Nikon Coolscan IV APS Film Adapter

Nikon Coolscan IV APS Film Adapter
by Nikon

List Price: ~~$204.99~~
Category: CE
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Digital product summary information

Manufacturer: Nikon
Model: IA-20s
Product features:

Accessory for both Super Coolscan V ED and Super Coolscan 5000 ED Scanners
Compatible with the Nikon CoolScan IV ED
Scan APS film without hindering your other scanning jobs
Easy-to-install attachment
A quality Nikon product

Accessories:

Digital camera reviews of Nikon Coolscan IV APS Film Adapter

Digital camera Review: APS adapter works great with Coolscan V
Summary: 4 Stars

After researching the best way to scan APS film, I purchased a Coolscan V scanner from Amazon and this IA-20(S) adapter from Adorama thru the Amazon site. I never really found any reviews concerning scanning APS film, so I stuck with the scanner that had the best reviews and bought the APS adapter to go with it.

I found that these units were bid up on auction sites to within fifty dollars of the price of a new unit. My plan is to scan all of my film, then sell the scanner and adapter.

The film scans are beautiful! Much better than scans of the prints and much quicker and simpler. The software has many nice tools, especially Digital Ice, which eliminates all dust and spots with no apparent effect on the scan quality.

This is an excellent way to scan APS films, which are much easier to scan than 35mm strips. You just put the roll in the adapter. You click one button in the Nikon Scan software and it displays all 25 or 40 thumbnails in a minute or two. Since I had around 100 APS rolls to scan, I set up the defaults so that it would automatically have the normal parameters set when I scanned APS films. Then I just had to rotate the images to the correct orientation, select all of the thumbnails and hit the scan button in the software. It asks about the file name structure and the folder they will go into, and presents a few other options, then it spends about an hour to scan a roll of 25. I go do something else during that time. I haven't had any computer crashes during scanning, even while browsing or running other software on my computer (a low-end 2004 Sony VAIO desktop) simultaneously.

You can preview all of the frames and adjust all of the scan parameters for each individual shot before the final scan. I found this to only be useful on films with mostly dark shots. It takes about 15-20 minutes to preview a roll of 25. It is time-consuming to correct each shot. If there are only a few dark shots on a roll, then I preview and fix the ones I am sure will need additional software cleanup. Then I scan the whole roll. After scanning, I reopen the files, perform auto contrast on most shots, make any other adjustments, then resave them. Very efficient.

The adapter worked flawlessly for me for about 3 weeks, scanning about 55 APS films, mostly with 25 exposures but a few were 40-exposure rolls. While scanning the last 10 of those films a squeaking noise developed and worsened, but I ignored it because the scans did not have problems. Finally the adapter choked on a 40-exposure roll. The motor made a high pitched whining noise, like some gears had stripped or something. I did manage to open the door and get the roll out...That roll had a couple creases in it (but I later managed to scan it.) I returned the adapter to Nikon for warranty service. They returned it a couple weeks later. I completed scanning my remaining 45 rolls without incident. Because I'm not sure about the expected lifetime, I wouldn't advise buying a used adapter.

Overall my experience with the scanner and the APS adapter was good, but there are a couple things they should add:
1. A reader for the APS film's embedded magnetic strip. Inclusion of the date as data was one of the advantages of APS film. This data could be used to adjust the file date or included as part of the filename. This would make sorting easier.
2. A "Select All" button for easier selection of a whole roll.

I gave the APS adapter only 4 stars due to its mechanical failure after only 55 rolls. Nikon Coolscan V is an excellent scanning system for APS film as well as 35mm.

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Summary of Nikon Coolscan IV APS Film Adapter

Enables the LS-40 Scanner to scan APS images. Item Specifications: Product Description: Nikon IA 20S - scanner film adapter Product Type: Scanner film adapter Package Type: Retail

Specially designed as an optional accessory for the Nikon Coolscan IV ED, this unit will be particularly beneficial to labs that aim to process all types of professional-quality film. Connecting easily to your scanner, this solidly crafted attachment is built to handle Advanced Photo System (APS) film, without interfering with 35mm cut film and slides that can be scanned without accessories.