Reflective fringing when using strip holder with Elite 5400?

[mendel_leisk]

Just scanned a couple of rolls of unmounted slides with my Elite

5400, my first use of the strip holder.

 

I'm noticing some sort of reflective fringing around the edges of

many of the scans. It encroaches quite a way into the scan. It

appears to reflections of the glossy edges of the holder.

 

Anyone else experiencing this? Any ideas/solutions?

[ethervizion]

I'm sorry, but I've never experienced this with the hundreds of times that I've used the strip film holder for both negatives and slides. I get clean scans pretty much right up to the edge. Can you post an example?

[mendel_leisk]

Here's a couple:<div></div>

[mendel_leisk]

And second one:<div></div>

[ethervizion]

Well, now that you point it out, I do kind of get that effect from my scans. However, I can't tell how "big" it is in your crops. With my scans, I can hardly say that it "encroaches quite a way into the scan," but I guess that is a matter of opinion. I do get enough of the frame to satisfy me -- much more than from a mounted slide or a typical borderless print.

 

I'll see if I can post an example which shows the magnitude of the "encroachment" on my scans.

[mendel_leisk]

Those are crops of 5400 dpi scans, so on the first (short edge) example, looks to be around 300~ pixels. The long edge fringe is narrower, and different?

 

I don't get this at all with mounted slide scans. I'm almost speculating to spray paint the edges with some sort of matt black. Isn't there some kind of paint expressly for camera interiors.

[ethervizion]

Okay, I've checked some scans and I'm getting about the same as you along the long edge and I find that in the worst case it's about 40 pixels in height (acceptable to me). I cannot seem to find an example in any of my scans of the more extended effect your seeing on the narrow edge.

 

Could it be that the "slot" in the holder matters? Are these scans with the effect on the narrow edge either the first or last slot in the film holder? Also, are you using the grain dissolver? I wonder if the diffused light source might mitigate the effect.

 

Short of finding any consistency to the effect, your idea of painting the edge with a matte finish seems reasonable. I would just make sure that the paint strongly adheres to the plastic and does not start to chip off inside the scanner!

[mendel_leisk]

I was using GD/ICE.

 

The short edge example is really bad, I think. It's like ripples, about 150 pixels c/c and to get totally clear of them, I would need to crop away around 300 pixels. It's localized, in the dark area of hair adacent to the highlight.

 

The long edge stuff is fairly consitant in presence, and narrow width.

[mendel_leisk]

Or just take some VERY fine sandpaper to the edges of the holder, to break up any reflections?

[ethervizion]

Your sandpaper idea just occured to me as well. I think it would be worth a try. I can't imagine that it would have any negative effect (assuming you don't go overboard and break one of the frame dividers!).

[stephen gallimore]

Mendel,

 

I am not convinced by your conclusion, relections from the holder would cause a lightening of the image. This is something you can see if you use slide mounts with square (rather than bevelled) edges. The images you posted show a shadowing/darkening of the image, at least I assume that is the effect you are talking about. I cannot come up with a hypothesis to explain that other than some misalignment of the light source in the scanner. Note I checked several scans from last week which I haven't gotten around to postprocessing yet and they show no sign of this effect, nor have I seen it previously. You have double checked that this really isn't on the film haven't you?

 

Regards,

-stephen

[robert_k1]

"I am not convinced by your conclusion, relections from the holder would cause a lightening of the image."

 

I tend to agree. Although I only use the mount carrier on the 5400, I also found a similar problem on it with one particular slide. The film is incorrectly mounted and does not take up the full window, leaving a sliver of space at one end. Before scanning I crop out this blank area, but the scan still has a problem exactly like yours, with the "fringing" at the end where the sliver of space is. Since this is a must have slide, I remounted it and covered the sliver with another piece of film. The scan now has no "fringing", just like all my other correctly mounted slides. My theory is that this "fringing" is caused by some light leak through an area that has no film. BTW, this problem also exists on a different scanner.

[mendel_leisk]

Ok, the fringing in the first sample, along the shorter edges, and just in dark area adjacent to bright window, is flare in the film, nothing to do with the holder. I was using an antique UV filter, maybe I should take it off.

 

The fringing in the second sample still has me stumped. It's not apparent on the film. I think it's a reflection, or a very out-of-focus edge, of the holder. At any rate, it's quite narrow.