Crazy banding on brand new Coolscan

[sanmich]

Hi all.

Just received a refurbished coolscan 5000.
life was good untill I started to use the FH-3 with slide adapter.
for some reason, I get this horrible banding. And it's random, coming and going...10 times clean, 15 times the shot is banded.
any clue on what could be the cause of it??

 

[sanmich]

Anyone??

Come on gentlemen, I know you can do better... 🙂
Is it, or isnt'it a malfunction??

 

[sevo]

Don't know about the 5000, but erratic banding on scanners almost always is due to dirt or obstructions on the calibration area.

 

[jke]

If you search banding and Coolscan on the Internet, you will see that the 8000 had quite a bit of problem with this. Let's see if I can dredge up two solutions to try.

One, in the Nikon software under "Scanner Extras" run the calibrate routine. This seems to reset the scan unit inside the machine and gets it to read light and dark better and reduce or eliminate banding.

Two, also under "Scanner Extras" change the CCD mode to "SuperFine mode". Banding seems to show up when there is higher contrast. Turning on Super Fine mode means that the scanner uses only one of three lines of the CCD. Sometimes that helps.

I have also found that some scans respond more favorably to being first scanned as thumbnails, then as previews, and then as final scans, with AF used at each step of the way. You also might toggle the Digital ICE function and see if scanning the negative with a different setting there (Normal, Fine, Off.)

I don't use any other settings when I scan than DPI (usually 4000) and Digital ICE (usually normal) so I can't comment on the other features. I also have a 9000, but I think the software is basically the same.

Good luck! I guess there is always the chance that the remanufacturing yours got may not have worked, so if the problems persist, I hope you can send it back.

 

[Tuolumne]

I seem to recall reading that a dedicated USB card might make a difference. Are you running it into a USB hub? If so, giving it a dedicated USB port might help. I also recall reading complaints about banding problems on B&H's feedback page for this scanner. No remedies suggested there.

/T

 

[sanmich]

Thanks a lot for the answers so far:
I'll start by the things that can't be:
ICE is off since I scanned Kodachrome and B&W
No USB Hub
The problem appears exclusively with the FH-3 stuck into the slide adapter.
No problem with the MF-21.😱😕
The problem is random. the same slibe/neg will scan wrong ten times in a row, and then good for ten times.
restartinng things/ switching to vuescan/ reinserting the film or the adapter don't seem to have an effect .
sometimes, the banding appears in while the whole exposition is WAY off.

I'll try that recalibration routine when I'm back home.
I wonder:
Is there a special place in the MF-21 / FH-3 that allows for the calibration??
something that I have to keep clear and maybe I align wrongly on the FH-3??

Thanks again! Please continue to help! I'm really freaked out by my brand new 1k$ paperwheight:bang: (I know I'm taking this hard, but you know, big expectation, lots of money...)

 

[sevo]

Does the FH-3 have a on-holder calibration zone, or can it obstruct or otherwise affect a internal calibration area on the scanner?

Pretty much every scanner (except for older drum scanners that needed a separate empty calibration run) uses some blank area to calibrate the sensor line, and if that blank area contains dust or parts of the film strip, you'll calibrate it on that pattern, so that a negative of it will run telegraph-wire wise across the scan.

Sevo

 

[40oz]

in my experience, scanners generally show banding when they get hot. Does this show up after scanning for a while? If it appears right away, exchange the scanner. Either it is an out-right malfunction or an issue with the scanner design. It's up to you to decide whether it works as you expected or not.

 

[rogue_designer]

Does the FH-3 have a on-holder calibration zone, or can it obstruct or otherwise affect a internal calibration area on the scanner?

Pretty much every scanner (except for older drum scanners that needed a separate empty calibration run) uses some blank area to calibrate the sensor line, and if that blank area contains dust or parts of the film strip, you'll calibrate it on that pattern, so that a negative of it will run telegraph-wire wise across the scan.

Sevo

I'm with Sevo on this one - I would guess the FH-3 holder is either interfering with the calibration or needs cleaning. Check the holder carefully - maybe see if you can procure a replacement holder.

 

[Robert Lai]

I have the FH-3, but I've actually never used it. My impression was that it was useful only for very short strips of film (e.g. one or two frames). I use the automated slide feeder or the strip film feeder instead.

If you're using Nikon Scan and Kodachrome film, one of the pleasures of the CS5000 is that ICE4 works properly with Kodachrome. You need to specify Kodachrome in the drop down box for "Film Type".

A word about the USB ports. The more USB items you have plugged in the computer, the more times the computer diverts its attention away from the scanner. It can then lead to dropouts or freezing up of the scanner. I use a dedicated USB port (not a hub), and unplug everything else before using the scanner (except for the keyboard, which is a USB port item also). Also, depending on the vintage of your computer, make sure the port is running at the higher speed USB 2.0 specification, rather than the slow original specification. You may have to play around with the Windows Hardware / Device Manager screens for this.

 

[sanmich]

Again, thanks a lot for the help.
I understand now that I don't know much about scanning...
The FH-3 HAS a small rectangular window near each frame.
What is weird is that the window is actually showing material from the next frame.
What is even more weird is that a regular mounted slide doesn't have this small window, so how can it be an importan feature 😕

I tried to play again with the scanner, and this time, all went good, no banding whatsoever.
I mean that I TRIED to reproduce the mlafunction with no success. I totally / partially obstructed the window, didn't allow the scanner to calibrate, calibrate it with nikon scan on kodachrome, then moved with vuescan to B&W (assuming vuescan doesn't calibrate everytime the scanner is lit on, but is this true??) without any success. That should be good news, but I don't think it is. It still leaves the problem under the "random malfunction" category (The worse, you will agree:bang🙂.

What is "calibration" for a scanner anyway??

I'll continue to experiment...

Any other idea??

 

[kully]

I have had the same problems with my LS-50. The problem was the Nikon software not getting enough CPU cycles to process the incoming data from the scanner. Are you running other stuff at the same time? Remember that background processes can be running without you knowing (virus scanning &c.).

No problems since.

 

[Robert Lai]

Yes, I tried to point that out in my post too - minimize the distractions for the CPU. Really, don't run anything in the background if you can help it, and remove or turn off extra peripherals attached to USB ports.

Calibration is automatically done by the scanner when you first turn it on, or when you request it via software (icommand is present in Nikon Scan). What it does is to adjust the output of the Red, Green, and Blue (RGB) sensors so that they put out the same level of signal for the same light intensity - i.e. maintains color neutrality in the scanner.

After a long series of scans, if you start to notice a color cast on the last scans compared to the first, you may need to recalibrate. However, in practice, I've never had to do this - even with 40 slides scanned as a batch, using a large amount of multisampling e.g. 8 or 16x, or with Vuescan doing two passes (multiexposure) with multisampling. The Coolscan 5000 really doesn't drift at all in its color response.

 

[mh2000]

The FH-3 holds the film flatter than the strip feeder, especially if your film has a bit of curl.

>>I have the FH-3, but I've actually never used it. My impression was that it was useful only for very short strips of film (e.g. one or two frames). I use the automated slide feeder or the strip film feeder instead.

 

[sanmich]

Folks,
I see your point about the CPU, but why is it only appearing with the MF-21/FH-3 ??
Is the other feeder less CPU demanding?

 

[Tuolumne]

I have had the same problems with my LS-50. The problem was the Nikon software not getting enough CPU cycles to process the incoming data from the scanner. Are you running other stuff at the same time? Remember that background processes can be running without you knowing (virus scanning &c.).

No problems since.

I think this was also the point about using a dedicated USB card. USB interrupts can apparently steal data cycles and starve the scanner of input. So, if you do something like fool around with the mouse or the keyboard while scanning, that can result in lost data. This would also make the banding seem completely unpredictable.


/T

 

[djon]

USB adapters are trouble (they sometimes work but even their manufacturers warn that they're unreliable). Install a USB CARD if you don't have one: $100+

Scanners in general are sensitive to RF and static. If a motor (such as copier or printer or fan) or fluorescent tube, or TV set is running within a foot or two of the scanner it may cause problems. ]

 

[sanmich]

Scanners in general are sensitive to RF and static. If a motor (such as copier or printer or fan) or fluorescent tube, or TV set is running within a foot or two of the scanner it may cause problems. ]

Wait a minute....

That reminds me that the day I scanned the bended frames, there was a thunderstorm of static running in the room. low temp outside, lots of heating, very dry air...
I even got a couple of very nasty sparks from the scanner in person.

Could it be THAT???
and if so, how well are these delicate instruments protected from statics?
Do I need to ground it?
Meanwhile, no way to reproduce the problem. everything goes fairly ok.

I'm adding a new sample of the problem...

 

[Robert Lai]

I had these bands when I first started with my Coolscan 5000, and I hooked it up to a USB hub. After the modifications I suggested (i.e. dedicated USB port), there hasn't been any problem. The bands represent input data dropouts when the CPU was occupied elsewhere while the scanner was still feeding a stream of information.

As for the static resistance of the scanner: the case is all metal, and grounded via the 3rd prong on the power cable, so you should be OK.