Flextight Precision 2 Plastic gel filter?

[monkeymon]

Please let us (me) know how it goes.

The filter ended up being a 80A, but the multicoated glass filter does make a noticeable difference. Sharper & better contrast. Iäm running it now with the 80B i got... but i need more blue filtration. Actually i'm thinking about also adding a green filter. So it would compensate for colornegatives. The 80A filter is there just to balance out the CCD sensor, seems that the blue is not as sensitive as R & G.

Compensating for the orange mask would need a lot more filtration, more blue & a green filter. But anyhow, it's worth the effort to switch to an quality MC glass filter. Though you need to custom make an adapter for it from step up ring.

[Richard Wasserman]

Can you elaborate a bit please on what's involved in changing the filter? I've not looked inside and would appreciate some further information. Sounds worth doing—thanks!

The filter ended up being a 80A, but the multicoated glass filter does make a noticeable difference. Sharper & better contrast. Iäm running it now with the 80B i got... but i need more blue filtration. Actually i'm thinking about also adding a green filter. So it would compensate for colornegatives. The 80A filter is there just to balance out the CCD sensor, seems that the blue is not as sensitive as R & G.

Compensating for the orange mask would need a lot more filtration, more blue & a green filter. But anyhow, it's worth the effort to switch to an quality MC glass filter. Though you need to custom make an adapter for it from step up ring.

[monkeymon]

It's pretty simple job. Just open the thing up, it's 2 screws in the back. After that there is metal plate held in place with two springs. Then just remove the lens, it's held in place via threaded cap that is also a filter holder. Inside it, is the original blue filter and an a glass UV/IR or just an UV filter.

In the front of the lens, there is this rim you can unscrew. You needs to get a suitable sized step up ring (cant remember what size i used, something to 55mm), and remove the male threads from it. So that you just have an step up ring with a hole in it. Then you can place that in front of the lens & screw the rim in to hold it in place. Then you need a step down ring to get some height to it (so it clears the locking ring/rim. i used a 55-49mm), so you can put a filter on it. I did it so that it takes 49mm filters, as it's a size commonly available.

[Richard Wasserman]

Thanks for the explanation—I'll take a look inside mine as soon as I have a chance.

It's pretty simple job. Just open the thing up, it's 2 screws in the back. After that there is metal plate held in place with two springs. Then just remove the lens, it's held in place via threaded cap that is also a filter holder. Inside it, is the original blue filter and an a glass UV/IR or just an UV filter.

In the front of the lens, there is this rim you can unscrew. You needs to get a suitable sized step up ring, and remove the male threads from it. So that you just have an step up ring with a hole in it. Then you can place that in front of the lens & screw the rim in to hold it in place. Then you need a step down ring to get some height to it (so it clears the locking ring/rim. i used a 55-49mm), so you can put a filter on it. I did it so that it takes 49mm filters, as it's a size commonly available.

[towolf]

Would love to see how this scanner looks on the inside.

[monkeymon]

There is also one nice option i found out in the Flexcolor software, in the setup partition. Called "descreen", it's there to unfocus the lens. But it is an excellent tool for nailing the focus! The automatic focus calibration is not 100% accurate. At least on my machine, and with the descreen option, i can nail the focus 100% accurately. It seems the automatic focus calibration is usually off by 1-2 steps. So if you do a descreen scans from -3 to +3 you will see when it's in exact focus. Then just make custom setup files for different film sizes. As you need different descreen focus calibrations for 35, medium & 4x5" film sizes. It's really worth the trouble.

The MC glass filter & optimizing the focus with descreen is really was worth it. Now i get pin sharp grain, like i used to get on my schools X1.