Flextight X5 small horizontal lines on scans

[honza.m]

Hello,

I seem to have a continuous unidentifiable problem with B&W 4x5" film scans on Hasselblad Flextight X5. I am scanning at full resolution to 16bit Grayscale. Not yet sure if the same problem appears while scanning in color.
The problem seems to be quite large amount (20+) of small (few pixels long) dark lines on each scanned file. The lines are not straight (as in the means of pixel array). They always appear a little bit rotated, even thought that the image has not been rotated.

The scanner is maintained regularly and I am not the only person having the same problem. The lines appear also on different film formats.

Here is the 100% non-rotated crop of the scanned file with marked line-faults.

133434

Full resolution here: http://s27.postimg.org/bplpe5iwj/flextight_x5_lines_problem.jpg

Any advice would be great :)
Thanks in forward for any help.

Best regards,
Honza

[koh303]

Unless they are always in the same place in every scan, these are tiny scratches on the film.
When you scan at top end resolution, you start to see things that you would not have under any other circumstances, and unless you also print at equal size you will not see them in prints. Inserting a negative into and out of the sleeve could cause this, but most likely it is happening in the holder or processing.

[DennisD]

Have you contacted Hasselblad tech support in Union, New Jersey ? 800-367-6434.

I had a problem with an x-5 doing black and white scanning, but it looked much different than yours. Long, very faint lines in the direction of the scanner movement.

I've found that B&W scanning with the X5 can be a bit tricky. My issue was resolved by removing the prism. However, you may require something entirely different.

Be sure to get an opinion from Hasselblad before you do anything. The person who knows the scanners and does the scanner repairs is JIM. Try to contact him or ask the TS person you speak with to have Jim look at your hi-res sample.

BTW as the other post suggested, you may have negative defects. Check your negatives carefully under high magnification.

[honza.m]

Hello and thanks for all the useful comments.
In the end I managed to identify the problem to be fault in film production. All the films from the particular batch seem to be scratched at approximately similar places.
The film is FOMA 200 :) Which you may or may not know. Even thought I like the material it seems to be quite unpredictable...

I will try to contact the manufacturer and find some solution.

Thank a lot once again.

[koh303]

even though foma is not the best of films, it is highly doubtful to be a manufacturing problem, and more likely that the softer material they use for base/emulsion is being scrathed more easily by your process.