Hi Gary--
Re Nikon vs HP: Raw scans by all CCD scanners are inherently at
least a bit soft. If the HP scans were sharper perhaps it's software
was applying some sharpening automatically, or you may be displaying
scans from these two scanners at different resolutions and creating a
false appearance, or if you haven't compared scans side by side you
may have a false memory of how sharp the HP was, or your Nikon might
actually have a problem. Those are the possibilities I can think of
as to why the HP seems sharper than the Nikon.
Scan the same slide/neg with both scanners with no sharpening (make
sure NikonScan auto-focusses on the image) and display them side by
side so that you're seeing all the pixels in the Nikon scan and the
HP scan is blown up to appear the same size as the Nikon scan. If in
this direct comparison the HP is sharper than the Nikon then send the
scanner back...
As to how to focus the Nikon: Use the focus tool to click on a place
you want to be in sharpest focus (it will leave a cross-in-a-circle
marker). Then scan and see if THAT area is sharp (although remember
that when you zoom in on a raw scan it will seem a bit blurry until
you sharpen it). Don't use the focus slider. However you can click
the focus-point tool at various spots on the preview (make sure
NikonScan is set to refocus the scanner whenever you do this) and
read the numeric readout next to the focus slider. If the focus
numbers vary more than 12 units from one area of the image to
another, then in the resulting scan you will be able to see a
difference in sharpness between those two areas. The focus unit
numbers are meaningless other than this; they don't correlate with
anything useful to you.
Good luck,
--Bill
At 11:58 AM -0500 1-4-02, Gary Richardson wrote:
>
>I've got the Nikon Super Coolscan 4000ED. When I'm scanning a slide I'm
>finding that it's somewhat out of focus (or better stated, not
>sharp)... I was getting sharper
>scans out of my old HP Photosmart scanner.
>
>I figure I must be doing something wrong in NikonScan. However, I'm not sure
>what, and the manual has been less than helpful. Anyone know the trick to
>getting nice sharp (i.e. focused) scans on the 4000? I've played around with
>the focus point, as well, as the option in NikonScan to set the focus area,
>I just don't know what the number in that option corresponds to.
--
======================================================================
Bill Fernandez * User Interface Architect * Bill Fernandez Design
(505) 346-3080 * bill_sub@billfernandez.com *
======================================================================
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