Lee Scoggins

Anyone have any experience with Nikon scanners?

I'm leaning toward remaining film based and continuing to shoot Provia and Velvia slide film.

So I am now looking at buying a $800-1,000 Nikon digital scanner for my slides. They have gotten some good reviews and come with the ICE photo restoration software.

Do any of you have any experience with these?

Thanks in advance for your comments or suggestions.

no fears alone at night she's sailing through the crowd
in her ears the phones are tight and the music's playing loud
~skateaway

Jay Taylor

I have hundreds of old slides to scan that my father took when we were kids, plus hundreds that I took before switching to digital.

Since I'm making the scans for my brother & sisters as well as myself I decided to get a very good film scanner.

After reading some reviews & comments from various photography forums, I ordered the Nikon Super Coolscan 5000 ED Film scanner.

I haven't received it yet so I can't comment on whether or not I like it.

"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." - Arthur C. Clarke

Aaron Reynolds

If you can find one, the Polaroid Sprintscan 4000 was a spectacular scanner and can be had quite inexpensively. At one point it was running around $500 US.

It's a 4000 dpi dedicated 35mm film scanner. It doesn't have the ICE feature, but I found that in practice ICE still obscured too much important detail for my tastes. Anyways, for a tenth of the cost, it's a real winner. I had one for about three years before I upgraded to the Sprintscan 120, which is the same but also can handle medium format (and was a ton more expensive).

Lee Scoggins

Thanks for the comments.

Jay, please provide a review for us when you get the scanner.

no fears alone at night she's sailing through the crowd
in her ears the phones are tight and the music's playing loud
~skateaway

John Kilroy

I have used Nikon film scanners, and have been pleased with the results. It takes some time to get it right, and dust control is always preferable to ICE. My Nikon gave out after a few thousand passes, but I am considering another one, so I guess I got my money's worth. There is third party scanning software (Ed Hamrick's) that really increases the value of film scanners.

JK

I\'m John Kilroy, and I approved this message.

JohnRice

Lee, Nikon scanners seem to be kind of a mixed bag. First, the software seems to be pretty twitchy. Second, they do seem to have a habit of dying prematurely. I don't think John Kilroy's experience is at all unusual. I have used the 8000 pretty extensively, and while the results can be downright amazing, that damn #$%#$ #$%#$%@#$ can be a real pain in the ass. Sometimes the @#$$% thing just doesn't want to behave and it takes 30 minutes to get it running when you first start scanning.

A friend had a 4000 which died too soon and he replaced it with a Microtek, which I guess is more reliable, but I'm not sure it generates the same quality.

They flutter behind you, your possible pasts.
Some bright-eyed and crazy, some frightened and lost.