P: Imacon 3F plugin not working

[Michael Bothager]

My Imacon 3F plugin (1.4) doesn't work in Photoshop 2018 (19.1.1) on MacOS Sierra (10.12.6). The plugin works fine in Photoshop 2017. 

When attempting to open a 3F file in PS 2018, the fileformat is preselected as Imacon 3F, whichis not the case in  PS 2017. 

Photoshop System Info shows no error in loading the plugin.

Any suggestions on how to get the Plugin to work in PS2018? 

[Michael Bothager]

If anyone is interested, Hasselblad Support have reproduced the issue, and have reported it to Adobe.

[Michael Bothager]

The latest update (19.1.2) didn't fix this issue.

Adobe, are you working on this problem?

[J453]

Do you know who they reported it to? I'm not seeing a record from them.

[Michael Bothager]

Hi Jeffrey, thank you for reacting.

I got an email reply on my support case with Hasselblad from Beatrice Dobirta. But I don't know to whom Hasselblad reported the issue to at Adobe.

I can try to request details about where in Adobe the issue was reported, if you require it.

[J453]

Thanks. I think I've tracked something down from someone on the Camera Raw side. I'll follow up if they have any questions.

[Michael Bothager]

Sounds good.

A user on the "Imacon Scanners" Yahoo group (mristuccia) have found this workaround which makes it possible to open the 3f file:

1. Open Photoshop CC 2018
2. File -> Open... (as usual)
3. Click the button "Options" in the open dialog (bottom left)
4. Select the .fff file you want to work with
5, Now you should have:
    Enable: All Readable Documents
    Format: Imacon 3f
6. Click on "All Readable Documents" and JUST RE-SELECT it from the option list, or select another option and then re-select "All Readable Documents".
7. Click the button "Open" (as usual)

The thread can be found here: https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/IMACONUSERS/conversations/topics/12453

I hope this may help in the work on this issue.

[J453]

Thanks. This is helpful!

[Michael Bothager]

Jeffrey, is there any news regarding this issue?

[J453]

Still being investigated. Best to use the workaround in the meantime.

[Michael Bothager]

So, any progress?

[PECourtejoie]

Is it still the case in PS CC19.1.4?

[Michael Bothager]

Unfortunately, yes 😕

[Michael Bothager]

So, latest update (PS CC 19.1.5 & ACR 10.4.0.976) – the issue still exists.

I guess that this is a very low-priority issue for Adobe, which is unfortunate.

Jeffrey Tranberry, can you please comment on what is being done to fix the issue?

[J453]

Sorry for the late reply. I was out of town the past two weeks. Eric from the ACR team looked at this back in 2014: https://feedback.photoshop.com/photoshop_family/topics/support_of_hasselblad_3f_files

fff files are essentially 16-bit RGB TIFF files with some custom/proprietary tags in them for the Hasselblad software to access.

Do you use the Hasselblad software to edit your the original fff images?

If not, the simplest thing to do is rename the files from <myfilename>.fff to <myfilename>.tiff and Photoshop will open them without any extra hoops. If you want them to open directly in Camera Raw, then set the ACR pref to automatically open TIFFs after you rename the files.

[Michael Bothager]

Hi Jeffrey, thank you for your reply.

Firstly, please bear in mind, that there is two types of 3F files; either files from a digital Hasselblad back, or files from the scanner software FlexColor (when using an Hasselblad/Imacon/Flextight scanner). The issue is with the latter. Just to make sure we are on the same page.

My workflow is:
1. scan to 3F file as a linear scan, no color inversions or color adjustments are made at this step.
2. open 3F file in Photoshop to remove dust/scratches, save 3F file.
3. open 3F file in FlexColor to convert the image (negative to positive with specific color settings), save as a new TIFF file
4. further processing of the TIFF in either Lightroom or Photoshop.

The reason that I use FlexColor to convert the images is because of the color profiles. I'm not interested in using 10-100x more time manually colorconverting my scans, which I hope you find a reasonable argument. 

I do know that the 3F file is a TIFF file, but renaming it does not solve the problem. Also, Adobe broke som existing functionality in the file handling, where re-selecting a dropdown in the open dialog circumvents the issue. So it should not be a terrible difficult error to correct.

I hope that this issue is to be resolved.

[J453]

Hi Michael, is there a reason why you just don't skip step 2 and remove the dust and scratches in Photoshop after converting the file to a TIFF?

[Michael Bothager]

When removing dust/scratches before converting the file, I can make different conversions without having to remove dust/scratches more than once. This is explained in more depth here: https://www.knowhowtransfer.com/how-to/resources/3f-system-revolutionary-pro-scanning-system-by-hass... (under the section Retouching 3F originals)

[Michael Bothager]

Mr. Jeffrey Tranberry, will there be any solution to this bug? There has been a couple of updates, but none of them have solved this issue.

[AdamjLong]

FYI same problem persists in CC2019. There is an "options" button at the lower left of the "open" dialog box - it brings up the "enable" and "format" options to open a file. The "format" drop down is able to find the 3F plugin but upon trying to open the file a dialog box says to update ACR and includes a weblink. The link shows supported cameras and under the Hasselblad cameras there is an * (** Hasselblad FFF files created by the Hasselblad Phocus software for currently supported models are also supported. FFF files created using the FlexColor software are not supported.) Regardless, I too want to open my scanner 3F files in Photoshop (not ACR) the way I used to. Is this possibly a plugin problem now?

[AdamjLong]

Did a little more digging and found that in the PS Open dialog box, in the Options change “Enable: All Documents” to “Enable: All Readable Documents”, then back to “Enable: All Documents”; also, set “Format: Imacon 3f” to something else, then back to “Format: Imacon 3f”. It is "the secret handshake" but it does work. PS loaded my 3f as a grayscale sRGB image. I assigned "don't color manage", did some cloning and saved. Went over to Flexcolor and was able to open the color scan. All is well... kinda http://www.davidebarranca.com/2013/02/how-to-open-and-retouch-hasselblad-3f-scanner-files-in-photosh...

[Michael Bothager]

Adam, the bug was introduced in PS CC 2018, and the workaround you mention was described by mristuccia at the Yahoo Imacon Users forum.

Hasselblad and Adobe have spoken to each other, and the bug was in Photoshop.

Its just to bad that Adobe will not reply and fix this bug. The workaround works, but it is annoying, just like if your car only starts if you had to get out to open and close the hood/bonnet before turning the ignition ;o)

[Millerrolllins]

Renaming files -- Windows won't let me change the name on a 3f to a tif. The File Explorer (Windows 10), freezes and when I come back the name is unchanged.

[Millerrolllins]

1.  I am working with .fff files created with Flextight x5 (Hasselblad) scanner and Flexcolor software on an Apple computer.  Working in Windows 10 LR 8.4 will does not recognize files.  In Import, the files are listed, but no image (Preview Unavailable), "File cannot be opened by Lightroom." (My understand is that .fff files from the scanner are not the same as .fff from a Hasselblad camera.)

2.  In Photoshop 20.0.6, I've installed latest plugin from Hasselbald, but Raw converter does not recognize .fff images.

3.  And the most interesting issue.  On Windows 10 computer, I cannot rename or delete any of the .fff files.  They can be copied.  There were no permissions issues.  No luck in Command Mode until I tried Safe Mode where still could not rename a file, but could delete a directory. 

[Millerrolllins]

My original post has been merged into this thread and I was referred to J Tanberry's post about a workaround involving renaming the 3f files to .tif.  However, i'm unable to rename the 3f files.  Is there any possibility that because the scans were produced on a Apple computer that this causes problems in Windows 10? 

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

Michael - I was having the same problem and I think I have diagnosed it and thought I would post here in case it helps anyone else. I noticed that I too could not rename .fff scanner files, nor delete them, nor sometimes open them in Flexcolor. A post above indicated that it was likely a permissions issue/being open somewhere in some other file, so I eventually traced it to likely relating to the Windows 10 'Photos' app and perhaps related to having a preview of the file (i.e. after I had opened a .fff file in Photos and could see the negative, if I closed it in Windows explorer it would show me a preview thumbnail of that photo, but not other 3f photos in the same directory that I hadn't specifically opened in Photos). I then uninstalled Photos app (instructions online) and also made sure to remove thumbnails when using the Disk Cleanup option - and this seems to have resolved the issue - I can now rename, move, delete at my hearts content.