MF film with Nikon 9000ED

[RF-Addict]

I love my Nikon Coolscan 9000 for 35mm film, but I have real problems scanning MF film and hope someone here can point me in the right direction ( i use the Nikon software, I also have Vuescan, but I hate that even more).

I have both the holder that came with the scanner (without glass) and I also bought the Nikon holder with glass to keep the film flat (I forgot which model number it is, but it allows you to scan up to 4 645 negatives).

The problem I have is spacing between frames - Nikonscan is not able to detect where a frome stops and another one starts - regardless of the holders I use. The strange thing is that sometimes it works fine and when I do a rescan of the thumbnales with the exact same holder and same frames, it changes the spacing and gets all screwed up.

The Nikon documentation is about as use less as it gets, so I am hoping someone here can tell me what I am doing wrong.:bang: :bang:

 

[mfogiel]

RF-Addict,
I have good news and bad news: the good news is that getting great scans from your equipment is entirely possible, the bad news is, that to get the best results you cannot automate entirely the process, as you should be carefully framing each photo in preview in order not to include transparent film in the scan, and in order to be able to adjust correctly the black and white points.
Personally I use Vuescan, as it enables me to have a much better control over everything, and it has numerous film profiles ready.
If you want, tell me what type of film do you want to scan, and I will walk you through all the vuescan settings for good results.

 

[R2-D2]

Personally I use Vuescan, as it enables me to have a much better control over everything, and it has numerous film profiles ready.

Does having control over "everything" lead to better image quality? On the Nikon scanners I used, VueScan delivers inferior results with color negatives compared to Nikon Scan. Plus, the "infrared cleaning" of VueScan is much less effective than Nikon Scan's "real" ("real" as in "licensed from Kodak") implementation of ICE.

If you want, tell me what type of film do you want to scan, and I will walk you through all the vuescan settings for good results.

OK, what are your settings for color negatives? VueScan's film profiles aren't very accurate...

 

[RF-Addict]

My problem is not the quality of the scans - I get very good scans in both B&W and color, my problem is that the Nikon software does not recognize the frames for MF film. I always carefully frmae in preview, but the previews I get are cut off in the middle - in other words the blank space between the frames shows up in the middle of the frame and ruins everything. Anyone having the same problem? Is the only solution to use a 3rd party program like Vuescan and deal with the spacing issues there? Why wouldn't the damn Nikon software scan the entire are of the filstrip and let me crop the one I want for the final scan?

 

[rogue_designer]

doesn't the nikon software allow two preview modes? Filmstrip versus frame?

edit - after downloading the manual, no... it appears it doesn't.

Hmmm.

 

[MikeL]

RF-Addict, just to double check, you are selecting the correct film size?

Second, have you tried using the black spacers?

 

[mfogiel]

RF-Addict
Try Vuescan, and when previewing the first 2 6x6 frames, start the frame offset at -40 (minus 40), then go to -60 for the last 6x6 frame or the last two 6x4.5 frames. Make sure you display the histogram at the bottom of the input tab, set the framing carefully to avoid scanning the borders, and adjust the black and white point. For B&W I find the TMax 400, d76 0.40 density setting works best to avoid clipping, and if not enough, scan as positive instead than as B&W negative. For silver films switch the digital ICE off, for C41 and E6 films I use the medium ICE, and have found it in testing to work very well, and without any loss in sharpness. I scan at 4000dpi and get a Tiff uncompressed file out.

 

[RF-Addict]

Hello everyone,

thanks for all the suggestions. Yes, I specify 645 in the Nikon software - I have not tried the balck spacers yet - that'll be next. I just don;t understand why Nikon had to make this so akward to get it right. I scan all my silver film as positives - I find I get better control of the grain that way. I'll just have to experiment more - I wasn't sure that I wasn't doing anything stupid, but it sounds like there is no easy fix.

Oh, well - on we go.

Thanks again