Using Nikon LS5000 for Widelux Panoramic Scanning

Recipe based on VueScan + stitching

Introduction

This procedure scans Widelux film at high resolution, using a Nikon LS-5000 scanner. It's fairly easy, once you have the proper setup and have gone through it a few times.

Full List of Settings

If you want to jump straight in and skip the rest of this page, here are the key settings:

• [ input tab ]
  batch scan = all
  frame offset = 0
  frame spacing = 36
  lock exposure = yes
  lock film base color = yes
  lock image color = yes
• [ crop tab ]
  crop size = maximum
• [ filter tab ]
  infrared clean = medium -or- light
• [ prefs tab ]
  external viewer = off
  external editor = off

Setup for PreScan

• Start VueScan.
• Turn off "Batch Scan". We will turn it on later, this is only for the pre-scan.
• Set only one frame number. Here I'm using one frame that I know has a good representative density.
• Set "Fram Spacing" to 36mm. This will provide some overlap between the consecutive frames.

Pre-Scan

• Do one pre-scan.
• Turn on "Lock Exposure". This button will be enabled after the pre-scan.
• Here (below), I've tweaked the exposure values. I've done a few pre-scans and looked at the curves, decided to drop analog gain down to 0.5 per channel, and exposure time down to 1.0 (below). This gave better centering of density than the default exposure.

Set Color

• Go into the "Color" tab.
• Set "Color Balance" to "None".
• The defaults should be as shown here.

Lock Film Color

• Go into the "Input" tab.
• Pre-scan again (if you have not already done so while tweaking exposure).
• Following the pre-scan, turn on "Lock film base color".

Note: This screenshot has the default settings for exposure (not the 0.5 adjustment I made earlier. Sorry for the inconsistency!)

• Now that color is fully locked, you'll probably find the "Color" tab is completely defined with static values, as shown here.

Scan

• Eject your film. This is necessary to apply all your new settings to all frames (rather than just the one frame you had while making the adjustments).
• Re-insert the film strip. I'm using a modified strip feeder that now works as a full roll feeder.
• Set "Batch Scan" to "All"
• Go ahead and scan the whole strip (or roll!)

Stitch - It's Easy!

• Load the images into an image editor.
• Expand the canvas of one image part.
• Copy the other image parts into the first.
• You should find that color and size line up exactly.