Flatten curled film for Nikon Coolscan ED V?

[bin ming]

I have 5 rolls of Fuji Reala 35mm negatives to scan with my new Coolscan V. The

negatives came back as single continuous rolls in the original plastic cylinder

box. Now, according to Nikon manual, curled film measuring 30mm or less (edge

to edge on a roll) needs an optional FH-3 holder. The outer diameter of the

cylinder box is about 30mm.

 

I cut the film into 6 frame pieces. Once in archival negative sheets, I piled

on them heavy big books, more than a foot tall. After removing the books three

days later, the film is still curled.

 

My question is how much of an out of focus issue if I go ahead without the FH-3

holder. I've used Vuescan "scanning to RAW" and the advanced workflow on a

previous Minolta Scan Dual. No need for individual previews. Unfortunately it

appears the FH-3 is not compatible with batch scanning.

 

In Vuescan, I only select "light" for infrared clean and leave anything else

unchecked (grain reduction, sharpen, long exposure pass) This way I will dump

all the >120MB RAW files onto a DVD and take time to adjust the color balance

and so on in the future. Did I miss anything on the Coolscan that I have to

come back and do a RAW scan later?

[cbender]

If I understand correctly, they are curled across the short axis, not cupped along the length of the film. I deal with this all the time. The solution is to hang the entire filmstrip from the ceiling (in plastic sleeving), and clip weights on the bottom. I find that this straightens out my film after a couple of days.

 

Since you already cut the film, I think books are your best bet.

 

Your scanning workflow sounds about right. Be sure to scan the leader and set the exposure and film base color. I generally scan with the color correction on the color tab set to 'None', especially if I'm going back to color correct manually in photoshop. The scans will look flat, but you retain all of the information the film contains.

[mendel_leisk]

"After removing the books three days later, the film is still curled."

 

That's been my experience. Get them as flat as you can, then manual focus somewhere between center and edge, and review. With Vuescan, you can take focus readings, to help you decide on the focus point. I think you can do the same in Nikonscan.

 

FYI:, if you're saving Vuescan raw files "at scan", Vuescan's color tab settings are ignored.

[erik_ohlson1]

I found a bunch of rolls of B&W film of my Dad's which had been tightly rolled like that for about 20 years. Nothing would straighten the stuff - the rolls were like springs!

 

Finally rolled them backwards (emulsion out - they had been emulsion in) with a strip of paper in between the layers. It was like fighting a snake, but after several months rolled backwards, they are flat.

 

I'm hoping yours aren't so bad & will flatten a lot sooner. I'd try it if all else fails. -Erik

[bin ming]

"fight a snake" - aha that's exactly what I felt. I started out intending to carefully feeding a 6-frame strip more or less level, but the nasty thing kept snapping front and end, and in the process of trying to catch it God knows how many fingerprints I made.

 

Rolling backward - that's a good tip. Fortunately I still have 3 uncut rolls to try. Chad's suggestion is great too, but I'm leery of having the film spread out in the open. The room AC, computer fans ... there are just too many particles flying around.

 

I will check the focal points in Vuescan too. I'm not too good myself at comparing grain sizes from center to edge.

 

I know Nikon has a roll film holder, but it is not optional with the Coolscan V.

[jtk]

The standard motorized carrier will do fine, except with the ends of strips..it'll fail at the ends, even with relatively flat film. You want the FH-3, whether you know it or not. The motorized carrier and autofocus has no problem with "cupped" film.

 

Ice4 (or Vuescan infared) will totally prevent dust problems at the very lightest settings, which will not affect grain sharpness negatively at all...whatsoever.

[cbender]

<I>but I'm leery of having the film spread out in the open. The room AC, computer fans ... there are just too many particles flying around.</I>

 

<P>Bin - When I hang the film strips I leave them in the plastic sleeving my lab puts them in. It sounds like your lab doesn't use that.

 

<P>You can order the stuff in big rolls of a few hundred feet; it should be inexpensive. I have a roll for when I do my own processing. I sleeve the film as soon as it is dry. Then I don't have to worry about it getting dusty, even if it is several weeks until I have time to scan.

 

<P>When I cut the film into strips, I cut it with the sleeve still on (cutting the sleeve in the process). The sleeve only comes off right before I feed the film into the scanner. When the scans are finished, the strip goes into an archival page and the sleeve remnants get thrown out. The uncovered film is only venerable to dust for the time it takes to scan the strip.

[bin ming]

Thanks for all the insight. I will get film sleeves as well.

 

It seems the focusing issue is not as serious as I feared. However I still think the FH-3 holder is great for the peace of mind. As long as Vuescan creates one time RAWs with all the information, scanning frame by frame is not too bad.

[jo_irps]

Here is what I am doing, and it works perfectly well:

 

Put your cut strips on a warm surface like the light table switched on and lay books on top of the strips for a few hours. Other straight warm surfaces will do as well, keep temp to about 100 F or so. I keep strips always in sleeves avoiding burning in dust from the warm surface.

 

This way I do not need any glass holder for my Microtek 120tf film scanner.

[bin ming]

Thanks Jo! My film is much less curled after lying under books for two weeks, but still far from flat. So your method should work well, with the application of higher temperature.

[russell_brooks]

I use a Minolta 5400 and have focus problems with the far edges of even flat negative strips. The negative carrier just doenst do a good job on frames 1 and 6. And, yes, these very flat strips to start with. Thanks for some of the ideas here. But I was also wondering if there is a software solution? I've made one scan with the optimal focus near the edge and then another in the middle as normal. Isnt there some algorithm (autostitch? photomerge?) that can take the sharpest of the two images and blend them together? Some panorama software adapted to detect sharpness? Ideas anyone?