Nikon Super CoolScan 5000 ED Film Scanner by Nikon
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Digital camera reviews of Nikon Super CoolScan 5000 ED Film Scanner
Digital camera Review: Expansive scanner with extermely poor and buggy software
Summary: 3 Stars
One would expect that a company developing professional scanners would have the pride to develop software matching in quality. But you would be greatly disappointed to discover that this grand heavy hardware comes with poor software and therefore only amounts to a mediocre product not worth the money. The software (Nikon Scan) is buggy, leaky and crashes after about the second or third scan of a negative strip. I am running the latest version of Windows XP, with all the patches, and basically have to stop every thing else from running on my 320Ghz, 2GB new PC. This buys me just another single strip before it either freezes, forcing me to kill the application, or it silently crashes. I don't even want to go into the usability and documentation. Enough said. Extremely disappointing and not worth the money.Digital camera Review: Fantastic, great for Slides!
Summary: 5 Stars
I am glad I waited to purchase this scanner; it's an updated version with Digital Ice 4, and for A LOT less than the previous model.I also purchased the automated Slide feeder with this, and it is nothing short of a miracle! The Digital ROC and Digital ICE is unbelievable with old slides, particularly Kodachromes. There are plenty of customizable enhancement settings to keep me busy for a long time.
I use this for business; this scanner will pay for itself with one bulk slide scanning order.
Love it, love it!
Digital camera Review: Film Scanner may extend usefullness of film camera!
Summary: 5 Stars
The scanner works well and its operation is straight forward. It is surprisingly noisy in operation, but this is apparently normal.
Be prepared for large files, if you want the hightest resolution digital photos from film. The high resolution of the film scan yields 20 megapixel digital photos from 35mm film. This means a large (50 Mb JPEG) per photo. Not everything needs to be scanned at highest quality. You can adjust the resolution of the scan, or the quality of the output file, to suit your needs.
A film camera, coupled with the scanner, yields the hightest resolution digital photos. This means my SLR film camera (which has not been used since I started using digital SLR) will now see service when I want the highest quality photos.
Digital camera Review: Film4life
Summary: 5 Stars
Ok, if you've been thinking about this scanner or just doing a bit of research stop right now and buy this scanner. I am a die hard film fan for a number of reasons a few of those I'll go into in a minute. Whether you are still shooting film and want the convenience of printing your own photos or you have 6,000 slides and negs that have been sitting in your attic waiting for you to scan them in, this is the scanner for you.
I have most of my images scanned into my computer already. I got into scanning my film in and printing my own stuff in 2002. I bought the Canon FS2720U film scanner but since I bought the Nikon 5000ED I have a new found obsession with scanning in my photos and I am re-scanning all my old photos with this scanner.
This scanner picks up details in the shadows like I've never seen. The colors are spot on and the sharpness is brilliant. I use Provia 100F which is arguably the best film ever made and this is the only scanner that can capture Provia's amazing grain and true to life tones.
If you are thinking about going digital but are still undecided this scanner should make that decision a lot easier. Why go digital when there is a scanner like this out there? You can buy the best film camera ever made the Canon EOS 1V, a great L lens and use a film like Provia 100F with this scanner and get resutls that only the best digital camera's can match. The only camera digital camera on earth that can equal that combination is the Canon EOS 1DS Mark II and for $7,500 wouldn't you rather wait a few years and shoot with the above combo until then? Well that's what I was struggling with for months until I found this scanner.
I haven't used the slide adaptor to batch scan so I can't comment on that. The speed of the Nikon 5000ED is just fine. I have it at the highest settings for everything, highest for resolution, highest for ICE (brilliant by the way) and highest for multi pass and I get an image in about 3 minutes or less. Who cares! You get a 130 megabyte file that looks just like the slide you put into it and you only have to do that once.
Buy this scanner, you won't be sorry.
Digital camera Review: Good scanner but be aware
Summary: 3 Stars
I've been doing this for some time and have Nikon gear top to bottom. I have the slide feeder and the negative adapter that lets you feed full strips into it. Both work well 90% of the time. I get mis-feeds on the slides from time to time.
You will get a bluish hue on your negatives. I have tried several films and they all yield the same problem. Expect to take some time in Photoshop to correct this problem. I am taking the advice of a poster to alter my color settings to compensate.
Here is the biggest issue with this scanner. PROPERLY exposed slides scan dark. This is with Fuji 50/100/400 and Kodak. This is a known issue and you will see dozens of posts all over about this problem. Flat and dark scans that need to have the analog gain pumped up to compensate. This throws off GEM and ROC and makes the software unusable. It also washes out detail and increases grain. I contacted Nikon and they stated that Fuji has a 4th layer of emulsion that impedes scans. This is not true for slides, there is no 4th layer. End conclusion, there is a problem with the scanner design. Nikon has failed to give a reason why this is occurring other then to point the finger at someone else. If it was just my problem, I would say it was something on my end, but there are dozens of people stating the same thing on many different photo boards.
ROC and GEM are "OK". I would scan clean unless there is an obvious problem with the neg/pos that needs to be addressed. Any time you alter grain or the physical layer of the film you are altering original quality. See what you have first before changing setting across the board.
If you have any questions about this, my AOL-AIM is above as my Amazon username. This would include Nikon if the finally have a reason WHY there are issues. Overall, it's a good scanner. I would buy it again, but at least I would know what to expect and not expect it all as advertised.