Re: filmscanners: Sprintscan 120 focus/carriers

[Nick Cobbing <nick.cobbing@pop3.poptel.org.uk>]

Hi list

I have a problem with this (newish) scanner. In almost everything 
I've scanned so far I'm getting very patchy focus across the files. 
I'm comparing the file sharpness with 35mm scans from my Nik LS200 
and 120 scans from an old Minolta Dimage Scanmulti.

The problem appears to be the film carrier because I got sharp 
results by chopping the negs up and putting them in slide mounts. 
Anyone who has an SS120 will testify to the carriers' bad design; 
they lack any cross bar or masking across the neg.

It's most obvious in a grainy black and white neg produced by T-Max 
3200 with large sharp grain. At 100% or so the Nikon and Polaroid 
scans look reasonably sharp but the Polaroid's look very soft.

I was willing to believe that I was being distracted by the 
Polaroid's increase in detail and tonal range but the slide mount 
test says different. Is there a way of nailing focus in a scan, like 
the way we used a focus finder in the darkroom? Can you position the 
focus point manually in Silverfast Ai or Vuescan?

Failing that, anyone know of a redesigned film carrier?

Cheers for any help
Nick

Nick Cobbing
nick@cobb-photo.com