film strip alignment on Vuescan

[thurston.david]

I am having a lot of trouble getting the film to register in the
correct position when batch scanning with the SA-21 film strip feeder
on a Nikon LS-4000. I have noted the points made in the Vuescan User
Guide page 37, but I find that sometimes adjusting the "Crop/Frame
offset" field makes no difference, even after measuring the distance
with the mouse on the Y position of the cursor (shouldn't that anyway
be the position on the X direction?). Am I doing something wrong?
Sometimes I give up and use the FH-3 strip film holder, but the is very
time consuming
Somehow the Nikon software gets round this problem of alignment, but I
much prefer Vuescan as a tool.

 

[John]

I am having a lot of trouble getting the film to register in the
correct position when batch scanning with the SA-21 film strip feeder
on a Nikon LS-4000. I have noted the points made in the Vuescan User
Guide page 37, but I find that sometimes adjusting the "Crop/Frame
offset" field makes no difference, even after measuring the distance
with the mouse on the Y position of the cursor

When this happens, it usually means it needs an offset of the opposite sign.
BTW I assume you are previewing frame 2 as suggested in the manual? If you
use frame 1 things can get confusing for that reason.

(shouldn't that anyway be the position on the X direction?).

That depends whether you have rotated the frame or not

Am I doing something wrong?
Sometimes I give up and use the FH-3 strip film holder, but the is very
time consuming

If your film is cut into strips of 6, than I agree that the SA-20 saves a
lot of time. However, for strips of 4, I'm not as convinced, particularly
when you take into account that the end frames will invariably have one edge
out of focus because of the curl of the film. Vuescan saves time in other
ways (e.g. negative colour balance) so overall I think there is a gain even
when using the FH-3. If you set up Vuescan so that the scan starts
automatically when the film is inserted, all you have to do is select the
next frame and reinsert the holder. If you are working at the machine anyway
you can rattle through them fairly quickly, and know that the end frames
will be kept flat. However if you like frequent escapes from your machine,
then it is a problem.

Somehow the Nikon software gets round this problem of alignment, but I
much prefer Vuescan as a tool.

I agree than NikonScan does a better job in this respect. The Vuescan manual
states "There's no automatic alignment of the start of the frame with the
sprocket holes in the current version of VueScan" which may imply that there
may be in future versions. One for the suggestion box, perhaps?

 

[Jeff Randall]

I agree than NikonScan does a better job in this respect. The Vuescan manual
states "There's no automatic alignment of the start of the frame with the
sprocket holes in the current version of VueScan" which may imply that there
may be in future versions. One for the suggestion box, perhaps?

This feature request was placed in Ed's suggestion box 3 or 4 years ago
and has been renewed about once a year when Ed has asked for
suggestions. Because Ed seems to priortize his efforts based on the
overall demand, I suggest you email him and request the Coolscan frame
alignment feature. The more requests from different folks the more
likely he will work on it.

Another long standing request is the Calibration feature that does not
work with Coolscans. Based on recent threads in this newsgroup, this
may now be reaching the top of Ed's ToDoList.

Jeff Randall

 

[John]

Replace 'nospam' with 'todnet' when replying.

Another long standing request is the Calibration feature that does not
work with Coolscans. Based on recent threads in this newsgroup, this
may now be reaching the top of Ed's ToDoList.

Better than that - it's done! Version 8.1.38 released last night.