using nikon SA-21 film strip feeder

[MCTuomey]

anyone using the SA-21 feeder experience having negatives on a strip of film misaligned, as in 1/3 of one neg and 2/3 of another neg on each thumbnail preview?

i hadn't used my 4000 in awhile, got it set up, and had several strips misfeed as described above. never had this happen. advice?

 

[fbf]

What software are you using?
I had the same problem with V ed before and I have seen ppl mentioning the same problem on the web. Reset your preview or restart the software and machine should resolve the problem.

In short, don't worry. it's normal.

 

[MCTuomey]

thanks, fbf. i'll give that a try next session - i feel better 🙂

i'm using nikon scan, btw.

 

[sojournerphoto]

only scanning negative as positive - it can't find the brealks then

 

[J J Kapsberger]

My Nikon CoolScan V ED seems to align the frames no problem when scanning strips of transparencies. However, it's a crap shoot when scanning BW negs. The maddening thing is that my scanner defaults to a custom colour negative setting and when I do the thumbnail multi-frame preview it shows the frames perfectly. Then I switch to a BW setting and the stupid thing just can't align the frames to save its imaginary life.

One of the Vuescan updates addressed this issue. Actually it didn't. The CoolScan's as inept as ever whether I use the Nikon software or Vuescan and scan BW as positive or negative.

 

[MCTuomey]

sojphoto, if i do my B&W thumbnails as negatives, then switch setting to positive for preview and full scan, i should be good to go? interesting! i'll try this and post back.

jj, i see you're a fan of coolscans 🙂

 

[sojournerphoto]

No, sorry - you can try doing the thumbs and preview as a B&W neg and then switch to positive for the single frame scan - that sometimes works.

If I try to get my 5000 to recognise frame adges on b&w film in positive mode it misses every frame!! Alternatively, buy an FH3 then you can scan how you want, but one rame ata time.

Mike

 

[fbf]

Mike, you should give vuescan a try. It makes a big difference (at least for me). It gives you more control of your scan. I don't like playing with the scans in ps too much so I do most of my work in vuescan and then maybe some curve and color balance in ps or lightroom.

 

[sojournerphoto]

I've downloaded the demo, but not yet got to grips with the interface - I might have ago voer Christmas...

Thanks

Mike

 

[maddoc]

That SA-21 was the reason why I gave up the Coolscan V ED ... Frames were rarely correctly captured when scanning BW film. It is possible to align via the software after the pre-scan but I found using the FH-3 holder giving better results with the disadvantage of not being able to do batch scans...

 

[jonmanjiro]

anyone using the SA-21 feeder experience having negatives on a strip of film misaligned, as in 1/3 of one neg and 2/3 of another neg on each thumbnail preview?

i hadn't used my 4000 in awhile, got it set up, and had several strips misfeed as described above. never had this happen. advice?

I've used a Coolscan V extensively and recently upgraded to a Coolscan 5000. The same thing happens on both these scanners, and is caused by the scanner not being able to detect the leading edge of one the images and then throwing out the positioning for the following images.

The main cuplrit is an image with a dark leading edge that the scanner cannot tell apart from the border between images. The easiest thing to do is spin the film around and feed the last image in first and scan the images upside down. I've found that this solves the problem 90% of the time.

 

[J J Kapsberger]

jj, i see you're a fan of coolscans 🙂

Totally in love with it.

 

[antistatic]

I've had no problem with the SA21, LS 5000 and Vuescan.

 

[ChrisN]

I've had this problem in two situations:

1. where the frame spacing is very tight, or I've cut the neg strip badly leaving no frame spacing before the first frame; and

2. where I've failed to fix the negs properly, leaving silver in the negaitve that upsets the scanning.

Solutions:

1. cut the negs more carefully, ensuring that the first neg of each strip has plenty of leading empty frame (lack of frame ending the last strip does not seem to cause any problems); and

2. use fresh fixer.