RPS 7200 / 7250pro3 banding issue

[rumblesushi]

Hello,

I recently bought a Pacific Image 7250pro3 (and a Plustek 8100) and unfortunately it has a hardcore banding issue, particularly plain areas of B&W negatives.

Doesn't affect slides at all, and you have to look hard to see it on colour negatives.

It's a shame as I'm otherwise very pleased with the machine. From what I've seen the colour reproduction on slides is as good as it gets in this price range.

Here are 2 examples. Same place every time.

http://rumblesushi.com/photos/streak1.jpg

http://rumblesushi.com/photos/streak2.jpg

I have heard of banding issues with this machine before, but I think it was on slides, and looked like lots of small, thin lines. As you can see, mine is just one big band on B&W negatives.

I've tried everything - all 3 softwares, cropping to ensure blank film isn't being scanned, different resolutions, different settings, letting it warm up sufficiently, unplugging all other peripherals. Nothing makes a difference.

Have any of you guys found a fix, or do I simply have to send it back until I get a working one?

Cheers.

 

[Gregoyle]

I don't have this scanner, but have you tried to see if you can scan using just one channel (i.e. blue, green)? Maybe one of the channels is giving you trouble.

I have heard of this issue with this scanner before, which is a shame because it is the only inexpensive scanner other than a Pakon that can scan a whole roll.
-Greg

 

[k__43]

i got much finer lines in my scans from the Plustek 8200 until I figured that scanning at full res and down-scaling later helped.

 

[rscheffler]

Are you using a B&W negative setting in the scanner software and adjusting previews for each image you scan? I wonder if it might be an option to do a preview scan of a slide first, then use the same setting for B&W negs? The negs should be within the dynamic range of a slide, so should be fully adjustable/recoverable later in post. Would probably help to scan as 16 bit too. Not sure how this might affect other aspects, such as focus or batch scanning. Of course the resulting scans will be direct positives of the negatives, but it's an easy fix in Photoshop.

 

[rumblesushi]

Gregoyle - interesting, never heard of the Pakon before. Looks like a very nifty little machine, possibly the fastest batch scanner there is? And judging from this thread http://www.rangefinderforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=70129&page=3 updated firmware does B&W.

I'm tempted to get one of these too now, but aaaimaging charge the rather absurd price of $250 to ship to England.

Not sure how to about scanning just one channel, these are 16bit grayscale scans, but I've tried 8bit and even scanning as a colour negative.

k__43 - tried that too actually, tried scanning from 1800 to 7200 dpi, no difference.

It is a shame, because the image quality is great for the price. B&W is good (not as good as the Plustek) but the performance on colour slides is superb. Batch scanning is handy too, albeit very temperamental.

Obviously it doesn't count sprocket holes, it tries to detect the edge of the image I think. On laterally curved film, it often misframes on frame 1 by as much as 50%. For some reason Cyberview seems to do a lot better than Vuescan, but is slower, has worse image quality and no raw files.

For fellow owners of this machine I have worked out a trick to get even curved strips batching 90% of the time in Vuescan. Scan in reverse order. Put the strip in, hold the "forward" button on the machine to get to the last frame, then select "list" in the batch scanning options and input 4-1 or 6-1.

 

[rumblesushi]

Are you using a B&W negative setting in the scanner software and adjusting previews for each image you scan? I wonder if it might be an option to do a preview scan of a slide first, then use the same setting for B&W negs? The negs should be within the dynamic range of a slide, so should be fully adjustable/recoverable later in post. Would probably help to scan as 16 bit too. Not sure how this might affect other aspects, such as focus or batch scanning. Of course the resulting scans will be direct positives of the negatives, but it's an easy fix in Photoshop.

Not sure about using the settings from a slide preview, could be worth trying, but I did try scanning as a positive which I really hoped would work - but alas it was exactly the same upon inverting it.

Really weird, it seems like it is simply B&W emulsion that causes it.

 

[Darthfeeble]

Are the negs that show the band machine processed? Have you given the negs a real critical look? Just like noise, the scanner will emphasize a flaw in the negative that might have been caused by machine processing.

 

[rscheffler]

Yeah, scanning as a positive is what I found in the past worked well on other scanners (at work years ago). The batch scanning capability of this one is of interest to me, so after your post here, I started reading user reviews on B&H, Amazon, etc. and some reported the same, or very similar streak/banding defect...

 

[rumblesushi]

Are the negs that show the band machine processed? Have you given the negs a real critical look? Just like noise, the scanner will emphasize a flaw in the negative that might have been caused by machine processing.

It's definitely the scanner. I've scanned about 50 B&W images, and it's evident on plain areas in the exact same place every time.

If there was any doubt beyond that, the same very same negs scan with no bands on the Plustek 🙂 http://rumblesushi.com/photos/plustek_01.jpg

 

[rumblesushi]

Yeah, scanning as a positive is what I found in the past worked well on other scanners (at work years ago). The batch scanning capability of this one is of interest to me, so after your post here, I started reading user reviews on B&H, Amazon, etc. and some reported the same, or very similar streak/banding defect...

Oh really, you saw similar banding on other scanners and it was solved by scanning as a positive?

The funny thing is, if the new one Amazon sends me is the same, I'm tempted to keep it purely for slides - as the colour reproduction is excellent. And for B&W I'm very impressed with the Plustek 8100, even the grain is crystal clear at 3600 dpi.

 

[rumblesushi]

Just to let you guys know, Amazon sent me a new one that works great, no banding at all on the exact same shots.

I also found out the old one did indeed exhibit the problem, I just hadn't scanned a slide with a plain, dark enough area. It basically happens on very dark patches of film, so bright negatives or dark slides.

This model obviously has awful quality control, given the amount of complaints about it online, but if you get a good one I think it's the best scanner you can get for the money.

I even have batch scanning working reliably by scanning in reverse (list 6-1 or 4-1 in Vuescan). It struggles with frame 1 and with film that curves vertically, but for film that is flat enough, batching in reverse works almost every time.

This new machine even has a sharper lens than the old one, there is a lot of variation with this model. If you want one just make sure you buy it from somewhere with good returns, ie Amazon 😉