Nikon Coolscan 5000 blues

[edwardkaraa]

I've been using this scanner for 3 months now, and the scans are always very bluish. I have to do substantial color corrections in order to compensate for the blue cast. I use both Nikonscan and Vuescan but they both have this problem. I contacted Nikon Thailand but all what they proposed is to clean the scanner which didn't really convince me.

The question is: Does anyone have any idea why would a scanner produce such a cast, I mean from the technical point of view. I know this is the Contax forum, but it doesn't hurt to ask

 

[snikolaev]

Every scanner is not perfect until you calibrate it. I have Nikon 4000ED, Minolta Elite 5400 II and Epson V750 Pro. All three were producing some color shift until I calibrate them using LaserSoft software coming with IT8 pattern slide. Hope this helps.}

 

[edwardkaraa]

Thanks Sergei for your reply.

Yes, I do understand that scanners require calibration. However, Nikon's own software does not support IT8 calibration, so it is supposed to work somehow correctly out of the box. My scanner does not produce some color shift, but a strong blue color cast which usually requires like -80 in the blue channel and a +20 in the red channel using the same Nikon software to somehow correct it. Also, judging from other people's scans, this scanner does seem to produce good results out of the box with very minor corrections.

Now my question is if anyone knows what in the hardware could cause such a problem, since it obviously is not in the software. Nikon Thailand suggested a cleaning which doesn't make sense. I wonder what other reason could be behind this.

 

[snikolaev]

Wow, -80 is too much. If it's still covered by warranty, replace it. Otherwise, LEDs (as we know, Nikon uses LEDs, not l& - you may even adjust their brightness) might be either defective or dirty, so cleaning would make sense as well. But cleaning Nikon scanner is not a child play. At least when I tried to clean mine, I decided to stop it before I rich the point after which I wouldn't be able to assemble it back.

 

[fotografz]

First off, is there a software selection for different types of film that you've missed? Being so blue, it sounds like a Tungsten correction has been selected. If you scanned a properly exposed daylight type film with a Tungsten correction, it could produce an extremely blue cast scan.

BTW, all scanners do have to be calibrated. Scans in their native, uncalibrated form are greenish in color. For ex&le when you get an Imacon scanner, you have to build a calibration base, and then select the profile for the specific film you are using.

If your scanner is suppose to come calibrated and the factory failed to do that with yours, then it's their problem. BUT, I am surprised that there isn't a "Return to Default" preference that can be selected when the software is running.

OR, go to the Nikon site and download new software and try that. Maybe your software got corrupted.

Failing all of that ....

Like digital cameras, scanners have firmware inside (this is different than software). You may be able to re-install the firmware to see if that is the source of the problem.

I'd suggest going to a Nikon oriented site and also asking this, or try Nikon technical help directly. I can't imagine that the light source could be so dirty as to cause a Blue color shift that bad.