>The preferences are Auto Expose for Slides, Autofocus at Scan and use
monitor colour space.
I've been using Auto Focus in prescan, then I check and do final focus with
the manual focus tool. I keep Autofocus at Scan turned off. You might try
this to see if your prescan looks in focus. If that fails, try manual focus
for some prescans, but bracket focus out toward the extremes. That might
reveal something broken.
By manually setting the focus in different positions, you'll see if focus
changes. It's possible that the depth-of-field is sufficient for 35mm film
even with focus not working right, but there is enough difference in the
"height" of the film in the MF carrier to throw it out of focus. Why don't
you try my manual focus experiment with a slide and 35mm strip, as well? It
may reveal something.
BTW, the autofocus uses the center of the frame. If you have low contrast
material in that area, the scanner may fail to see any change in contrast as
it tries to focus.
Have you tried both the glassless and glass insert in the MF carrier? I
wonder if there is a problem with the carrier or insert.
>I have successfully scanned 35mm Provia slides, Scala slides and Delta 100
film (although the quality of the black and white negative scan was not very
good, it looked grainy and the Provia was too red - any tips here?).
You may have no choice but to use VueScan to solve the red problem ... until
Minolta attacks the blue cast I mentioned and your red problem. BTW, I tried
some Kodachrome 25 scans using the Minolta software. Ghastly!
I did find this in the readme file:
Color Reproduction of Negative Film
When using 35mm and medium format films, make sure that the film is aligned
correctly
with the film holder frame and the film masks, respectively.
This is necessary to ensure that the AE (Automatic Exposure) can be
performed correctly.
Misaligned film may produce unexpected color casts in the scanned image.
>I am now trying to scan 6X6 Delta 100 negatives and Kodak Portra 400NC and
160VC
negatives.
I've scanned Portra 24x65mm in the MF holder with no focus problem. I had no
color problem with it in VueScan.
>There are very few instructions with the scanner. I am placing all negs in
the carrier with the image right side up (or the matt side at the bottom. I
assume this is correct but shouldn't affect focussing anyway.
I agree that the manual is skimpy. The online help description of manual
focus is a study in circular logic! If I can find time to really attack the
beast, I may try writing a book. I think it has the potential to be a real
winner once it has been doped out.
Emulsion down is what the manual indicates (under instructions for scanning
slides), so you're on the right track in that respect.
>I hope you can help as this is spoiling my view of the scanner. What is
worrying me is that Vuescan is having the same problems - 35mm is fine,
medium format is out of focus.
Have you contacted Minolta support about this? I'm running the 1.0.1 version
of Minolta software, but it seems unlikely to be the problem since VueScan
is also unable to focus.
Denis
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