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Negative scanning

Yes, sorry, teaching grandma to suck eggs. I spent years letting the scans default to my Pictures file, where they got mixed up with all manner of bits and bobs when I forgot to set up distinct destination files.

How are you getting on qualitywise? Are you happy with the settings and the files you are getting?

I do linear raw scans, which give you a negative that you convert to positive using 3rd party software in Photoshop, and then process as you would a file from a digital camera. This gives the best quality, but adds a lump to your workflow, and might not be needed if you are looking for quantity over outright quality.

no problem - all tips are useful

I am not looking to print, primarily Flickr. On screen the results are fine. Yes this going to be the case of quantity over max quality. These are effectively holiday snaps. I was lucky enough that I was sufficiently anal to have kept and filed 1000s of negs

photo30 by uh_simon, on Flickr
 
That looks great, you seem to have nailed it.

I kept all my negatives, back to 1977. It took me months to scan them.
 
it is becoming a bit like archaeology - i recognise a photo and see i have misnamed the location in Flickr - boxes of negs completely unlabelled.....

I might go back to the early 1980s, but i suspect those are the ones in the unlabelled box and folders.....
 
I'm the middle of scanning all my 120 format images which is proving somewhat frustrating on the Nikon Coolscan. If an age had a dark section of negative at the beginning of end of the frame you end up with a darker stripe on the image due to light bleed in the scanning process at the frame gaps. Nikon recommend cutting strips of black masking material and placing that on the frame gaps which is a pita as the gaps are never consistent and it makes loading the film in the carrier tricky. Since with landscape images the sky is denser on the negative most shots show this anomaly. As a result any images with this banding that doesn't get cropped out need rescanning with careful masking or a lot of work in Lightroom/Photoshop.

I wonder if there's a mod to the scanner that could help but as the 9000 is worth more than I paid for it new I am reluctant to even consider that !

My old Minolta scanner wasn't affected wit this issue but sadly it's gathering dust with now way to use it due to it employing a SCSI interface.
 
I'm the middle of scanning all my 120 format images which is proving somewhat frustrating on the Nikon Coolscan. If an age had a dark section of negative at the beginning of end of the frame you end up with a darker stripe on the image due to light bleed in the scanning process at the frame gaps.

This is odd. I've been using a Coolscan 8000ED for the past 2 years and never once experienced this issue. I use the following original negative holders

FH-8695 (120 strip film)
FH-8355 (35mm strip film)

Does this happen exclusively when scanning slides? Else, could it be due to a fault with your unit?

For reference, I use two scanning programs: Nikonsan 4.0.3 and Vuescan, both on Win10 64bit. No issues with either.
 
I've only noticed the issue so far on 120 black and white scans, though to be fair I haven't scanned any slide film in 120 format. Nikon actually mantion it in the manual for the 9000, I wonder if there was a design change between the 8000 and the 9000? The 9000 came with sticky backed masking material with instructions to cut strips and place in the area between the film images, can you see if the 8000 manual also mentioned this? I do use the same film holders as you.

I use Vuescan at the moment due to NikonScan being a pain to install on Win10, but may try that out, though I am sure it's more hardware related.
 
due to NikonScan being a pain to install on Win10, but may try that out.

I used the instructions found here

https://lincolnscan.co.uk/Using NikonScan.html

Installation was smooth & painless. If you have some time, I'd recommend you try doing it. I love Vuescan but I've pretty much shifted to only using Nikon scan for colour material as the negative inversion and the resulting colours are so much superior to Vuescan (and to third party software, like Negative Lab Pro or Negmaster). Also, Nikonscan seem to be more clever than Vuescan in accurately tracking the actual frames in the strip when performing the fast preview.
 
Thanks Albireo, I had looked at that page but hadn't tried the install, did try a few years ago with other instructions but was unsuccessful. Gives me a project for the weekend!
 
I use a 9000 and Vuescan with the standard holders for 35mm and 120, and have no issues at all. I've never cut out any masks or interfered with the standard set up. I've got Nikonscan on Win 64 too (using the workaround) but I don't use it as I find the UI archaic.

It sounds to me as though your machine might need a mirror clean, Martin.
 
Took the 9000 apart and the mirror was actually quite clean, so just a quick blow off with compressed air. What I also did was to add black flocking to the bottom of the unit so as to soak up stray light that can come off the metal surface of the bottom of the scanner.

Resulting scans show quite a significant reduction in the banding that was evidence before, still there but far reduced. For most images masking between frames won't be needed. Adding flocking has been suggested for the 9000 but I hadn't seen any images illustrating the effect. Interestingly the graduation in dense areas of the negative (light on the scan) seems improved. So IMHO a win win here.
 
Aargh...just when things were going well, suddenly the tiny clips that hold the bar down that grips the film decided to shear off - no idea why the film holder was working great up till then. Nikon doesn't make the holders anymore and used ones on eBay are scarce and people want a fortune for them. Found a place in Germany that may have a spare part, otherwise I may look at finding Anti-Newton glass to convert the holder over. Folks have done this before but the source for the AN glass also seems to have dried up...
 
Aargh...just when things were going well, suddenly the tiny clips that hold the bar down that grips the film decided to shear off - no idea why the film holder was working great up till then. Nikon doesn't make the holders anymore and used ones on eBay are scarce and people want a fortune for them. Found a place in Germany that may have a spare part, otherwise I may look at finding Anti-Newton glass to convert the holder over. Folks have done this before but the source for the AN glass also seems to have dried up...

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1514948298527146

Here's the Coolscan Facebook group. Loads of knowledgeable people on here, including a couple of Yanks who do professional repair/sale of refurb Coolscans and parts. And there's more. Shoot a DM to a guy called Stephen Scharf, or Steven Scharf. Based in Germany, he 3D prints Coolscan holders of EXCEPTIONAL quality (much better than the original ones). They're not cheap tho, but cheaper than the extortionate prices seen on ebay for old Nikon holders.
 
Aargh...just when things were going well, suddenly the tiny clips that hold the bar down that grips the film decided to shear off - no idea why the film holder was working great up till then. Nikon doesn't make the holders anymore and used ones on eBay are scarce and people want a fortune for them. Found a place in Germany that may have a spare part, otherwise I may look at finding Anti-Newton glass to convert the holder over. Folks have done this before but the source for the AN glass also seems to have dried up...

My (4000) slide holder did that - one of the little plastic springs snapped so I had to fabricate a metal one and screw it onto the plastic body.
Did the other one while I was at it - many plastics get brittle with age :(
 
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1514948298527146

Here's the Coolscan Facebook group. Loads of knowledgeable people on here, including a couple of Yanks who do professional repair/sale of refurb Coolscans and parts. And there's more. Shoot a DM to a guy called Stephen Scharf, or Steven Scharf. Based in Germany, he 3D prints Coolscan holders of EXCEPTIONAL quality (much better than the original ones). They're not cheap tho, but cheaper than the extortionate prices seen on ebay for old Nikon holders.

Scharf is the man. You're looking at upwards of £250.
 
Thanks guys, I have a spare part coming from Germany, but definitely will investigate the Scharf film holder.
 
I still have my Epson V700 which I haven’t used for years but was always reluctant to sell. To be honest I still am and have no idea if it would be seen as one of the cheap ‘pants’ scanners or well regarded. But, if it is good and someone wants to borrow it and see how they get on they are welcome, I’m in Surrey.
 


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