Nikon 8000 ED Out of Focus scans

[danwilton]

Hi all,

I'm having problems with out of focus scans with my Nikon 8000 when scanning 120 film. Focus seems fine when scanning 35mm negs. When I try scanning 120 negs I get areas which are completely out of focus. I thought it might be the film not being flat but I double checked and the film was fine. I then tried scanning the same neg using Nikon Scan and the it came out fine

So this must be a problem with Silverfast. Anyone got any ideas? I've tried the different focus settings Off/Auto/Auto manual point and Manual but none of them seem to solve the problem. With the manual focus setting I could set the focus up for one part of the image correctly but then the bottom half of the image would be way out of focus. Doesn't make much sense to me

I've uploaded one example image. The out of focus isn't as severe as in other scans I've done but I think it highlights the problem anyway

www.danwilton.co.uk/focusexample.jpg

The feet are in focus but his head is way out. Then the right side of the image is in focus but the left is not

I'm confused. Please help

Cheers

Dan

[LSI_Ketelhohn]

Dear Dan,

Basically the focus in SilverFast and NikonScan work in the same way.

In the standard setting the focus is placed in the middle of the scan area.

Fokus.jpg (1.21 KiB) Viewed 1474 times

This can be outside the scanframe.

In the focus Setting this point can be set manually.

Fokus setting.jpg (11.46 KiB) Viewed 1474 times

The "auto focus, manual position" allows you to chose a alternative place for the automatic focusing the scanner does.
The "manual focus setting" allows full control over the focusing system.

FocusPreview.jpg (26.11 KiB) Viewed 1474 times

kind regards,
Arne Ketelhohn.

[danwilton]

Hey Arne,

Yeah I've tried all of those settings. Doesn't matter what I select I'm getting out of focus scans with 120 film. If i manually focus I can get one area in focus but then another side of the scan will be out. Please see the example image I posted online. That was with manual focus on the feet

35mm scans are perfectly in focus across the whole image

I'm confused - anyone got any ideas?

Dan

[LSI_Ketelhohn]

Dear Dan,

Are you sure the film is completely plain?

Do you have any other filmholder you can try?

The Nikon scanner only uses a single focus point (the one you can set with the focus option).

This focus will be used for the entire negative.

If one part of the film is sharp and another is not the two areas mus have a different distance to the sensor.

What happens if you set the focus to the out-of-focus area?


Kind regards
Arne Ketelhohn