russell_brooks

Nope. Helicon doesnt do the trick at high magnifications. By this I mean a full 72 megabyte

5400 dpi scan of a b&w negative. The image doubles up. I tested it against about 6 negatives

each with two scans(center and edge). It turns out you're better with the one off center

compromise scan than using Helicon.

I tried the demo of Helicon last night. Seems to handle the large files and 16 bit now. But it will take more testing to see if the output of combining two scans(center and edge) is better than an off-center compromise scan.

I've been a long time photo.net user. More than 10 years now I think. This is my first post in some time. This problem that we are dealing with has been a big issue for me. I've gone down all the paths you guys have. Flattening the film doesnt do it. The curvatures are so small and the depth of field/focus so thin you cannot fix it with hardware. I am convinced the solution is two scans then merged together. There were two software packages that offered this when I asked about it over a year ago. It seems these Helicon guys have updated theirs. When I tried it the first time it didnt work for me since my file sizes were big (Minolta 5400 16 bit files). Perhaps they've improved? What I'd really like to see is a Vue Scan or a SilverFast incorporate this into their scanning software.

I've been holding off scanning until someone has solved this problem for us.

Wow, I've been on this forum since the late 90s. Didnt expect this much sarcasm or those kind of feedbacks. Makes me want to go back to the Rangefinder forum.

Superficial impressions:<br>Doesnt sounds like a Leica loud, and wind-y.

Off/S/C button is too easy to bump. Shutter speed wheel feels plasticky and

sounds cheap when turning. I cant tell which framelines are which anymore. My

favorite lens (35mm pre-ashp Lux) doesnt mount. My screwmount lenses will be

hard to 6-bit code because the adaptor has a cut-out where the sensor would

read. I dont want too shoot too many keepers since I've been led to understand

that we really need the filters and coding to get the most out of the

camera.<br>Otherwise I like it. I'll learn to live or work around. I only

wonder how much of the rangefinder advantage(over SLR) we lose with the

M8.<br>Let's see how I feel about the camera as I get to know it better...

Thanks for the work. I've experienced this also with my LTM lenses when mounted on my R-D1. Makes sense. I always thought it was something with my adaptor or the lens itself, etc... But this sounds like it could also explain the Summar, Summicron, etc...

Elevators! Part 2<div></div>

Elevators!<div></div>

My background is that I've been using a Leica V35 enlarger to print B&W prints

from 35mm. I've used the nice Agfa RC papers as well as their fibre based. Now

I'm going to move to digital printing. Assuming I buy an Epson 3800 which paper

(s) should I be looking at? It's all new to me and the array is confusing.

Thanks for any advise.

I may sound like the obvious(and yes, I do own a V35) but the best auto focus is to never auto focus. By that I mean I would leave the focus and enlarger height fixed at a given print size. I always used the glass carrier and printed full frame on 8x10 paper. Never moved the height or focus.

Collapsible is the best. Why? Because it collapses. That extra 1cm is sometimes all it takes to get the camera into a large pocket. And that means you more likely to take it with you and also take photos. From that sense the old Elmar is the best but then again it is a bit slow...

FWIW, I tried the Helicon software yesterday. It works well with smaller files. But with 2 larger files(30meg+) it bogged down. I used my laptop with 1 gigabyte a 1.8 processor and virtual memory that should scale up to 3 gigs. Also it is not made for stitching together two scanned images so you really have to play around with it a bit. On the other hand I think it has potential. I'm sure they could make a template that works to make it easier to work with the constraints needed to stitch scans... The other program couldnt even open my Photoshop-saved TIFFs so I couldnt test it yet...

I've also taken a Gepe full frame anti-newton glass slide and cut out the little bit of plastic one side so I could "mount" the 1st and last negatives in a strip. To be honest the scan wasnt any better than the normal and still had some slight out of focus issues. I've tried to tackle this for some time now and I'm convinced that some kind of a multi-scan and then software resampling will be the best approach...

Ronald, my negatives are flat. They've been under pressure for years. I've tried that method. The real problem in on the far edges of the 1st and last negative in a strip(cut into 5 or 6 negs). The last little up-lip causes the worst focus errors. Frames 2, 3, and 4 tend to focus fine. Try it once yourself and you'll see what I'm talking about. And as far as HDR, that's nice, but I dont really have that problem since my negs are well exposed and the Minolta has a high density range. The problem isnt a highlight/shadow issue but a focus one. I'll try and post a few more images later today as an additional example. BTW, I didn't expect this to be easy and I kind of figured most people will misunderstand what the real problem is...<br>The Helicon Focus and CombineZ5 are something that I will have to take a look at... hmmm...

The problem is registration *does change* since the distance from film to lens changes with the focus. In this example it's not as extreme, but I've some frames that are more bowed and registration will become a real problem...

The negative is TMY. It was scanned at 5400 and then resampled bicubic down to 1/3rd of its size...<div></div>

Problem 1:<br>

My Minolta 5400(1st version) cannot keep both the center of the negative in

focus as well as the edges. This is because that even flat film has a slight

bow towards the edges lying in the negative carrier.

<br>

Idea:<br>Make two scans. One focused in the center, one on the edges, then

merge the two in Photoshop.

<br>

Problem 2:<br>I dont know how to do the merge. Can anyone help with ideas? I'm

posting some sample images below so you can better see what I'm talking about.

Also in my photo.net workspace <a href="http://www.photo.net/photodb/folder?

folder_id=685044">Scanner Focus Problems</a> you can download the original

jpgs if you want to give it a shot.<br>

Thanks...<div></div>

3 years later. Still got the lens. Still one of my favorites. It's the lens of choice on my R-D1 now and will be on the M8(assuming I get one).

It would be interesting if you got ahold of enough Nocts or Luxes to make a wider sample and look at variation from lens to lens. I havent seen this done anywhere yet...

I have a 35mm summaron with the older build style. It is nice and compact and solidily built. I even found one of the old hoods for it. Together they make a nice set.

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?

The problem with test like this in general is what _Nel says above. Basically, you need to test several samples of the same type of lens. Any single lens can be a winner or loser. This test says more about your individual lens than it does about a given type.

There's a new version of Epson's Raw software up on their website.

I don't know if it's the same for all pre-asp Summiluxes, but mine goes down to more like .9 meters. That extra 10cm makes all the difference...

Just got a lovely SBLOO (the 35mm viewfinder). Fits great on my

IIIf, but it seems a bit loose on my M3. And since it costs a bomb,

I dont want to just run around with it loose... Any easy tricks to

get it to fit snug on the M? (and no superglue jokes please, I'll

want to take it on and off). Also, fwiw, SBLOO backwards is 0 lbs --

just a bit of triva...