[filmscanners] RE: Nikon Supercoolscan 5000 ED

["Patrick M. Florer" <pmflorer@swbell.net>]

Hardly any detail loss with the minimum setting, and, yes, you can turn it
off.  There are four levels of IR correction, as I recall - off, light,
medium, and heavy.  With medium and heavy, you will notice some detail loss.
And I agree about turning it off for some films / images.  I shot several
rolls of Velvia 50 last Thanksgiving, and scanned with IR = off.  Used a lot
of compressed air, though!

I haven't ever compared the two scanners side by side for detail in shadows
- according to the specs, there should be more with the Nikon.  The overall
image quality just seems to be better.  On slide film, the colors are
better.  Again, better is subjective - depends a lot on film type, exposure,
etc. - the normal stuff!

Now that I have seen the images from a high end DSLR, though, I have to say
that I have never produced a scan as good as the image that my Nikon D2X
produces.  So, unless it's B&W, Infrared, or a shot needing a really wide
angle, when I use up my current batch of film, I don't expect to be shooting
too much more film.

I am not the one to talk about the hardware issues you have.  On my SS4000,
I started getting a dark line the full length of the scan, which almost
certainly indicated defects in the CCD sensor.  I am surprised that Polaroid
won't take the scanner back and keep working on it, given the fact that they
have already charged you for the repair.

If you aren't using Vuescan, I would highly recommend it - I don't know what
it costs now, but, at the time, it was a very good investment of $35.

Regarding someone else's suggestion about using a scuba tank for compressed
air - I checked into this in Dallas at a local dive shop:  1) the least
expensive tank setup they had was about $250; and, 2) I would have needed a
certificate from a diving school in order to fill / re-fill the tank!  I
didn't do it!.

Patrick Florer

-----Original Message-----
From: filmscanners_owner@halftone.co.uk
[mailto:filmscanners_owner@halftone.co.uk] On Behalf Of Mary Orton
Sent: Friday, June 03, 2005 11:10 AM
To: pmflorer@swbell.net
Subject: [filmscanners] RE: Nikon Supercoolscan 5000 ED

Did you find much detail loss with the dust detection settings or is it
possible to turn those settings off with the Nikon? I know it is time
consuming but for some images were optimum sharpness is key it would be nice
to have that choice. Do you find that you get more detail in the shadows
than with the Polaroid? You mentioned better quality, is that referring to
sharpness, contrast levels, colour accuracy?

Perhaps the way to describe the waves from the Polaroid is that they are
closely spaced soft diagonal lines in the dark areas.

Thanks
Mary

-----Original Message-----
From: filmscanners_owner@halftone.co.uk
[mailto:filmscanners_owner@halftone.co.uk]On Behalf Of Patrick M. Florer
Sent: Friday, June 03, 2005 7:58 AM
To: maryorton@shaw.ca
Subject: [filmscanners] RE: Nikon Supercoolscan 5000 ED


Sorry about the $600!

I had a similar situation, except that I didn't spend the $600 to try to fix
my SS4000.  The SS4000 had developed bad pixels in the CCD sensor - Polaroid
wanted $400 just to look at it, and more $$$ to fix, so I just junked it
after 3 years, figuring that I had gotten plenty of value for what I paid.

I bought a Nikon Supercoolscan 5000ED as a replacement, about a year ago,
and have scanned approximately 150 - 200 rolls of print negative and print
positive film.  I have recently purchased a Digital SLR, and will be doing
most photography with that now, but I am glad to have the 5000ED and have no
plans to sell it.  Including sales tax, I paid about $1,100 for the device.

The scanner connects to a PC via USB, the scan speed is roughly 4x faster,
and the quality is better, too.  Having IR dust detection and correction,
which I usually use on it's least intrusive setting, solved a major problem
I had with the Polaroid.  My expenditures for canned air dropped to $0!  If
you are careful with this feature, you won't lose much sharpness, but if you
overdo it, you will definitely see some loss of detail.

Also, the Nikon doesn't use a carrier for strips of film - you just feed
anywhere from 2-6 frames on a strip right into the from of the machine,
which is a huge timesaver when compared to the SS4000 - I always had trouble
getting my film to lay flat enough to line it up correctly in the Polaroid
filmstrip carrier!  The slide feeder takes only one mounted slide at a time,
which is kind of a pain if you have a lot of these to scan.  You can buy
both a bulk filmstrip loader, which can process up to 40 images on a roll,
and a bulk slide loader, which holds 50 mounted slides.  Each of these
options costs about $500.  I have neither.  I was tempted to get the
filmstrip loader, but then I realized that, after scanning the film the
first time, I was going to cut it into strips of 6 images each to fit the
storage sleeves I use, so what was the point!  I still have 3-4,000 mounted
slides inherited from parents to scan, so I may still purchase the slide
loader.

I don't use the Nikon software much, preferring Vuescan as easier to use and
faster, with no loss of functionality.

I have had no software or hardware issues, either.  My PC is fairly new and
very capable with fast processor and 2 gb of memory and Windows XP Pro.  I
do computing for a living and run a pretty "tight ship", so this may be an
important reason why I have had no problems.

Hope this helps.

Patrick Florer




-----Original Message-----
From: filmscanners_owner@halftone.co.uk
[mailto:filmscanners_owner@halftone.co.uk] On Behalf Of Mary Orton
Sent: Thursday, June 02, 2005 3:01 PM
To: pmflorer@swbell.net
Subject: [filmscanners] Nikon Supercoolscan 5000 ED


Has anyone had any experience with this slide scanner? Nikon Supercoolscan
5000 ED

My Polaroid SS 4000 is not working well (-fine waves in dark areas and
coloured lines ). We sent it to the Polaroid repair shop and it is virtually
the same upon return except we are 600 dollars poorer. As it has worked well
for us for 7 years we thought there must be something better out there by
now.
The Nikon specs sound good, but it is hard to find independent reviews. We
don't do high volumes but do need top quality.
Thanks for any help
Mary /Michael Orton


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