Need help with B&W scans on my Coolscan V ED

[purzel]

Hello,

I have been using Silverfast a lot with my old Minolta Dimage Scan dual III without any issues. Far better results compared to the Minolta software.

Recently I bought a Nikon Coolscan V and I am struggling to get good results with B&W films (color works great). It seems the grain is causing a lot of noise. Using the Nikon software creates better results than using Silverfast in either greyscale or color mode (reduced tonal range and less detail resolution).
The only way I get somewhat good results is by using the HDR color mode and than do all the processing in PS.
Typically I am using Tri-X or APX400.
What settings would you recommend? How do I best create a 'Negafix' for the APX 400 myself ?

Is the old Minolta the better scanner for B&W. ?

Any suggestions welcome !

Thanks in advance,
Christian

[LSI_Heidorn]

Dear Christian,

please let me know:

Did you try the "Monochrome" setting in the Negafix->ASAISO Selection ?

Greetings,

Nils

[purzel]

Hi Nils,

following your suggestion I tried the 'monochrome' setting under ASAISO.

Using this and scanning RGB instead of grayscales does improve the quality (not to the level of the Nikon software but fairly close).
Using grayscale in Silverfast still gives unacceptable results, compared to RGB scan and conversion to grayscale in PS.

Any other suggestion ?

Thanks,
Christian

[LSI_Heidorn]

Using grayscale in Silverfast still gives unacceptable results, compared to RGB scan and conversion to grayscale in PS

Dear Purzel,
thats strange to me, when using Grayscale, did you try to use the sc2g setti?ngs or the color balance options ( in the global color correction and selective color corrections dialog which are different when you switch to gray mode ).

Greetings,

Nils

[purzel]

Nils,
using the Nikon software and than simply doing 'graymode' in PS is already much better compared to a Silverfast scan in 8bit grayscale.
Off course the quality of the Nikon scan is even better when applying the monochrome setting in the selective color correction.

Christian