Howtek D4000 Banding

[DougDolde]

I am having a banding problem with the Demo version SFE-6.2.1d3. The banding appears at all dpi settings (tried 1200, 1600, 2000 dpi). It's running on an HP XW6000, dual 3.06 Xeon, 3 GB ram, XP Pro with the built in SCSI port. The 4x5 transparency was wet mounted with KAMI fluid.

I took the scanner to Genesis in Phoenix since I thought it was a scanner problem. They told me they could not reproduce the problem the Howtek PS plug-in on their MAC.

Could there be a problem with the demo version? I am reluctant to buy the full version at this point.

[LSI_Belli]

Dear Doug,

there is no major difference between demo and release versions. I'll contact you directly to see, if we can find the origin of the problem.

BR

Thomas

[hdd]

I am also having a problem with banding while using the demo version of silverfast on the howtek d4000. banding does not happen when I use trident software. Any ideas why? Thanks.

[LSI_Belli]

Dear All,

as I wrote it to Doug, our Howtek scanner passed away So, we are trying to have it repaired in order to check SilverFast.

BR
Thomas

[electricart]

Hi all,

I concur that Silverfast and our Howtek D4000 also has the banding issue. We are using the latest firmware for the scanner (R535) and the latest version of Silverfast - 6.5.0r3d(Howtek) on Mac OS 10.4.8.

We have mainly seen this problem on large negatives and transparencies - most notably on 8x10 negative.

We do not have the banding issue when using the same hardware but alternative software, in our case the original Howtek Scanmaster OS 9 plug-in.

We do not have a full version of the Trident scanning software to test with, however we have tested with an OS 9 version of Silverfast to make sure the issue was not with the SCSI cable, card or the OS X Adaptec 2930 driver, and can confirm that the banding issue exists with Silverfast under OS 9 as well.

This is a major issue, especially when scanning large negatives or transparencies. We have sent multiple emails to support, we are yet to receive a reply, but we hope that the issue can be resolved soon.

Silverfast is amazing software, and has a great deal of well implemented professional features that we cannot do without, so I would highly recommend the software to users seeking an alternative (especially for an older drum scanner like the Howteks) however until Silverfast have resolved this issue regarding banding and the D4000, I would not recommend purchasing the software.

kind regards,
Tristan

[LSI_Heidorn]

Dear Howtek Drum Scanner Users,
i can confirm that we found & fixed the bug, now that we had access to a Scanner that actually showed the Problem !
A Test Customer also verified on 2 Howtek Drum Scanners that the banding is gone !

The fix will be included in the next regular Web update ( within 10 days ), namely Version 6.50r8 !

If you still use Version 6.4XXX and you do not plan to upgrade anytime soon, please contact me at:

nils.heidorn@silverfast.com ( please allow some days for processing )

and i will send you a patched 6.4XX Plugin as a patch for your installation !

( You should really consider upgrading as 6.5 offers a whole lot of new features, e.g. free Rotation ).

Greetings,


Nils Heidorn, R & D, LaserSoft Imaging AG

[peterbakernet]

I'm using SilverFast v6.6.0r4c and still have issues with banding, only when using 48 Bit Color. Scanning a negative at 4000dpi in 32 -> 24 bit Color mode does not show banding, but changing nothing but the Scan Type to 48 Bit show intense and unusable stripes.

I originally had v6.47 and saw the same bands on reflective materials, but upgrading to 6.6 (paying again, by the way), fixed the bands on reflective materials, and I thought on transparencies as well, which it did, but only in the lower bit rate mode, there is still a significant problem in 48 Bit mode.

[peterbakernet]

I should also mention the banding goes away with 48 Bit mode if scanning at 2000dpi. So to recap, the banding is still there in SIlverfast v6.6.0r4c when scanning with 48 Bit Color at 4000dpi.

[LSI_Heidorn]

Dear Mr. Baker,
did you post that problem to our online bug form ?
If not, please do so, so our test staff will try to verify this !
On the other hand, do you have any hint that this is a Software and no Hardware issues as the previous changes fixes the banding issues for other users ?

best regards,

Nils Heidorn