On a different type of question, how does one view the (density/ luminescence) histograms for two images side-by-side under PS 6.0 ? This seems to be a very basic and useful operation but it is not obvious how to display the histogram for the second image without closing the first one ! ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe by mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED], with 'unsubscribe filmscanners' or 'unsubscribe filmscanners_digest' (as appropriate) in the message title or body