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Noritsu Scanner Grain Removal Filter, On Versus Off


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<p>I finally found a photo lab with Noritsu scanning equipment that will turn off its default grain removal filter for me, after searching for one for a few years.</p>

<p>In late 2012, A&I turned it off when they did about 3,000 Noritsu scans of 35mm film negatives for me. But the customer service person who was helping me back then is no longer with the company, and they were purchased since that time. In late 2014, A&I's current manager said "there's no de-grain filter" on the Noritsu.</p>

<p>Richard Photo Lab and ScanCafe did test Nortisu scans for me in late 2014 and mid 2015, respectively. Both of them were either unable to figure out how to turn off the grain removal filter, or they don't want to. In late 2015, North Coast Photographic Services didn't answer my inquiry about whether they can and/or will turn it off.</p>

<p>Finally, early this year, Photo Impact Imaging here in Los Angeles did over 500 Noritsu scans of 35mm film negatives for me, with the grain removal filter turned off as requested. In fact, the operator was befuddled over why it is such a big deal for other photo labs with Noritsu scanners to turn it off. They have become my photo lab of choice for scanning film.</p>

 

<p >Here are a couple of comparisons showing the grain removal filter on and off, consisting of test scans that Photo Impact Imaging did for me. These images are drastically blown up and cropped from the original scans of the 35mm film frames. But I am able to see the difference at typical view sizes on a monitor. </p><div>00doFK-561510984.thumb.jpg.28ce60f57bfc88ef2d3b2ff9bc2a331b.jpg</div>

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<p>It appears to be a pretty good implementation of a grain reduction filter, at least to my taste. I use Neat Image in my own scans, set to remove half the noise, mainly to counteract the effect of capture sharpening with Focus Magic.</p>

<p>I wonder if you can also ask for no sharpening.</p>

<p>Al</p>

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<p>Photo Impact Imaging told me they don't turn the grain removal filter all the way up when they do use it. They achieve a sweet spot by turning it up only so much, so perhaps that is why it appears to be a good implementation of it in my comparisons. I have experienced bad implementations of it from other photo labs.</p>

<p>Re: sharpening. I think there is a setting for it. I am pretty sure all of my Noritsu scans, by A&I and Photo Impact Imaging, were done without sharpening. I find that sharpening makes film grain look worse, so I never use it.</p>

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<p>Cool test. I have always used Downtown Camera in Toronto, and their 2000x3000 scans look more like the ones without grain removal. There is a grain, but importantly it is uniform. I dislike how your "grain removed" scans have smooth areas and grainy areas, where it was trying to preserve detail.</p>

<p>Since Downtown Camera began offering an extra-high resolution option from their Noritsu, I haven't even bothered with doing any noise reduction myself. My medium format frames are amazingly grain free, and 35mm looks great. The added resolution seems to have gotten past the threshold of grain aliasing.</p>

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  • 2 months later...
<p>The photo labs probably don't like to turn it off because apparently the "hold" button only applies to color corrections, not DSA settings unless they've set up the noritsu to apply it to them too. They have to click each image and change the grain reduction.....That said, there are several default correction settings that they can have stored in the noritsu computer, they could create scan chanels with grain reduction off, medium and high, and have them listed as such on the computer screen.</p>
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