It's not redundant, but maybe an explanation of how ICE works would help you understand why it won't work on digital files.
When you scan a film negative using ICE technology, the scanner makes a pass using IR light. Since the color emulsions are basically transparent to IR light and the base emulsion has a uniform appearance to the IR light, the only thing that shows up on the ICE scan is physical items on the film (dust, fingerprints, etc) or scratchs (where the emulsion has been removed. This scan then forms the basis for a image mask that can be applied to the RGB scan. Since the scanner now knows where the defects are, it can interpolate the damaged pixels and effectively remove the flaws.
In the case of a digital camera, the only way to do this would be to have a uniform light source shine across the sensor either before or after each shot so a mask could be determined and the defects masked out. This light would have to shine in such a way that dust and "stuff" on the CCD/CMOS sensor would be detected. Once the mask was determined, it would be very similar in processing function like the noise reduction mode on the D100.
Seems to me a small LED bank inside the camera could perform this. Anybody at Nikon listening? If so, then dust on the sensor (at least small amounts of it) would not be an issue. Also when one or two pixel went hot, they could be removed using the ICE masks.
Since Capture only works with films post "capture" it has no way to identify the physical defects in the imager.
Hope this helps.
Rick
BTW, I have a CoolScan IV that I use on my film. I'm basing the above at leat in part on the fact that the ICE technology does not work on true B&W films because the base is totally transparent to IR light and if ICE is used on B&W film you basically get nothing in the scanned image (it thinks the whole frame is damaged and "fixes" it)
Pardon my ignorance if this is redundant...
I wonder why Nikon doesn't integrate the ICE system with their
cameras and/or with Capture? Or is this what is planned for Capture
4 (from press release)?
I have no idea how it works, but staying at a friend who's wife
uses a Coolscan 4000ED, it looks to be working pretty well with
slide scanning...
Cheers,
--
Peter
