Filmstrip feeder SA30 still unusable with Silverfast...

[Andreas]

Hello,

after having given up to use the SA30 with my LS4000 because Silverfast never found the right borders of more than 50% of the slides of one strip I was hoping that the upgrade to LS5000 with the Silverfast for LS5000 would maybe solve this issue as well....
The offset tool does still not really work:-(
What surprises me is that Nikon Scan in this respect is perfect now. So this clearly seems to be a software issue to me.
So again, I can only use Silverast for a small part of my work.
Is there any chance to fix this issue one day? It was reported in this forum as well as support calls done by myself in the past and maybe by others!

Regards

Andreas

[LSI_Noack]

Dear Andreas

as Nikon claims the SA-30 to be official supplemental equipment for the SA-30, it shall be supported by SilverFast:
http://www.nikonusa.com/template.php?ca ... uctNr=9238

Does the offset tool in your opinion not work with this particular film holder or in general?

Please let me kindly advise you download and install the latest update for your version of SilverFast from our website.
You might experience that this already does solve your problem.

If you need to update a SilverFast Ai version, please do register with us at our website (cf. Support -> Registration):
https://www.silverfast.com/reg/en.html
After registering you will swiftly receive an automatically generated e-mail with the access data you will need for downloading the update.

However, if the problem persists, please don't hesitate to contact LaserSoft Imaging support staff: https://www.silverfast.com/problemreport/en.html

We do appreciate if you could paste a fresh copy of the SF_Logfile in the problem report.
Thanks in advance for your co-operation.

[Andreas]

Hello,

this problem persists since I began using SF years ago. The problem is, that the initial reading of a longer filmstrip is so inconsistent, that often it's necessary to prescan and correct the offset of every single frame. Often, however in the middle or somewhere doing this stupid work SF forgets the offsets and the whole nonsens starts again. I reported this several times, here and to support and will not dial your 0190xxx again in this matter. Earlier Lasersoft always pointed to the Nikon libraries when this problem came up. However, I can easily scan a 36 frame strip using Nikonscan without a single offset correction. In fact Nikonscan has become so good in this respect that I wonder why they still offer the offset tool. I did not need it a single time since Nikonscan 4.

The SF-problem is less visible with the standard filmstrip holder and short strips of 6 frames or so. So many users might be able to live with it. However using SF with long strips without getting crazy seems impossible.

Bye

Andreas

[LSI_Noack]

Dear Andreas

there is no need to call the premium support hotline. Support is also available via email / problem report, it often is preferrable, anyway.

If you'd like to trigger a trouble ticket and thorough testing procedure, it is necessary to help us with providing some information, most often in the form of the SF_Logfile and the SF Statistics.

On a Mac OS X PC you will find the SF_Logfile in /Users/(your username)/Library/Preferences/LaserSoft Imaging.
On a Windows 2000 or XP system the SF_Logfile is placed within /Documents and Settings/(your username)/Application Data/LaserSoft Imaging.
If you haven't yet changed the standard setting of the Windows Explorer you won't see any folder "Application Data". You then want to open the folder options dialogue (from "Extras" the menu) and go to the "View" tab. There you can enable the Explorer to show you hidden and system files and folders as well as displaying the contents of system folders.
On older operating systems like Windows 98/ME or Mac OS 9 you will most probably find the SF_Logfile within the the program folder of Adobe Photoshop /Plugins/Import-Export/(SilverFast).

You could of course also you the search function of your system to find the "SF_Logfile". Please make sure that you will be shown hidden and system files. The SF_Logfile is always created anew when SilverFast is started up, even if no scanner can be found, it will be created.

The other file called "SF Statistics" lists the details on the scan settings which seem to be problematic on your machine.
You can generate it from the (button on the horizontal panel in the settings window:) "Expert Dialogue" -> button "Output Statistics" [see a screenshot at: viewtopic.php?p=10289 ].

Thanks in advance for your co-operation.

Kind regards
Sonny Noack
- tech support, LSI -

[Gregory C]

Nikon released update Nikon Scan 4.0.2 on June 8, specifically to address the problems with the film loaders. their description reads:

1. Improved detection of the image frame area when using the SA-21 strip-film or SA-30 roll-film adapters. Applies to SUPER COOLSCAN 5000 ED, COOLSCAN V ED, SUPER COOLSCAN 4000 ED or COOLSCAN IV ED.

has SilverFast incorporated this updated Nikon library yet?

I'm about to install and test Nikon Scan 4.0.2 with my Super Coolscan 4000ED and SA-30 film strip feeder. if there really is an improvement in frame edge detection, I'll probably have to give up SF Ai and use Nikon Scan instead. I'm only using SF Ai to create the basic HDR images anyway and using SF HDR to produce the final images. SF HDR can also read the Nikon Scan NEF files, right?

regards
Gregory

[Andreas]

Dear Gregory C,

I doubt this, because Nikonscan works really perfect in this respect now and SF not at all. Silverfast Support proved absolutely resistant to any complaints in this matter. I feel that they simply do not have a clue how to make this feature work and are too ashamed to finally admit that they cannot support the Nikon filmstrip-feeders. It's a very bad joke...

I scanned hundreds of slides over the last weeks in Nikonscan 4.02 via the rollfeeder and did not have to adjust a single frame!!!
I only wished that Nikonscan would allow a true RAW output and IT8 calibration. No, HDR cannot read NEF
Another drawback of Nikonscan is the way it occupies the PC. You cannot do much else on the machine....

Bye

Andreas

[Gregory C]

are you using a Mac or a Windows pc?

when you said "hundreds of slides", you were referring to rolls of slide film, right?


I was at a pro-output office the other day to purchase some PEC-12. while there, I discovered that they too would reconnect film strips when scanning. surprisingly, they were successful with just small strips of sticky tape on the edges of the strips. I think I'm going to try two spots of super glue and see how that works out. it'd be great to be able to scan whole rolls of film instead of multiple strips. it's far too time consuming to scan film one strip at a time.

regards
Gregory