LaserSoft Imaging

Hi All
I am having problems with scanning with a nikon 5000 using silverfast 6.6.0r5.
I am having the same problem with both the standalone and the photoshop plug-in version of silverfast 6.6.0r5

The Problem
The preview process hangs at the 'focusing' stage.. but only if I have generated thumbnail previews.

SF 6.6.0r5
OS 10.5.6
Silver iMac 7,1 intel
Nikon 5000 scanner scanning b&w negative

DETAILS: problem with both Stand Alone & Photoshop plug-in version of silverfast
- The thumbnail preview process (all frames) in silverfast goes fine, scanner generates all 6 thumbnails of b&W neg.
- I then select the thumbnail I want to preview hit ok
- Thumbnail window closes and preview starts
- Nikon scanner moves to selected frame.
- Silverfast indicates that the scanner is now focusing. The scanner sound confirms this ... but then this sound stops.
- Nikon 5000 green light flashes rapidly about 4-6 times and then the scanner stays silent.
- Silverfast preview is left hanging in focus mid process and I get the spinning beach ball when ever I move the mouse over silverfast application.
I have to force quit to close.
Error message
When this 'hang' occurs with the silverfast Photoshop plug-in I get the following error message
"Could not complete the import command because of a problem with the aquistion module". I get this after force quitting out of silverfast and attempting to close photoshop CS3

Temporary work-arounds
If I do not generate a thumbnail but instead click the [empty] thumbnail frame silverfast /Nikon 5000 successfully previews. I Can then scan successfully (in stand alone mode at least)
NOTE: I have 10 copies of SF 6.6 for our 10 Nikon film scanners in our computer labs. I really don’t want our scanners to crash every time someone makes a thumbnail.

Does anyone else have this problem?



Additional Photoshop problem
When it comes to actual scanning, Photoshop ends up getting a white canvas rather than a scan when using silverfast! I can see the 'scan-progress-thumbnail' during the actual scan and it looks fine, put photoshop ends up with a white blank canvas. I have also tried manually installing the special CS3 plug-in supplied with the silverfast install to the Photoshop CS3 plug-ins folder but I still end up with a white canvas.


Does anyone else have this problem too?

Your help appreciated
Peter Miles
Massey University

Dear Mr. Miles,
i have never heard of this particular problem.
Normally you should use our Web-Bug-Form to report this, but i will notify our support of this posting, so they can try to vrify it.
If they need Details they will come back to you !

If there are others having the same problem, may post here. It would be interesting to know if the problem is really so singled-out as i think it is.

best regards,

Nils Heidorn

Hi Nils

I have another work around for this problem.

- open thumbnail window and create thumbnail previews.
- click cancel
- reopen thmbnail window
- select thumbnail required.
- click ok
- preview scan functions as expected.

Hope thats helpful for tracking down what might be going on.
I have a few things I want to try to try here to see I I can get silverfast working normally and will let you know how I go.

Regards
Peter Miles

Hi Nils

To test if there were something in other software that we have installed that was interfering with Silverfast.
- I have a clean install of OS 10.5.6 on a bootable external drive with no applications installed.
- On the silver iMac I booted up of the external HD
- I Install siverfast software and test as in my previous post
Result nikon scanner still hangs when previewing after a thumbnail is made.


To test if it was a macintosh hardware issue with the iMac I repeated the above on a Mac Pro
Result , nikon scanner still hangs when previewing after a thumbnail is made.


Regards
Peter Miles

Dear Peter,
that's strange enough, i'll try that here and see what happens.
I'll keep you updated !

best regards,

Nils

Dear Peter

I made some tests concerning your problem with the thumbnail here. I am running OSX 10.5.7 and used SilverFast 6.6.0r5.
Thumbnail generation works fine. When I click on a specific thumbnail the preview scan starts.
The preview scan works fine and the final scan runs without errors, too.

I would suggest that you open up a support request on our homepage and that we try to sort out the problem then.

Best regards,
Alexander

Thanks for the help from Laser soft support.

The hang turned out to be caused by a fault with the SA-21 filmstrip holder I was using.
(I swapped the SA-21 filmstrip holder and everything worked fine. Tried a third SA-21 filmstrip holder and that worked fine too)

I'm guessing the fault may have something to do with one of the two film sprocket hole sensors inside the SA-21 holder. I suspect the holder was unable to locate the frame to run the preview on after the the thumbnail frame had been selected.
However disassembling and cleaning the sensors in the SA-21 film holder did not help.
Any other ideas before I order a replacement filmstrip holder?

Thanks again for your Help

Regards
Peter Miles

Dear Mr. Miles,

the connector of the Nikon Filmstrip Holder and the Slide Holder is quite sensitive so I would really recommend to treat them carefully.
As for the repair of the SF-210 I would contact a Nikon Repair Center.