scanner defect, or eyesight problems?

My dear friends,

having returned from digital only recently and buying back all the tools I had sold some time ago, the only item I had kept causes me some headache: my Coolscan V. I have old scans that to me seem ok, but everything I do now gives me the impression that something in the scanner, or the focus system of the scanner, must be wrong.

I now made a test with an Ektar 100 film, Leica M2 (CLA'd) with Summicron 50 mm f/2.0 at f/8 on a tripod. I shot the same scene with my D300 for comparison. I did not expect the same exact result (sure, grain is grain, and I like it), but the scans are too far off in my opinion.

I tried both Silverfast 6.5 SE multiscan and Nikon Scan 4, both give similar results (as far as sharpness is regarded). I tried both manual and automatic focus point selection, but nothing changed.

May something be wrong with my Coolscan, or has my DSLR-time decalibrated my eyesight and my expectations? I'll add the two details from the center of the picture, D300 at 100%, Scan at about 90% for the same visible size.

BTW, this week I'll be getting my Epson V600 for the MF scans (mostly b/w Ilford XP2, some Ektar 100 and Velvia inbetween). I'll do a comparison with the V600 too as soon as I'll have found out how to operate it.

Thanks in advance for your feedback, happy shooting (and scanning...),

Holger

Have you tried to get prints from the negatives and/or inspected them with a good/strong loupe? I mean *are they sharp indeed*? Maybe your RF is not OK and/or you have backfocus problems. (Such as problems in pressure plate / lens mount...) I agree that the quality difference is huge when considering you're using top quality color negative film and lens...

Yes, I have checked the negs, and I have scanned negs of a FM2n too, results are similar. After the FM2n scans I thought the camera would cause the problems, due to the mirror slap, but nothing changed when I switched to the M2, which I even had CLA'd at Leica Switzerland.

Thanks for you thoughts, Holger

I just got another bunch of negs back from my preferred scan service. They do look exactly the same, so my Nikon scanner seems to be ok.

I have scanned some different negs now, and the results are similar. Even if the detail posted in my original post seems to be of low quality, the entire picture does look rather good as long as I don't enlarge it too much.

BUT: the same scene on MF does look so much better, even scanned with just a V600.

For the time being, I'll use MF whenever high resolution or large prints are required, and load my Leica M2 with b/w on all other occasions.

Thanks for the feedback and happy shooting / scanning,

Holger