Re: filmscanners: Nikon 8000

[Todd Flashner <tflash@earthlink.net>]

on 8/11/01 12:16 PM, Austin Franklin wrote:

> The film was perfectly clean, and my Leafscan does not have this problem at
> all and it's in the exact same environment.  It is caused by the scanner
> design.

Austin,

I use a Leaf and I get dust on my scans. I'm reasonably fastidious with my
negs, I keep them stored in PrintFile sleeves, inside an acid free flip top
box, inside a file cabinet. Before scanning I wipe my negs down with a
reasonably fresh Ilford Antistaticum cloth and give it a liberal dose of
canned air.

I see a few possible reasons why I see dust and you don't. I'm totally
envious, so please let me know which to rule out, and if you can think of
others.

1) You are blessed and I am not. Can't speak for you, but it's a fair
presumption that I'm not.

2) You scan for a soft contrast and don't use any post-scan USM, thus you
have dust but you don't see it.

3) All of my dust attached itself to my film during drying, and will not
"wipe off". This is a possibility I need to look at more thoroughly, but
it's hard to believe it occurs to every negative (I'm using negative to
represent any of my film, BTW). I hang my film to dry in my darkroom, which
is clean, but not a "clean room". Do you dry your film in some positive
pressure environment which repels dust?

4) I give up. How can you scan dozens or hundreds of negs, and only get two
pieces of dust in your lifetime with a Leaf? HOW! ;-)

Todd