Autofocus failing on Nikon LS-2000

[Jay]

Hi, all. Here's a summary of my adventures.

My LS-2000 was doing a really bad job scanning (scans just looked
bad). I posted on alt.comp.periphs.scanner and began to wait for help.
Being impatient, I thought I would take the cover off the scanner and
see if the mirror was dirty. Well, the lower mirror was CAKED with
dust. It was thick enought that my lens brush wouldn't make a dent, so
I proceeded to take the scanner completely apart (which is what you
have to do to get the lower mirror out). If you want to see what the
inner workings of an LS-2000 look like, go here:
http://www.birdus.com/scanner/photos.htm. Pretty cool!

Anyway, the last two photos show the before and after of the lower
mirror. Like night and day!!! Anyway, it's back together now, but the
autofocus fails. NikonScan tells me that it won't autofocus and I
should set the focus point manually. Mac, on the other news group
suggested I try VueScan. Well, it didn't work either. I can make a
scan, but it's grossly out of fucus. So, basically, there's a hardware
issue. Nikon Scan gives me a message and VueScan just ignores it.

I don't really want to pay Nikon a couple hundred bucks to fix it. I
did notice that there are a couple components which are adjustable.
The upper tray (which contains the LEDs, two prisms, and a mirror) can
be adjusted slightly, and the same thing with the CCD (?) unit which
receives the light at the end of its journey. These are only very
slightly adjustable, so this may never be an issue. Don't know. So,
how do I fix what I have broken? Ideas?

Thanks,
Jay

 

[Kennedy McEwen]

Hi, all. Here's a summary of my adventures.

My LS-2000 was doing a really bad job scanning (scans just looked
bad). I posted on alt.comp.periphs.scanner and began to wait for help.
Being impatient, I thought I would take the cover off the scanner and
see if the mirror was dirty. Well, the lower mirror was CAKED with
dust. It was thick enought that my lens brush wouldn't make a dent, so
I proceeded to take the scanner completely apart (which is what you
have to do to get the lower mirror out). If you want to see what the
inner workings of an LS-2000 look like, go here:
http://www.birdus.com/scanner/photos.htm. Pretty cool!

Anyway, the last two photos show the before and after of the lower
mirror. Like night and day!!! Anyway, it's back together now, but the
autofocus fails. NikonScan tells me that it won't autofocus and I
should set the focus point manually. Mac, on the other news group
suggested I try VueScan. Well, it didn't work either. I can make a
scan, but it's grossly out of fucus. So, basically, there's a hardware
issue. Nikon Scan gives me a message and VueScan just ignores it.

I don't really want to pay Nikon a couple hundred bucks to fix it. I
did notice that there are a couple components which are adjustable.
The upper tray (which contains the LEDs, two prisms, and a mirror) can
be adjusted slightly, and the same thing with the CCD (?) unit which
receives the light at the end of its journey. These are only very
slightly adjustable, so this may never be an issue. Don't know. So,
how do I fix what I have broken? Ideas?

Jay,
basically you have managed to move something in the optical path between
the film and the CCD - probably the lens assembly, the mirror or the CCD
encapsulation itself - so that the range of the focus adjustment is no
longer enough to create a sharp image of the sensor on the CCD. The
only way to resolve this is to disassemble the scanner again, make sure
that everything is mounted correctly and then try moving the lens back
and forth in its mount, noting the image focus produced each time, until
you get a sharp image in the middle of the manual focus range again.

There is no easy way around this - short of getting someone else (ie.
Nikon) to do it for you.