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: Excellent scans, a tad too slow
Summary: 4 Stars
I used this scanner for about 150 frames of 35mm and 6 or so slides. The scan times are a bit too long, but, the results are worth the wait. The Digital ICE 4 suite of apps does a remarkable job of elminating scratches and worn out spots. It has the slide & 35mm film mount adapters included, comes with Nikon Scan, Nikon View and manuals. Nikon Scan could be more intuitive, but like all Nikon menus (including their cameras), they think differently than I do at least, so it took me a while to figure out all the different options. The software found it slightly hard to remember my settings - it was a bit complicated for a scanner, but it is a near-professional scanner, so well .. not much room to complain. On the whole, this scanner is worth the trouble - holds value well, and gives you excellent scans.Digital camera Review: Excellent!
Summary: 5 Stars
Not the cheapest film scanner, but for ease of installation, ease of use, and quality of results, this is the way to go. I particularly like the dirt and scratches filter (ICE) which works amazingly well, and the Kodachrome profile (which older versions did not have).
Downsides? It's slow. It makes noise (though not nearly as much as others I've heard). It's fussy when you try to feed in the film strip. These are not major problems, just things you must accept as part of film scanning.
Overall, very satisfied.
Digital camera Review: Excellent!
Summary: 5 Stars
Installation and operation were flawless.
I had no problems digitizing over 700 old slides. The maximum resolution of this scanner is overkill for my purpose. I used 2000 dpi at most.
The hardware adjustments to exposure intensity and color were very handy for badly exposed slides.
I plan to resell this machine on Amazon when I am finished scanning some negatives. All my cameras are digital now, so there is no point in keeping it.
Digital camera Review: Fantastic scanner!
Summary: 5 Stars
Four words: This scanner is great!
What makes it great is the combination of Digital ICE and Digital ROC.
1. I've used a film/slide scanner without digital ICE and for each slide I scanned, I would need to spend 1/2 to 1 hour manually removing dust spots. The Digital ICE built-in to the scanner driver is fantastic. I never see dust spots anymore and the scan is as sharp as ever.
2. Digital ROC (Restoration of Color) is fantastic. I have scanned ancient slides from the early 60's through the mid-80's and the Digital ROC compensates for the fading color in an amazing, adaptive way. I don't know how it does it, but it works!
Finally, when I first bought this scanner, I wondered if the fact that there isn't a slide carrier that allowed batch scanning of slides would cause a problem. It turns out that the opposite is true. I have found that it takes more time to position a slide in a carrier and then feed the carrier into a scanner (the way I used to do it) than to simply slip a single slide into the slide reciever that comes standard with this scanner. Even factoring in scanning multiple slides, I prefer this scanner to one that uses a multiple slide carrier.
I have noted some quirks with the software: All occur when batch-scanning color negatives (scanning multiple images on the same filmstrip). However, if I manually "preview" each frame and then setup the crop and scan parameters for each frame the scanner software works great and I can walk away while the scanner does its thing on several images, unattended.
This scanner is fantatic. I highly recommend it.
Digital camera Review: First personal transparency scanner
Summary: 5 Stars
Having worked with professional drum scanners (Hell Graphic Systems), I know a little about scanning. This Nikon Coolscan V ED is the first personal scanner I have worked with and am pleasantly surprised. I have inhereted the old familly slide collection and several of the slides are grossly underexposed, or darkened with age. The V ED has the sensitivity to pull out more image than I had hoped for, with very little noise. The provided software is no replacement for Photoshop, but can go a long ways to giving acceptable results without other image retouching software. I am eager to see SilverFast for the V ED however!The only problems I've encountered is unexpected termination of the program, and mis-judging frame boundaries of negative strips. Negative scanning is a snap, an unexpected pleasure as thinking color in reverse is painful (on German drum scanners).
For the price, this is a very highly capable scanner worthy of your consideration. If your scan rate needs are high, consider the faster version, and a FAST G5 Macintosh. A 1.25 GHz G4 gets a workout on the tougher scans.