Why does the Frame offset keep changing

[Roger Halstead]

I'm going to ask this question again, but phrasing it differently
this time.

Today I've been scanning 35 mm negatives. Two particular batches are
Ektar 1000-1 and Gold 400-2. The scanner is a Nikon LS5000-ED and I'm
using VueScan 8.0.5.

The Frame offset is different for every film strip. The offset varies
from 1.6 to a -0.5 at the extremes.

The film strips have clean ends and no open perforations (sprocket
holes), yet each strip has required a different off set. The clear
area prior to the image is less than 2 mm on all strips.

I don't know if this is a problem with the scanner or VueScan.

I've read the manual and the help files, but found nothing that helps
with this. OTOH for some reason the help file opens in the text
editor instead of a browser as it's HTML. Some were it's lost the
association.

I have opened the PDF manual, but still didn't find anything to help.

Any one have any ideas?

Roger Halstead (K8RI & ARRL life member)
(N833R, S# CD-2 Worlds oldest Debonair)
www.rogerhalstead.com

 

[Jeff Randall]

Roger:

Frame offset with Nikon scanners (I have an LS4000) has been a
challenge since the beginning with VueScan. As stated in the User's
Guide (Input Tab Frame offset) "The starting position of a frame is
affected by how the start of each frame is related to the sprocket
holes." So if the start of the 1st frame is not exactly the same
distance to the sprocket holes then the offset will be different.

Developing a more robust way of automatically centering frames is
still on Ed Hamrick's TO DO list. I saw in a recent post by him that
it is back on his radar. Let's hope it gets a Hamrick "Significant
improvement" rating soon.

Jeff Randall

 

[Roger Halstead]

Roger:
Thanks,

Frame offset with Nikon scanners (I have an LS4000) has been a
challenge since the beginning with VueScan. As stated in the User's
Guide (Input Tab Frame offset) "The starting position of a frame is

I searched and read but never saw it mentioned. I must have skipped
over it, but I thought I was thorough or are you referring to the
Nikon scanner's user's guide? It does say that, but NikonScan doesn't
seem to care.

affected by how the start of each frame is related to the sprocket
holes." So if the start of the 1st frame is not exactly the same
distance to the sprocket holes then the offset will be different.

There's always at least a tiny difference. On my film strips the
difference shouldn't be more than a mm or two at most, but as I
mentioned the off set varies from 1.6 to -0.6. Today it was from 2
to -1.6

Developing a more robust way of automatically centering frames is
still on Ed Hamrick's TO DO list. I saw in a recent post by him that
it is back on his radar. Let's hope it gets a Hamrick "Significant
improvement" rating soon.

Amen! I really like VueScan's capabilities although it has so many
it is not quite as user friendly as NikonScan. I much prefer VueScan
except for the frame offset. I may run through two or three rolls
with the off set around 0 and then the next one requires setting it
for each film strip.

Roger Halstead (K8RI & ARRL life member)
(N833R, S# CD-2 Worlds oldest Debonair)
www.rogerhalstead.com

 

[Jeff Randall]

I searched and read but never saw it mentioned. I must have skipped
over it, but I thought I was thorough or are you referring to the
Nikon scanner's user's guide? It does say that, but NikonScan doesn't
seem to care.

Apples and oranges. NikonScan previews the entire strip and probably
uses the unexposed areas between frames to locate the frames. VueScan
uses the sprocket holes.

There's always at least a tiny difference. On my film strips the
difference shouldn't be more than a mm or two at most, but as I
mentioned the off set varies from 1.6 to -0.6. Today it was from 2
to -1.6

Agreed. Somewhat random was what I concluded during the
experimentation I conducted a couple of years ago (or at least I
wasn't able to decode the signal).

Jeff Randall