OpticFilm 120 Film Strip Offset Problem

[rdocksey]

Using the 35mm strip film holder with the OpticFilm 120 results in severe cropping of one of the strips - I cannot find a way to offset - can you please advise?

thanks,
Richard.

Silverfast 8.0.1r19
Buildnumber: 8550
Plustek OpticFilm 120

120-filmstrip-cropping.JPG (70.8 KiB) Viewed 8448 times

[LSI_Ketelhohn]

Dear Richard,

Is the film holder inserted correctly?

It seems part of the filmstrip is outside the scan area.

You might have to contact Plustek about this issue.


kind regards,
Arne Ketelhohn

[vytasn]

I had this same problem, I was using unmounted slides on a film strip holder, but I specified 35mm slides with positive film. I corrected it by specifying 35mm film strip with positive film.

[lebiffo]

I have this problem too on my recently purchased OpticFilm 120. However it only occurs when I try to scan 120 and 35mm film strips and lines of mounted slides. More precisely with 35mm film strips and mounted slides the preview scan is offset moving one of the lines half out of the work area with the result that I can scan one line but the adjacent line is laterally chopped and unusable. As I said I only have this problem with film strips and lines of mounted slides, if I select individual negatives and slides everything is fine the preview scan fills the workspace and is exactly centred and I can final scan without a problem.

I also notice that there is no 35mm or 6x6 cm film strip option available under image/scanmode when the Workflow Pilot is inactive ie switched off, why is this?

I am running this software on Windows 7 64 and have all the latest drivers and Silverfast updates installed. I have also tried several reloads of the drivers but the problem remains. I would appreciate knowing if this a recognised issue with the OpticFilm 120 scanner (it is certainly frequently reported on this and other forums) and if action is underway to resolve it.

[LSI_Ketelhohn]

Dear customers,

We have been able to reproduce your issue and are also in contact with Plustek about this.
This will soon be corrected through a SilverFast update.

kind regards,
Arne Ketelhohn

[gilles]

Hello,

I got (I think) the same problem with Silverfast 8.01r22 on OS X 10.8.3 with my Plustek Opticfilm 120.
I've choosen 6x6cm Negative Film but couldn't zoom-out to see the mounted film with 3 frames: Silverfast only displayed the first /top frame, which I could zoom out
but no go to see the 3 frames....In Silverfast I had to switch to 6x12cm to see the 3 frames, then doing a Prescan.

When will there be an update for Silverfast and the offset issue ?

Here are some observations, which could hopefully be fixed to make Silverfast even better
- If you install Silverfast 8.01r22 for the Opticfilm 120 on a new iMac 27" without DVD drive you're lost, since Silverfast asks for the DVD after entering the serial number.
Luckily I have an old iMac with DVD drive. I always prefer to download directly the latest update/demo from Silverfast.com instead of doing the installation via DVD, so I downloaded it,
installed it and entered the serial number BUT the installer asked to insert the DVD to check if it's a legal copy (wow! I remembered that in the 90's
This should be avoided as soon as possible...

- Also I get a lot of crashes with Silverfast 8.01r22 (with the Opticfilm 120 but also with the Epson V750)....since I'm programming on OS X:
it's always a Grand Central Dispatch error so there's maybe a race condition with threads...maybe the Qt library are responsible for all these instabilities...

Cheers,

Gilles

[LSI_Ketelhohn]

Dear Gilles,

The area shown in the preview is limited to the image size you chose.
The images are selected through the overview dialog on the left side of the preview area.

In case your Mac does not have a CD drive you can exchange your serial for a download serial.
These are bound to your first and last name instead of a CD.
The exchange can be done here on our website.

Please make sure SilverFast has enough memory available.

In the SilverFast preferences' general tab you will find the possibility to assign more memory to SilverFast.

Here you will also find the possibility to define the location for the temporary files.
In case you have a second hard drive installed please try moving the temporary files there.
Simply create a new folder on the other drive, select it here and restart SilverFast.

Make sure no other load intensive software is reserving a lot of memory.

kind regards,
Arne Ketelhohn.

[stormhalvorsen]

Just adding to the choir. Fresh install of r22 has been extremely buggy so far. Having now reset it I can finally see the full negative in previews but Silverfast still crashes often when hitting the scan button for the actual scan. The Pilot doesn't seem to work at all with 120 film, which is fine since I'm more interested in the manual mode anyway. But there are a LOT of room for improvement. Small things like the refresh filmstrip button being greyed out when you are in fact supposed to click it. Not very intuitive and the manual covers nothing in proper detail.

All in all this seems like very poor software compared to what was promised and the price range we are on here. I have considered taking the scanner back to the store in fact. Hoping for an update SOON!

[hanskerensky]

I had the same problems with my Opticfilm 120. Very often crashes when hitting the Scan button.
Solved this by enlarging the amount of available Virtual Memory on Harddisk (in Windows 7) quite considerably.
Don't know if MAC users can do something similar.

Also i never use the Workflow Pilot but use (and this is practically a must) the "Overview" button (which can be hidden if you have a smaller monitor !!) to let the scanner perform a preview all images in the selected holder.

I published a small set on Flickr about using the Overview and Jobmanager.
Just search with words: flickr hans kerensky silverfast jobmanager

To the Silverfast guys : Propose the following improvements :
1) The button "Overview" is practically mandatory when using this scanner, so please give that button a prominent place in the menu structure and don't hide it in a follow up window. My monitor display resolution is only 1024x768 pixels. Try working with such a small screen and you understand what i mean.
2) After the scanner did the frames preview in the "Overview" Pop-up menu all the frames are selected. So, if you only want to make use of 1 or 2 frames you have to deselect all the others by clicking them all. How about an extra "Deselect All" button in this menu ? Would make my life much easier when working with the 35mm filmholder which has a lots of frames.

Just adding to the choir. Fresh install of r22 has been extremely buggy so far. Having now reset it I can finally see the full negative in previews but Silverfast still crashes often when hitting the scan button for the actual scan. The Pilot doesn't seem to work at all with 120 film, which is fine since I'm more interested in the manual mode anyway. But there are a LOT of room for improvement. Small things like the refresh filmstrip button being greyed out when you are in fact supposed to click it. Not very intuitive and the manual covers nothing in proper detail.

[LSI_Ketelhohn]

Dear customer,

Thank you for your feedback.
I will forward your suggestions to our product management.

kind regards,
Arne Ketelhohn.

[Trilowbat]

...when working with the Overview Scan there are similar problems:

[LSI_Ketelhohn]

Dear Trilowbat,

The Opticfilm 120 unfortunately does not have the capability to fine adjust the film position.
The film must be positioned correctly in the film holder.
This can not be corrected by software adjustment.

Kind regrds,
Arne Ketelhohn

[Trilowbat]

Dear Mr. Ketelhohn,
the rootcause of this problem is defeinitely NOT the positioning of the Film in the holder.

For ilustration, this is the 6x4,5 cm Negative i want to scan:

SF1.JPG (131.76 KiB) Viewed 7668 times

This picture shows that the negative is perfectly adjusted in the film holder:

SF2.JPG (167.11 KiB) Viewed 7668 times

The overview shows that parts of the pictures are cut of:

SF3.jpg (28.15 KiB) Viewed 7668 times

[Trilowbat]

Hallo Herr Ketelhohn,

ich sehe gerade dass Sie aus Kiel kommen, würde somit vermuten, dass wir beide die selbe Sprache sprechen. Wäre es ok, wenn ich dieses Thema auch im deutschsprachigen Forum aufmache? Nur um Übersetzungsprobleme zu vermeiden.

MfG
Trilowbat

[LSI_Ketelhohn]

Thank you for your images.
I have discussed this matter with my colleagues and we were able to reproduce this issue.
We have already contacted Plustek about this matter.
Unfortunately we can not offer a solution right away because of the necessary adjustments on required from the manufacturer.

At the moment I can not yet estimate when this will be fixed.
Of cause we willtry to solve this as fast as possible.

kind regards,
Arne Ketelhohn.


Vielen Dank für die Bilder.
Ihre Schwierigkeiten habe ich mit meinen Kollegen besprochen und dieses Verhalten ist in der Tat auch bei uns festgestellt worden.
Wir sind diesbezüglich bereits mit Plustek im Kontakt.
Leider kann ich momentan keine Lösung anbieten, da hier eine Anpassung seitens des Herstellers notwendig ist.

Zur Zeit kann ich auch leider noch nicht abschätzen bis wann dies behoben werden kann.
Wir bemühen uns aber natürlich um eine schnellst mögliche Lösung.

Mit freundlichen Grüssen,
Arne Ketelhohn.