How hard/easy are Fuji NPx films to scan?

[dano1]

Hey all.

 

I'm experimenting with medium format, and am looking at buying some

film. All of these negs (I can't afford tranparency development) will

be scanned using an Epson 2450.

 

I have used Fuji NPH 120 and all I can say is that it was a real pain

in the dairy air to work with. I just could not get the colors right.

Worse, there is no NPH profile in Vuescan, perhaps even Ed himself

gave up trying.

 

Are all the other NPx films the same way? Like NPS and NPC? Do they

all have that odd dark pink color cast to them?

 

Thanks,

Dan O.

[miha_steinb_cher]

Dan,

 

I've hit the same problem in both 120 (using Epson 3200) and 135 (using Nikon Coolscan V ED) formats, unfortunately no solution so far. Switched to Velvia/Astia and Press 400 in 135 format when higher ISO is needed.

 

Best regards,

 

Miha

[mag_miksch]

Velvia is very hard or sometimes impossible to scan with flatbed, I changed to Provia for that reason.

[Ed_Ingold]

I scan NPH and NPS without any exceptional problem, using NikonScan or Silverfast AI. I do find that I get more consistent results with SilverFast, which has profiles for most common film types. Silverfast AI is not very expensive for a 2450, and I highly recommend it.

 

I have an Epson 2450 and a Nikon LS-8000, and scan both 35mm and 120 film. I have used the 2450, mainly for 120 and 4x5, until getting the LS-8000. The software that comes with the Epson is ... (biting my tongue) ... not very helpful, either for workflow or color management. SilverFast gives me a common interface between scanners, and works very well. I've never tried Vuescan, so I can't make a comparison.

 

I have had problems with color balance when developing film with Patterson kits, which use a combined bleach-fixer (blix) step. The process tends to leave silver in the film, which makes it hard to scan, especially with Digital ICE. Processing with Kodak chemicals or Fuji Frontier is much better.

[roger_smith4]

NPH in 135 is fairly easy to scan. I never use Vuescan's film profiles.

Use Vuescan's advanced workflow to lock the film base color and then shoot a grey card under flash/daylight somewhere on the roll to set color balance (right-click). If you need a more precise workflow email me.

[dano1]

Thanks guys, it seems I'm not alone.

 

I'm still surprized that Fuji makes so few ISO 400 120 films, mainly becuase it's so much easier to shoot 400 with 120.

 

Of course, I should probably be shooting 100 or thereabouts anyway with my Mamiya C3. 1/500th sec is pretty good for a 40 year old TLR, but with Sunny 16 it means the largest aperture I can use would be f/11. (I always overexpose rather than under).

 

Having just f/11 doesn't exactly give me much creative freedom. However, 400 ISO would sure be nice for those indoor shots of the family, or cloudy day photography.

 

I think I'll try Portra VC 120 film for the 400 ISO and see how I like it.

 

I could also buy some expired Superia Xtra 400 pretty cheap, but the most recent date on that stuff is 2003. Would it still be good?

 

Thanks,

Dan O.

[dano1]

Just thought I'd show you one of my scans from NPH. The only color that I find wrong is the skin tone. My nephews do not have that color skin.

[bill_tuthill]

If you're wedded to Vuescan, I recommend switching to Kodak 400UC.

It scans well with the Royal Gold generation 2 (100 or 400 depending

on taste) profile. NPH and 400UC are very similar so you shouldn't

be disappointed.

[lacy_dillard]

I found NPZ easier to scan than NPH, but NPC is better than both. My NPC scans are perfect every time, and the color is always beautiful. What I've really had trouble scanning is Kodak 400UC. It just doesn't work for me. Also .. I think that NPH and NPZ both scan better if they're slightly overexposed, but I've yet to do any testing.

 

I'd love to try Provia 100F, but I hear you about the cost. I'm spending $15 a week on developing, and that's a lot for a student. I'm so glad that negs are only $2.50!

[david_elm]

I scan Fuji NPH400 with vuescan with no color correction selected

on the color tab and then apply a custom film profile to the image

in Photoshop CS. I am still experimenting with this but suspect

I will need film profiles for various color temperatures.

With vuescan next best would be the built-in film profile or the simple matrix film profile that can be generated with vuescan.

For NPH I select GENERIC 'negative vendor'.

 

Suggested reading is "Color Management" second edition by Fraser, Murphy, and Bunting.

[vincent_j_m]

Yes you can read up all the theory you want on color management, and then proceed to spend 1000 hours fine tuning your color management process. I got so sick and tired of NPH that I just switched to plain old Superia for 35mm. It scans extremely well and needs almost no color correction. I've made a 20x24" print (from our local Fuji lab) from a Superia 200 neg which just blew me away. At 100-200 ISO, all fuji films are great.

[eric merrill]

I'm happy with my results scanning NPH in 135 format. Click for a larger version:

 

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<a href="http://www.merrillphotography.com/portrait/candid/inside/corn_cob.html"><img alt="Corn on the Cob" src="http://www.merrillphotography.com/canid/pics/jbm_corn2_small.jpg" border='0'></a>

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I use Vuescan's "advanced" workflow and set the color on something neutral. Works fairly painlessly.