I just bought a Nikon LS 2000 in conjunction with a G4 500mhz and Photoshop 5.5. When I try to scan a B&W negative with 16x multiscanning and the ICE function enabled, the endresult is a ugly posterised picture in Photoshop. Does anyone know what causes this.

NB I tried it with the color management disabled but that didn't make any difference.

Any tips are highly appreciated

Thanks,

Ju

-- Justin Kniest (justin@paradiso.nl), April 15, 2000

Answers

I had the same problem when I first bought the 2000 two years ago. Talked w/ Nikon, Digital ICE does NOT work w/ black and white film.

It also does not work Kodachrome(though there is some debate - see below.)

Nikon has a pretty decent tech support bulletin board that has a lot of history:

http://www.nikontech-usa.com/supportframeFS.htm

Two excerpts:

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Date: October 21, 1999 02:48 PM Author: Nikontechwest Subject: Clean Image does not work with black and white silver based film

The Digital Ice technology require the three emulsion layers present in color film to repair defects in the film. With most black and white film, one the silver of the image is damaged, there is nothing left but the base which has no information from which the ICE can derive the needed information for the fix. There are black and white films which are processed in C-41 which will work with Digital Ice. They are offered by both Kodak and Ilford.

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Date: March 31, 1999 01:05 PM Author: Nikontechwest Subject: Officially, Digital ICE

is not recommended for use with Kodachrome. Due to the fact that film is basically a black and white film which uses special dyes to create the color, it provides less than satisfactory results with Digital Ice. However, many customers have claimed that they have had no problem in using digital ice with Kodachrome and have been very pleased with results. The contradiction I believe (this is my personal opinion and not the company - thank you very much) is that during the life of Kodachrome there have been numerous changes in the manufacturing and the processing of this film. Any one who knows anything about this great film, knows that is not exactly the same film that it was 35 years.

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Best.

-- Michael T. Murphy (mmurph@ix.netcom.com), April 15, 2000.

Digital Ice does not work with B&W images due to the inherent technology. In general I would recommend to try the much more professional SilverFast Ai scan software from LaserSoft Imaging which Nikon only bundles in Europe. They think the US customers are not so quality minded, so they would not need better software!!! Even with b&W images you get much better results. SilverFast Ai has integrated IT8 target calibration and indeal workflow integration with Photoshop and artificial intelligence in its auto-adjust. Demos and more infos on: http://www.SilverFast.com

-- Karl-Heinz Zahorsky (khz@SilverFast.com), April 21, 2000.