filmscanners: Nikon Super coolscan 4000 Problems

[Barbara & Martin Greene <martbarb@earthlink.net>]

Have my new scanner less than a week and have a couple of serious problems
that I'd like help with.  Up until now, I've scanned all of my slides using
Photo Cds and had anticipated a vast improvement in quality.  I keep my
slides as clean as possible.  When I scan using Digital Ice, I get clean
scans, but I feel they are on the soft side, particularly when compared to
the amount of detail present when Digital Ice is turned off.  But, the
dilemma is, that when Digital  Ice is off, the amount of junk covering every
part of the scan is horrendous.  I  checked with Nikon tech support,  and
the recommendation was to clean it out with canned air.  I did this and the
result was some reduction in junk, but still lots left over.  They
recommended I return it for cleaning.  Strange, that there should have been
so much dirt in it. I bought it from Ritz camera, and, so far as I could
tell, it was freshly  boxed.  I can still return it to them.

But I am distressed that Digital Ice so softens the scan, forcing me to do
without it and have to deal with dust through Photoshop, however little
there may if I get a new machine.  Also, I've found that getting a sharp
scan, even when I auto-focus on the sharpest part of an image, does not
occur with consistency.  Without making a few scans of an image, it can be
difficult to know when you get the best results.  I'm wondering whether or
not I got a lemon?  Feeling that maybe I'd do better with the new Canonscan
4000, whose sharpness has been praised and the Fast software is supposed to
have little or no softening effect.  Also, at this point, the main
difference I see between the Photo CD and the Nikon scan is that the Photo
CD color is way off, requiring lots of correction in Photoshop and the
Nikon scan is color-perfect.  I'd appreciate assistance from those who are
using the above scanners.

Martin