High Density Film Enhancement for the 390/391

X-Rite's scanning densitometers, models 390 and 391, are able to consistently and reliably measure films with a D-Max of 4.50D optical density.  Note however, that recent developments in film technology have resulted in photographic media that may exceed 5.00D.  When the current models 390 and 391 fail to read the high-contrast control strip, the customer receives “Invalid Reading” and “Unrecognizable Strip” errors. All measured steps up to 4.50D are accurate and reliable but steps above 4.50D are causing the instrument errors. X-Rite Engineering has created a product line extension to the current models 390 and 391 that allows all steps reading above 4.50D to be reported as “4.50D” and the rest of the steps to be accurately and reliably reported. This product line extension will require that the instrument firmware is updated to version “F202”. Follow these instructions to select the “High-Density” setting:

1. Access the “Function Menu” by going to the instrument’s “Main Menu” and then selecting [p1] and [p2] as shown below:

2. The default setting is with the high-density feature disabled (off). This is displayed as: “hDen”.

3. Press the [hDen] button and “HDEN” (all capitals) will be displayed indicating that the high-density feature is enabled (on). Return to the “Main Menu” and begin scanning strips.

Notes: If an instrument reset is performed, the instrument will revert to the default setting of having this feature disabled.

This “HDEN” setting will ONLY affect the normal measurement and reference operations. The “QC” menu items are unaffected by this setting.