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Author Topic: Weird cropping bug with Flexcolor and Flextight 868  (Read 4027 times)

Richard Man

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Weird cropping bug with Flexcolor and Flextight 868
« on: May 13, 2017, 11:37:48 pm »

Just purchased a used 868 and the quality of the 4x5 scans is astonishing. Much better than the Epson V700 (whose scans I have previously made 44" wide prints with). I have not tested it against the two drum scanned images I have yet. I doubt it is as good as drum scan, but for the cost and convenience, this looks like a good choice.

One problem though, using the cropping too, it only seems to work if I do a 3F raw scan first (which unfortunately have sharpening applied, because the Texture window setting is ignored). If I do a straight scan without going to 3F scan first, the top of the crop is ignored and white space at the bottom is introduced. I tested it with 4x5 and 60x60x2 (original Hasselblad) holders, rebooted/power-cycled the machine and the scanners multiple times. I even installed the older 4.0.3 Flexcolor to test (I am using the current version 4.8.9 otherwise), and same results. The seller of course claims "it works for him", and suggested that I check the setup and preferences but I just don't see anything that can affect this.

The PC is running Win7 x64, firewire 400.

This image tells the tale. On the right is the FlexColor window where you can see the crop marks. On the left is the scan imported to LR (yes, I checked the TIF prior to LR import and it's the same mess-up) and you can see the incorrect cropping.

Any suggestions? Thanks

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Jeff-Grant

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Re: Weird cropping bug with Flexcolor and Flextight 868
« Reply #1 on: May 13, 2017, 11:42:31 pm »

Doesn't Phocus support the scanner?
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Richard Man

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Re: Weird cropping bug with Flexcolor and Flextight 868
« Reply #2 on: May 14, 2017, 01:29:42 am »

No, the only software that drives the scanner is FlexColor
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Jeff-Grant

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Re: Weird cropping bug with Flexcolor and Flextight 868
« Reply #3 on: May 14, 2017, 04:13:44 am »

I haven't used Flexcolor in many years. There is a Flexframe group on Yahoo groups which would be a good starting point: https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/FLEXFRAME/info

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CeeVee

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Re: Weird cropping bug with Flexcolor and Flextight 868
« Reply #4 on: May 14, 2017, 05:56:04 am »

If you are doing a 4x5 scan why do you have the dimensions set to 3.6 x 4.5?

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elliot_n

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Re: Weird cropping bug with Flexcolor and Flextight 868
« Reply #5 on: May 14, 2017, 06:20:30 am »

I use a rented Imacon and scan by the hour. To save time, I always scan 3F, and then do the scan proper (i.e. make all my Flexcolor settings) when I get home. It has not been my experience that sharpening settings are ignored with this 3F workflow. I would recommend 3F scanning as the optimum workflow for most users - though of course you are right to make sure that regular scanning works as it should.
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Richard Man

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Re: Weird cropping bug with Flexcolor and Flextight 868
« Reply #6 on: May 14, 2017, 06:28:33 am »

If you are doing a 4x5 scan why do you have the dimensions set to 3.6 x 4.5?


The dimension is set from the cropping. 4x5 neg image size is not 4x5, just like 6x6 is more like 56mmx56mm at best
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Richard Man

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Re: Weird cropping bug with Flexcolor and Flextight 868
« Reply #7 on: May 14, 2017, 06:38:36 am »

I can certainly live with 3F scanning first and then save. It mainly makes a duplicate file but I have plenty of storage and I can bulk delete them afterward. It's definitely more in the order of "Am I the only person having this problem? What am I missing?"

I just scanned a difficult neg that I have - underexposed by at least 1.5EV, horrible mixed lighting, and previously it took a lot of work in different software to get a half decent image, but now I just used FlexColor and then LR adjustment, and in 5 mins, I have gotten a better image already.... so call me impressed.
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CeeVee

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Re: Weird cropping bug with Flexcolor and Flextight 868
« Reply #8 on: May 14, 2017, 06:38:50 am »

I still have access to an X5. When I scan a 4x5 don't see what you are describing. As a "best practice" I set 4x5 and turn off the cropping proportions so I get the maximum of the image to archive even if the negative has damage.

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Richard Man

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Re: Weird cropping bug with Flexcolor and Flextight 868
« Reply #9 on: May 14, 2017, 07:31:19 am »

I still have access to an X5. When I scan a 4x5 don't see what you are describing. As a "best practice" I set 4x5 and turn off the cropping proportions so I get the maximum of the image to archive even if the negative has damage.


Hi CeeVee, sounds like it's "just me" then. I have tried it (multiple times) with no cropping selected, and it's the same thing, the scan area is not correct, even though the preview looks fine.

Thanks
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Richard Man

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Re: Weird cropping bug with Flexcolor and Flextight 868
« Reply #10 on: May 14, 2017, 03:29:40 pm »

I talked to Gerry Yaeger who writes a bunch of articles on the Flextight and he and I agree that it's probably a hardware issue. When I first received the unit and turned it on, the holder gripper thing did not come out like it should. Since I had not used a Flextight before, I didn't realize that it was not working properly and indeed spent an hour trying to figure out why it wasn't scanning correct - it would suck in the holder partially. (I  power-cycled the PC and the Flextight multiple times). During that time, there were definitely a couple times it made bang-bang-bang noise. Then I went to dinner, and when I came back and power on the unit, the gripper thing came out and I realized it wasn't working earlier.

So whatever reason it was recessed earlier could have caused some microswitched being off. I may send the unit to Hasselblad for a CLA.
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CeeVee

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Re: Weird cropping bug with Flexcolor and Flextight 868
« Reply #11 on: May 16, 2017, 03:46:50 pm »

Here's 3 views of the X-5 scan set up I use for 4x5s.

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CeeVee

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Re: Weird cropping bug with Flexcolor and Flextight 868
« Reply #12 on: May 20, 2017, 02:06:13 pm »

The Flextight has, from my experience, 2 major short comings.
Firstly the mechanism only drives from one point. So it tends to skew the scanned image, turns it trapezoidal.
Secondly, related to the first, it's too freaking fragile. Like the Hasselblad cameras I have known, if you've got a repair tech on standby your are golden, if not (we don't) ... nevermind.
Last time ours was serviced  (shipped out to NJ, if I recall correctly) the depot tech said we tried to plug in a USB cable instead of the proper Firewire. All BS, just holding us up for more $dough$ as users are at their mercy.
I use it. It give good scans, would be _much_ much better with an IR option for "dust" elimination, but "they" didn't want to pay the licence fee.
Well it's is a dying industry, and I'm out this year.

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Richard Man

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Re: Weird cropping bug with Flexcolor and Flextight 868
« Reply #13 on: June 12, 2017, 03:55:52 am »

Just FYI - the unit is in NJ, they wanted ~$900 for CLA, repair etc. so I authorized that. They also just said one of the firewire port is bad and recommend a $2000+ replacement of the mainboard which I cannot afford. I am waiting for their confirmation that the unit will work fine other than one flaky firewire port.
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