Nikon CoolScan V LS-50 ED Film Scanner by Nikon
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Digital camera reviews of Nikon CoolScan V LS-50 ED Film Scanner
Digital camera Review: Cool! Nikon CoolScan V ED FilmScanner
Summary: 4 Stars
I have started to convert 30 years of negative and slide photos into digital fromat. I have just finished converting a bunch of negatives. I have been able to save approximately 20% that were not worth viewing. I'm looking forward to doing some slides next.Digital camera Review: Counting On The Learning Curve
Summary: 5 Stars
I purchased the scanner to convert approximately 5,000 slides, shot over 30 years, to digital format. A necessary project as I work to share our pictures with our adult children.
Scanning alone takes about 1-2 minutes per slide. Editing the result adds to that. Other than being caught off guard by the time it will take, my initial reaction to using the CoolScan V is positive.
Packaging is functional but the box is quite large for what turns out to be a fairly compact scanner. The scanner is well-secured in its package but packaging is not intended for transporting/portability.
Initialization and hookup were straightforward. The instruction manual is not easy to follow but at least seems to have the information I will need. By my count, the instructions include 9 different languages (all on the same sheets) so you will need to sift through to find yours. Finally, a "quick start guide" was included but addressed only scanning film strips, not slides. My initial reaction is it will take a while to figure out the most efficient way to complete my project. I'm not particularly patient with poorly written or confusing instructions and I get really annoyed when the instructions put all the language options into one sheet or document (prevents me from discarding what I don't need).
Finally, the Nikon Scan software looks like it opens at least 3 windows to get one slide previewed, edited, and scanned. The windows overlap and makes it hard to manuever.
At this point, I am counting on the "learning curve" to help me as I dive into this project. I can foresee a lot of trial and error effort coming but am optimistic the scanner will eventually get me where I need to be.
UPDATE: March 22, 2010--I'm now 10% of the way through my slide conversion project and am extremely happy with the scanner and the process for converting my slides into digitized photos onto my computer. The simple scanning process does take about a minute per slide but during the "wait time", I am able to do another task which is to document what is on the picture. The editing choices and the options for how to save the scanned slide are particularly impressive. The ONLY negative comment I can make about this process is how important it is to get the dust off the slide before scanning it. If you don't, you'll see the dust as part of the photo you save.
Digital camera Review: Don't use for a large batch of slides.
Summary: 3 Stars
Works very well and is great for negatives or small numbers of slides. However, it doesn't support the SF-210 slide feeder, which is essential for doing large numbers of slides. (despite its known problems with jamming, the SF-210 is much better than hand feeding slides individually)
If you're planning on scanning more than 100-200 slides, you really need a slide feeder. Trust me.
The stock software isn't very good, particularly on mac (it's a PowerPC app, so it needs to run in Rosetta on an Intel mac). I use Vuescan, which is much better and very reasonably priced.
Digital camera Review: Excellant
Summary: 5 Stars
This scanner is what I was looking for. I tried using cheaper film scanners and adapters on bed scanners. Always disappointed with noise and resolution. I will be archiving my Dads slide collection (almost 5000 slides) and then my print film (edited down to maybe 3000). This scanner picked out amazing detail without tweaking any settings. It made me feel like I was laying on the floor watching those slides with a projector again. Yes it makes some noise, but tolerable. Scan speed is slowed when ICE , ROC and GEM are enabled at 4100 dpi, but I didn't think it was much longer than my old Prime Film 1800U.Digital camera Review: Excellant buy
Summary: 4 Stars
I love my Nikon CoolScan V. It set up just great and started cranking out excellent scans right away. I think they must of fixed the problem with scanning Kodachrome in the Nikon Scan software because most my scans are Kodachrome dating back to the late sixties. There are a few inconvenient software items but nothing you can't deal with. Kodachrome slides can't use the dust and scratch eliminator. For the price there is nothing as good as the Nikon CoolScan V. I am running the scanner on a PC with Windows XP Pro.