B&W newbie questions: scanner, film ?

[petercs]

Hi,
I am rather new to b+w film (though not totally new to digital, film slides and scanning). I am quite happy with my Nikon 5000ED scanner, using Vuescan to digitalize slides (manly Fuji Provia). Most of my color slide scans turn out to be ok, without much postprocessing and knowledge of scanning. I expected B&W to be even easier. Obviously I am wrong.

So I am in the process to find out what film to use. So far I have tested Ilford FP4+ and HP5+ but was not so happy with the resulting scans from the Nikon. Also did test scans of negatives a friend has shot on FPAN and otehr silver film, also not as expected. I understand BW400CN and XP2 should do better since they have no silver, but both are 400 ASA. I do a lot of (alpine) bright daylight shots and would preferr a 100 ASA or even 50 ASA film like the FPAN. So how do people shoot with these low ASA silver B&W films and still get those technically superb scans I see in the gallery ? Is there an affordable scanner that does better B&W (with silver film) than the 5000ED ? I tested a cheap non-LED scanner (HP flatbed G4050) but the Nikon is way better.

For reference I have attached sample scans I am not so happy with.
Shot with Leica Summarit/50mm, scanned on Nikon 5000ED using Vuescan.

Pic 1 on FP4+, I do not like the 'greyish' black:

Pic 2 and 3 on HP5+ scanned a bit better:

What am I doing wrong ?

Best Regards, Peter

 

[Mike Richards]

Try 16 bit tiff

Try 16 bit tiff

What is it you don't like about the latter scans? I have the Nikon 9000, which is equivalent to the 5000 except it accommodates medium format. I'm very pleased with the results with silver based film. My standard routine is 16 bit saved as tiff with no pre-adjustment in Nikon Scan. Then I use Lightroom or Photoshop for any adjustments. The 16 bit format allows a lot of highlight and/or shadow recovery while still maintaining tonality and smooth grayscale transitions.

 

[Larky]

I can't see anything wrong that a bit of tweaking in Photoshop or Lightroom wouldn't solve.

 

[Bob Michaels]

It seems you are looking for near perfect scans out of the scanner with no post processing in an image editor.

It just does not happen with black and white. Maybe I should say that I have not been able to make it happen in six years.

 

[petercs]

It seems you are looking for near perfect scans out of the scanner with no post processing in an image editor.

It just does not happen with black and white. Maybe I should say that I have not been able to make it happen in six years.

I fear you are right. I am currently making the modification to my Nikonscan to be able to scan a full roll of 35mm film. And so I did hope to make full use of the batch mode and automate everything. Just does not work.

What is it you don't like about the latter scans? I have the Nikon 9000, which is equivalent to the 5000 except it accommodates medium format. I'm very pleased with the results with silver based film. My standard routine is 16 bit saved as tiff with no pre-adjustment in Nikon Scan. Then I use Lightroom or Photoshop for any adjustments. The 16 bit format allows a lot of highlight and/or shadow recovery while still maintaining tonality and smooth grayscale transitions.

16bit TIFF scanning: thanks, I just did so now. While for most pictures I do not see a difference, for some there is improvement when working on the balancing. Seems I have to manually edit most of my BW stuff.

Peter.