Specify the scanning window (frame) size for scanners that p
PostPosted: Mon Mar 15, 2010 2:38 pm
Hi.
I have a Reflecta RPS 7200. It can take a film strip into a feeder and batch-scan all the frames in it. Silverfast can do it OK when using standard 135 film, where frames are 24x36mm.
But I have a lot of 126 film to scan. And it is 28x28mm, instead of 24x36. I know there is no way to scan the whole height, because the scanner's maximum window is 24.3 x 36.4, i.e., a part of the 28 mm height will not be captured. But this isn't as big a problem as it seems, since I've found out that, for various reasons, in most photos one can live without those almost 4 mm (many professional scanning services even warn the customer about that limitation, and even some photo labs only are able to produce prints without the top 4 mm). So, though I'd obviously like to have the whole height, I'll take what I get.
My problem is a different one. The problem is that it seems both the scanner and Silverfast are expecting 36 mm wide frames. If I open the 'Image Overview' (the dialog that shows all the exposures available on the film strip, with a 'print' and two 'play' buttons), I am able to get the scanner to read all the exposures of film with 36 mm wide exposures. But if I do the same with a 126 film strip inserted, it previews the first exposure and then gives an error when trying to read the next ones.
Now I know that maybe Silverfast relies on the scanner's hardware to advance the film to the 'next' frame, and if the hardware does it automatically then Silverfast can't help it. BUT I also know that Silverfast can tell the scanner to move the strip by arbitrary amounts, because I've tried it with the 'compensate film offset' button - I am able to manually move through the whole strip and in fact I've been able to scan all the exposures on a 126 film strip by doing it manually. But of course it's an awful lot of work, for something that maybe could be automated. I've tried creating a job to do it, but the job doesn't seem to remember anything about what I did with the 'compensate film offset' button, so it just did all the scans without moving the strip (this was using 6.5.5r4, which is what came with my scanner), quite unlike what I intended (independently of my feature request here, I think this is a bug).
So, how do I think this could be addressed? What I'd very much like would be an option to specify the type of frames that the film strip has (I realise that this applies only to film strip scanners such as mine, but since Silverfast has specific versions for specific scanners, it would be very nice). There would be a drop-drown box ('Scanning window') with presets and the further possiblity to specifiy the values manually. The first option the in the drop-drown box would be to do everything just as it has been done until now ('Scanner default'). There would be a number of options, and there would be an '<Other>'.
Manually specifiable values:
I don't know if the 'space between frames' and the direction of movement are needed; I just included them as a way to make the feature more generic. The values I give above are the ones I think are correct for Instamatic 126 with the Reflecta RPS. Maybe one could specify instead what margins to crop out - what I give above is just a proposal, it's you who know the best way to do it.
How would this work? Ideally, the prescan window would show only the specified height and width, instead of the whole scanner window. This would be nice but not crucial. The curcial bit is that, after scanning the first exposure, the scanner would advance the strip by 30mm (28 + 2, in this instamatic case), scan the second, and so on. The practical difference to what exists now is the amount of strip that the feeder advances (if there is some simpler way to achieve the same result, I'm all for it). This is something that I can do manually, so it follows that it can be automated. Maybe not perfectly, but well enough. It's a matter of how, but I think that it would be an important feature.
Instamatic 126 film had enormous popularity. It would be great if some attention were given to it. The only thing that stands between the user and the ability to scan it comfortably (even with the 4mm crop limitation) is the lack of software ability to do it. Such a great product as Silverfast can certainly accomodate this requirement, I think.
Thanks,
Antonio Marques
I have a Reflecta RPS 7200. It can take a film strip into a feeder and batch-scan all the frames in it. Silverfast can do it OK when using standard 135 film, where frames are 24x36mm.
But I have a lot of 126 film to scan. And it is 28x28mm, instead of 24x36. I know there is no way to scan the whole height, because the scanner's maximum window is 24.3 x 36.4, i.e., a part of the 28 mm height will not be captured. But this isn't as big a problem as it seems, since I've found out that, for various reasons, in most photos one can live without those almost 4 mm (many professional scanning services even warn the customer about that limitation, and even some photo labs only are able to produce prints without the top 4 mm). So, though I'd obviously like to have the whole height, I'll take what I get.
My problem is a different one. The problem is that it seems both the scanner and Silverfast are expecting 36 mm wide frames. If I open the 'Image Overview' (the dialog that shows all the exposures available on the film strip, with a 'print' and two 'play' buttons), I am able to get the scanner to read all the exposures of film with 36 mm wide exposures. But if I do the same with a 126 film strip inserted, it previews the first exposure and then gives an error when trying to read the next ones.
Now I know that maybe Silverfast relies on the scanner's hardware to advance the film to the 'next' frame, and if the hardware does it automatically then Silverfast can't help it. BUT I also know that Silverfast can tell the scanner to move the strip by arbitrary amounts, because I've tried it with the 'compensate film offset' button - I am able to manually move through the whole strip and in fact I've been able to scan all the exposures on a 126 film strip by doing it manually. But of course it's an awful lot of work, for something that maybe could be automated. I've tried creating a job to do it, but the job doesn't seem to remember anything about what I did with the 'compensate film offset' button, so it just did all the scans without moving the strip (this was using 6.5.5r4, which is what came with my scanner), quite unlike what I intended (independently of my feature request here, I think this is a bug).
So, how do I think this could be addressed? What I'd very much like would be an option to specify the type of frames that the film strip has (I realise that this applies only to film strip scanners such as mine, but since Silverfast has specific versions for specific scanners, it would be very nice). There would be a drop-drown box ('Scanning window') with presets and the further possiblity to specifiy the values manually. The first option the in the drop-drown box would be to do everything just as it has been done until now ('Scanner default'). There would be a number of options, and there would be an '<Other>'.
Code: Select all
Drop-drown box 'Scanning window':
Scanner default
24x36 (Normal 135 film)
24x24 (Robot)
18x24 (Half-frame)
28x28 (Instamatic 126)
<Other>
Manually specifiable values:
Code: Select all
Width: 28.0 mm
Height: 24.3 mm
Space between exposures: 2.0 mm
Advance strip: To the right
I don't know if the 'space between frames' and the direction of movement are needed; I just included them as a way to make the feature more generic. The values I give above are the ones I think are correct for Instamatic 126 with the Reflecta RPS. Maybe one could specify instead what margins to crop out - what I give above is just a proposal, it's you who know the best way to do it.
How would this work? Ideally, the prescan window would show only the specified height and width, instead of the whole scanner window. This would be nice but not crucial. The curcial bit is that, after scanning the first exposure, the scanner would advance the strip by 30mm (28 + 2, in this instamatic case), scan the second, and so on. The practical difference to what exists now is the amount of strip that the feeder advances (if there is some simpler way to achieve the same result, I'm all for it). This is something that I can do manually, so it follows that it can be automated. Maybe not perfectly, but well enough. It's a matter of how, but I think that it would be an important feature.
Instamatic 126 film had enormous popularity. It would be great if some attention were given to it. The only thing that stands between the user and the ability to scan it comfortably (even with the 4mm crop limitation) is the lack of software ability to do it. Such a great product as Silverfast can certainly accomodate this requirement, I think.
Thanks,
Antonio Marques