Device tab

This tab contains the controls that control the raw data coming from the scanner.

Advanced options

When this option is checked, the advanced VueScan options will be displayed in the Device, Crop, Filter, Color, Files and Prefs tabs.

Scan from

You can have more than one scanner on your system, and this lets you specify which scanner you want to use.

If you set this option to "Disk", then you'll be able to enter a file name in the "Disk file name" option.

Disk file name

This file is read when you set the "Scan from" option to "Disk". The "Frame numbers" option is sets which file name in a series that is used. For instance, if the "Disk file name" option is set to "xyz0005.tif", then setting "Frame numbers" to "3,5,7" will cause "xyz0008.tif", "xyz0010.tif", and "xyz0012.tif" to be scanned.

Disk files can be scanned just like a normal scanner. The "Device|Preview resolution" and "Device|Scan resolution" options work just as you'd expect, the preview works as you'd expect, and all the X/Y offset/size options work as you'd expect.

Mode

Use this option to specify the type of scan you want to make. On many scanners, this is automatically sensed.

Media type

Use this option to indicate whether you're using positive film (i.e. slides), color negative film, or black&white negative film. This option causes the default film type to be changed, but also sets up the scanner for scanning orange-colored media (i.e. negatives) by exposing the green and blue channels more than the red channel.

If you choose "Image", no film correction is used, and the cropped file will look as much like the original image as possible. If you choose "Negative film" or "Slide film", the cropped image will look as much like the original scene as possible and the Color tab lets you choose the film manufacturer, the film brand, and the film type.

The difference between "Image" and "Slide film" is subtle. If you take a picture of the same scene with Kodakchrome and Ektachrome film and scan them with the "Slide film" setting, VueScan tries to make the resulting scan look the same (i.e. to resemble the original scene). If you use the "Image" setting, the resulting scans will look different and will reflect the slightly different color characteristics of Kodakchrome and Ektachrome film.

If you then took a picture of this same scene with Kodak Gold color negative film and scanned it using the "Negative film" setting, the resulting scan should look close to the scan you get from using the "Slide film" setting and scanning the Kodakchrome and Ektachrome slides (i.e. all three should look like the original scene).

VueScan contains sensitometric data for 200 types of negative film and 4 types of slide film. If you're scanning other types of slide film, choose Kodachrome for K14 process slides, and Ektachrome for E6 process slides.

Bits per pixel

This option specifies how many bits per pixel are read from the scanner. The more bits you read from the scanner, the higher quality the image but the slower the transfer speed at full resolution. If you specify a value for bits per pixel that the scanner isn't capable of, the closest valid option is used instead.

Note that the infrared channel and RGBI option only works on the Nikon LS-30, LS-2000, Minolta Scan Elite, Canon FS4000 and Acer ScanWit 2740S scanners.

The only time you should change this option is if you have a scanner that is capable of scanning the infrared channel and you don't need to do dust and scratch removal or if you want to make the raw scan file or memory buffer smaller by scanning at 24-bit resolution instead of 48-bit resolution.

Scanning at 24-bit resolution can add gaps to the final image histogram (compared to 48-bit resolution), but it can also speed up scanning with some scanners and often the end result is virtually indistinguishable from 48-bit scans.

Frame numbers

On the HP PhotoSmart, Nikon LS-30 and LS-2000, this option lets you select the frame numbers to scan on a film strip.

On the Acer ScanWit, Polaroid SprintScan 4000, Microtek ArtixScan 4000, Canon FS4000 and Minolta Scan Multi, this option lets you select the frame number to scan in the film holder.

On Nikon, Minolta, Polaroid, Canon FS4000 and Microtek scanners with APS adapters, this options lets you select which frame in the APS roll to scan.

You can specify multiple frames by specifying multiple frame numbers, or specifying a range of frames like "1-3", or some combination of both (i.e. "1,3,5-7" causes frames 1,3,5,6,7 to be scanned). You can also add an additional rotation to any frame or range of frames by putting a letter along with each frame number (i.e. "3r" says to scan frame 3 and rotate it 90 degrees to the right in addition to the default rotation, "2L" says to scan frame 2 and rotate it 90 degrees to the left, "1F,2L,4R" says to scan frame 1 flipped, frame 2 rotated to the left, and frame 4 rotated to the right.

Frame offset (mm)

This option sets an offset for the start of the each frame on a film strip on the Nikon LS-30 and LS-2000 scanners.

Use this option if there is some leader on the film strip, or if you're scanning panoramic frames and need to scan what would otherwise be the gap between 35mm frames. This option is always a positive number.

Frame spacing (mm)

This option sets the spacing between frames for some Medium Format scanners that support this in hardware.

Preview resolution

Use this option to select the preview resolution. The default value of 1/8 of the optical resolution is reasonable for most scanners, but you might want to change this when using some lower-resolution scanners.

If this option is set to "Auto", the preview will use a resolution that results in roughly one million pixels.

Scan resolution

Use this option to select the scan resolution. The reason that the resolution only has four choices is that most scanners use a CCD that spaces the color sensor rows 8 pixels apart, so only these scan resolutions cause the pixels to line up (otherwise you can get color fringing).

The actual dpi of the scan is stored in the file header of the output files.

If this option is set to "Auto", the scan will use a resolution that results in roughly one million pixels.

Rotate

This option describes how to rotate images. If you don't have much memory on your system, set this option to "None" and rotate the image later with an image viewer - this will make the cropping go a lot faster. Using "Right" rotates 90 degrees clockwise, using "Flip" rotates 180 degrees, and using "Left" rotates 90 degrees counterclockwise.

Note that rotation happens after mirroring.

Mirror

This options mirrors images left/right after rotating. This lets you insert film facing any direction you'd prefer.

Auto scan

If this option is set to "Preview device" or "Scan device" and if the scanner can sense when an image is inserted, VueScan will simulate pressing either the "Preview" or "Scan" buttons when an image is inserted.

If this option is set to "Preview memory" or "Scan memory" something changes (usually an option) that affects the preview or scan, then VueScan will simulate pressing either the "Prev Mem" or "Scan Mem" buttons.

This option is reset to "None" if you press the "Abort" button.

Auto eject

This option controls when the media is ejected (assuming the scanner is capable of ejecting media). It can be ejected after a preview, after a scan, or when VueScan exits.

Auto focus

Set this option to enable a focus before doing a preview or scan (or both).

Focus

Set this option to a value between -1 and 1 to manually change the device focus. The nominal value for most scanners is 0.

Focus X offset

This option determines where the auto focus is centered. 1 is the right side of the preview or scan, 0 is the center of the preview or scan, and -1 is the left side of the preview or scan. You can specify fractional values for this option.

Focus Y offset

This option determines where the auto focus is centered. 1 is the top of the preview or scan, 0 is the center of the preview or scan, and -1 is the bottom of the preview or scan. You can specify fractional values for this option.

Number of samples

On some types of scanners, this option causes the film to be sampled multiple times at each scan position, and the average of these samples to be stored. This can significantly reduce the noise in scans. There are few visible benefits to sampling more than 16 times, but you can set the number of passes to any number up to 256.

Number of passes

On some types of scanners, this option causes the film to be scanned multiple times, and the average of these scans to be stored. This can significantly reduce the noise in scans. There are few visible benefits to scanning more than 16 passes, but you can set the number of passes to any number up to 256.

Note that the PhotoSmart scanner doesn't align multiple scans very well because of the way it uses rubber rollers to move the film or slides. For this reason, this option isn't useful on the PhotoSmart.

Other scanners (such as the Polaroid SprintScan 4000) sometimes have registration problems of a few pixels between each scan pass. A future version of VueScan will automatically register these multiple scan passes.

Long exposure pass

On scanners that are able to increase the CCD exposure time, this option lets you do an extra scan pass that's longer than the normal RGB exposure. VueScan then merges the data from these two passes to get additional detail from the dark parts of the longer pass.

Pixels that are near saturated pixels on the long pass aren't merged with the scan. This reduces the problems of CCD blooming - saturated pixels spilling into nearby pixels. However, some CCD's have a severe problem with charge bleeding from saturated pixels to nearby pixel, causing a problem where dark areas are adjacent to bright areas.

Note that this option sometimes produces image artifacts near sharp transitions between dark and light areas, and should be used with care. It works better on some scanners than others, and it isn't recommended as a default option.

Lock exposure

Set this option to lock the CCD exposure values to those computed from the most recent preview or scan.

If you turn on this option and turn off the "Crop|Auto crop" option, then the "Scan" button won't first do a preview scan. This can save time when batch scanning.

RGB/Infrared exposure

On scanners that are able to vary the exposure time, this option lets you multiply the exposure time by a user-specified value. This is sometimes useful when scanning very dark slides with bright highlights when you want to get more detail from the dark parts of the slides.

There's seldom any reason to increase these values. If the CCD is over-exposed when scanning color negative film, then the film color gets messed up and the dark parts of the image (the bright parts of the negative) will lose detail.

Infrared stretch

This option is used with the Canon FS4000 and the Acer ScanWit 2740 to adjust for the fact that different scanners have a slightly different alignment between the RGB (Red, Green, Blue) scan pass and the Infrared scan pass. A future version of VueScan will compute this value automatically, but as a temporary expedient, this value can be adjusted to compensate for the different alignment of different scanners.

To adjust this value, scan a dusty slide or negative with "Filter|Infrared cleaning" set to "Scan". If there's an image of the dust spots closer to the center of the scan, increase "Device|Infrared stretch" in steps of 0.1, and if there's an image of the dust spots closer to the edge of the scan, decrease this value in steps of 0.1.

When this option is set optimally, the dust spots should be removed, with no afterimage of the dust spot to either the left or the right of the dust spot.

Lock film color

This option locks the color of the film substrate.

Lock image color

This option locks the black and white point used in the most recent preview or scan. This is useful after scanning the first image in a series of images when you want to make the lighting consistent in future scans (especially when scanning panoramas). This option is only displayed if you first set the "Device|Lock exposure" option.