Microtek F1 (M1) ... again

[Matus Kalisky]

Hello,

after longer time I am coming back to my Microtek F1 as I have lot of film back from the lab (most of it C41) and so I thought let's get some use out of that thing again.

Well - loaded the holders with Kodak Portra 400 in 120 format and was pleasantly surprised that the preview actually looked quite reasonable. I used SilverFast 6.6 (not the latest one, I know) which in the past produced quite usable scans at leas for color negative films.

But once the scan came out it was just horrible! Colors totally off, contrast way too high, highlights blown out.

My main question is - could this be a hardware problem? I have experienced sever color casts towards magenta with positive slides and spent time and money to calibrate the beast with no success.

I consider sending the scanner off for a repair but I am not sure whether it may even yield some improvements ...

The preview:


The final scan (just resized):


P.S. Yes - it is the same scanner I fought a year ago with calibration issues ...

[BarryS]

That's weird. My final scans always seem very close to the previews. If there was a hardware issue, wouldn't the preview look funky, too? My guess is you have a software setting messed up somewhere. Is there a profile mismatch issue between Silverfast and Photoshop--like a profile that isn't getting converted to the host colorspace? Have you got the IT8 targets and can you recalibrate?

[Matus Kalisky]

Thanks. I also first thought about the calibration, but this is color negative film, for those there are only built-in profiles, but not real calibration is possible. I would also hope it is just some mismatch of setting, but what could be wrong there?

When I was having troubles with slides, I saw the same effects with two different scanning softwares ...

[BarryS]

I'll take a look at Silverfast when I get home and see if I can find anything. It looks like the raw scanned image isn't being processed correctly for some reason.

[Matus Kalisky]

Thanks, that would be great.

[Herb Cunningham]

call the silverfast help line. Arne in Germany is really good to work with; their number is a Florida number, but hours are European.

[BarryS]

Matus--it would help if you can post screen shots of the General, Auto, CMS, and Special tabs in the Options menu.

[Matus Kalisky]

BarryS, I will do that tonight, thank you. If that does not help I will turn to SilverFast helpdesk.

[Matus Kalisky]

OK, here it comes.

You may notice that the scan posted below looks actually better than it did above - I did not auto adjustments and no Nega-Fix. So the scan is less blown-out, but it has still very strong color cast compared to preview and that is what really bothers me.

1) The top level general settings (to show that this was no HDR or something):


2) The Prescan + Frame settings:


3) The scan itself:


4) And now all the Options:


You help will be highly appreciated. Thank you in advance.

[BarryS]

Hi Matus-- Ok, great. I'll check your settings against mine for any differences. In the meantime, you might try unchecking the active box for Color Cast Removal under the auto menu. I don't know how that algorithm operates--so it may be unexpectedly causing a shift--worth a test.