RE: filmscanners: Nikon 8000: An Unbiased Review

["Austin Franklin" <darkroom@ix.netcom.com>]

> * overall, excellent scans, especially on 645
>   negatives.  Quality on par with the Leaf 45,
>   maybe even marginally better.  (Sorry, Austin.)

If I were the Leaf designer, I'd take that as a compliment!  For a 12 year
old design, it does hold its own, and if I had to do it all over again, I'd
certainly give the Nikon a very close look, and probably would end up with
it.  On the aside, my Leaf is working far far better than it was when you
were here, probably because I know how to operate it better, and because
it's worked it self in, so you might want to consider doing some re-scans.
I would like to compare some B&W scans of the same negative.  Perhaps I
could scan something, and then send you a CD with my scan, as well as the
negative, and you could scan it and compare?

> * surprisingly good auto-exposure, at least on
>   most negatives.  I use it often -- and I'm
>   usually very fussy about scanner settings.



> * no film-type "profiles" to choose from --
>   scanner is uncannily accurate at properly
>   "inverting" different types of C41 film

Isn't that amazing ;-)

> * good software (NikonScan 3.1) despite some
>   conflicts and issues with installation.  It
>   has all the essential controls I want,
>   including histograms and a good curves tool.
>   All in all, one of the best vendor-supplied
>   scanner drivers that I've worked with.

My big thing that I find I REALLY want in a scanner driver is the ability to
set setpoints manually, as well as a decent tone tool, and histogram.  Is
the histogram 16 bits (if you're doing a 16 bit scan that is), and can you
set the setpoints manually?  Can you rotate (and even zoom in on) the
preview window?

> * large, noisy machine.

Relatively, it's hardly a valid complaint ;-)