SilverFast 6 Ai-Studio IT8 Calibration using Kodak Q60

[JustRight]

Hi everyone,

I would like to try and calibrate my Nikon LS9000 and SilverFast 6 Ai-Studio using a genuine Kodak Q60 Kodachrome target. I trying to source a Q60 35mm Kodachrome slide and the Kodak Q60 text file that describes it.

However, the layout of the Kodak target is somewhat different to the Ektachrome target that was supplied with my SilverFast software. The Q60 target has a girls face on one side and therefore has fewer colour patches, and of course does not have an identifying barcode like the SilverFast target.

Will the SilverFast IT8 calibration process work with this Kodak target? If I follow the standard SilverFast calibration process will I get a usable result?

[Edit] I should mention I am using Studio Ai version 6.2.4r9

Any tips or suggestions you could offer would be greatly appreciated.

Best Regards,
Trevor White

[degrub]

Worked on mine. It won't completely remove the issues with KC, but it will help get you close. IIRC, the area where the girls face is optional anyway.

[JustRight]

Thanks mate,

One would hope that it would be a LOT closer than the results I am getting with the calibration based on the SilverFast Ektachrome target. But I guess that is no surprise as the film types are so different.

At the moment I get quite good results using the "Kodachrome" option of Nikon Scan 4. But having been a previous user of SilverFast, and having spent my money on Ai Studio for the LS9000, I'd really like to try and get some outstanding results out of SilverFast. Hopefully using a real K3 (Kodachrome) target for calibration will get me that much closer.

Regards,
Trevor White.

[degrub]

For some more insight, do a search on the archives of the comp.periphs.scanners newsgroup. Search on nikon kodachrome and users Kennedy and Don. Quite a good discussion about getting the most out of KC with the nikon and some of the issues. Kennedy is an old hand at imaging technology and implementing theory and knows his subject. Don actually got the nikon sdk and wrote his own code to get better results.

[JustRight]

Actually received my Q60 Kodachrome target from B&H in New York yesterday. Immediately performed an IT8 calibration with SilverFast Ai Studio 6.2.4r9 on my Nikon LS9000ED.

What an astonishing difference! I always knew that trying to scan Kodachrome using calibration data from the SilverFast (Ektachrome) target was probably a pointless venture, but to actually see the difference was really eye opening.

My tip to any user trying to scan Kodachrome on any scanner, not just a Nikon, go to the trouble of getting hold of a genuine Kodachrome Q60 Target. Using anything else is just guesswork for Kodachrome.


Best Regards,
Trevor White

[RAG]

Thanks for the tip Trevor!