Digital BW, The Print

35mm Nikon V and 5000 are ordinarily grain-sharp, corner to corner
without glass, but ends of strips are issues if the film is
curley...which is the reason you want FH-3 carrier.

The worst film for Nikon scanners is probably paper-mounted slide
film, which tends to be bubbled both from the sides and the ends,
unlike plastic-mounted. Mounted slides are worse than unmounted film
either way.

35mm Nikons have a great deal more depth of focus than did Minoltas,
but it's still wise to focus about 1/3 from the edge, rather than from
the center, to take best advantage of that depth of focus. Nikon
autofocus is amazing, in fact. 

Nikons also do exceptionally well with grainy film, but if one wants
the grain to vanish the way some do with grain softening developers
(D76/ID11  etc) or they way they do with diffusion enlargers they will
have to intentionally soften the image because the Nikon wants to
render the grain sharply...

I print grain sharp 12X18 with Nikon V...don't have a larger printer,
but since these are so sharp I'm sure murals would be just as good...

Sometimes good scanners surprise people by revealing how bad their
camera lenses are. Zooms, for example. Bad lenses aren't as obvious
when the image is softened by enlarger optics. 

My impression is that at 4000ppi the Nikons rival point-source
enlargement (I'm experienced with Dursts)...which means they're far
sharper and more highly detailed than any conventional condenser
enlarger...and scanning is less tricky.

Unfortunately Microtek has yet to produce a decent 35mm scanner IMO.
If you don't want a Nikon I suggest the latest Canons, which do very
well...rival color enlargers, for example. 





--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "Dana H. Myers"
<dana.myers@...> wrote:
>
> Bill Morse wrote:
> > 
> > 
> > I don't have experience with the Plustek, so can't say. The Nikons and
> > similar film scanners, OTOH, are very difficult (impossible?) to
get focus
> > across the whole film plane unless you use a wet-mount holder.
> 
> That's not my experience with the Nikon LS-9000; the glass
> holder gives very good edge-to-edge sharpness without resorting
> to wet-mount.
> 
> Dana
>