Kodak Pakon 135 + and Bulk Film

[yanchep_mike]

Hi all, Just got a Pakon 135 + scanner and i have a question regarding Bulk Film, the scanner comes up with all sorts of errors when scanning film without numbering, i have the latest (last) software drivers and use native XP. It just don't like PolypanF and also spits the Dummy on other Black&White film. Maybe i do something wrong or what ever. Please if you got this thing going please share it.
Thank You

 

[ringolam]

Hi Mike, I have not a Pakon scanner, but perhaps your film has been processed too thin to scan? I met almost same problem with 4000ED last week, and fixed it by overturn the film, multi exposure.

 

[yanchep_mike]

Thank you for reply, Neg is not thin, tried with different film, sometimes it will scan 18-20 frames and then stop, other times only 1 or 2 frames, i believe it has to do with the indexing system.
mike

 

[ringolam]

another way: Perhaps you need to clean the film-loading or transferring sensors

 

[Dante_Stella]

Indexing runs off the DX coding, and if there is none, the machine falls back on auto-detect. Thin b/w negatives can cause it to go crazy.

Dante

 

[yanchep_mike]

Thanks for your replies, I will try a couple of different films still, i got 90 day warranty so if something is not right i will get it fixed.
ringolam> I really don't want to take it apart as yet, so the cleaning might have to wait.
Dante> I believe you used to have one or still have one of this type of scanners, just a question if it falls back to some sort of auto-detect is the scanner looking for the frame numbers or the frames? It is just strange that the errors are not consistent.

Thanks again
Mike

 

[rolfe]

Make sure the leader is trimmed to a couple of mm, or about the same distance between frames. This seems to help with the autodetect for frame start. Non-coded film generally doesn't cause any problem -- you just click "index all" to number the frames starting at the first when done. It sounds like you have some other issue -- it seems that failure to complete a roll is often related to memory issues since the scanner is essentially scanning the whole roll at once.

 

[yanchep_mike]

Thank You for the advise, you are right it seems that the start of the the strip is important, after many trials i can scan 2 or 3 strips of 6 frames without problems. When i try to scan a whole film i get into trouble after about half a roll or so. Will keep trying.
Thank You

 

[joeswe]

Thank You for the advise, you are right it seems that the start of the the strip is important, after many trials i can scan 2 or 3 strips of 6 frames without problems. When i try to scan a whole film i get into trouble after about half a roll or so. Will keep trying.
Thank You

Have you set up an unformatted partition "N" to the recommended size per instructions? Sounds as if you were running out of buffering space. I'm no expert, just guessing.

 

[scholzj1]

I had a similar problem running unmarked bulk film through my pakon. It would scan 1 or 2 frames and then stop and throw all sorts of errors. With the help of the Pakon Facebook group I was able to work around the problem. When ever it has a problem scanning if you switch to blue mode by pushing the button in the top left corner that looks like two windows, one grey and one blue. It will ask for a password, just click ok. Scan in blue, simple mode and then switch back to grey mode to edit and save. It has worked every time for me. Don't give up on the Pakon, it can be finicky but once you figure it out it is really nice.
Good luck.

 

[yanchep_mike]

Thank You for the tip, and it makes a difference when i tried the "blue mode" and yes i have less and less problems after getting used to the interface. The LEDs on the scanner are importent too, and cutting the strips right seems to make a big difference too. The scanner is faster then any other scanner i have and if i need more pixels i can use the Plustek.

 

[ronw]

I had a similar problem running unmarked bulk film through my pakon. It would scan 1 or 2 frames and then stop and throw all sorts of errors. With the help of the Pakon Facebook group I was able to work around the problem. When ever it has a problem scanning if you switch to blue mode by pushing the button in the top left corner that looks like two windows, one grey and one blue. It will ask for a password, just click ok. Scan in blue, simple mode and then switch back to grey mode to edit and save. It has worked every time for me. Don't give up on the Pakon, it can be finicky but once you figure it out it is really nice.
Good luck.

i was using ilford fp4+ with dx code and the pakon was spot on for the framing. since have started scanning tri-x and was <50/50 for getting the framing right. the above however is 100% with tri-x now too. thanks!

 

[yanchep_mike]

Yes getting better results all the time, This thing is fast!
Just a frame from my testing the scanner, no post processing, crop or what ever, just file trim to below 400k.

regards
Mike

 

[Tijmendal]

I had a similar problem running unmarked bulk film through my pakon. It would scan 1 or 2 frames and then stop and throw all sorts of errors. With the help of the Pakon Facebook group I was able to work around the problem. When ever it has a problem scanning if you switch to blue mode by pushing the button in the top left corner that looks like two windows, one grey and one blue. It will ask for a password, just click ok. Scan in blue, simple mode and then switch back to grey mode to edit and save. It has worked every time for me. Don't give up on the Pakon, it can be finicky but once you figure it out it is really nice.
Good luck.

That's good to hear! Thanks