Nikon Coolscan V - bw neg. scanning and limited dynamic range

[joshua daniels]

I have just started working with the Nikon Coolscan V. I have a number

of black and white negs I wish to scan, and I have for the last day

been working with a roll of Neopan 400 - one of my favorite films. I

have already scanned most of the roll on an Epson 3200, and aside from

sharpness the scans show excellent tonality and dynamic range. The

scans from the Nikon, while much sharper, are much inferior in dynamic

range. I have played with the curves, changed the clipping settings in

Preferences to 0%, and done everything I can think of to improve the

captured range, but to no avail. The Nikon scan clearly lacks the

range of the Epson. Is there some "trick" to getting a wide dynamic

range from the Nikon scanner?

[kris]

Do you scan the B&W negative as B&W negs? Try scanning it as colour positive. It works on my SD IV.

<p>

On the other hand, it's probably caused by LED based illumination which is not very friendly to silver based emulsions. <a href=http://www.photozone.de/2Equipment/reviews/elitecoolscan.htm>See this page for an explanation</a>.

[chiswick_john]

Use Vuescan - Nikonscan clips the highlights with negs (and shadows in tranny) to avoid revealing noise.

[pdumais]

And turn the ICE off, if you're not doing that already.