Nikon Super CoolScan 5000 ED Film Scanner by Nikon
|
Our Price: $5,999.00 Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours Buy Used: from $2,599.99 (click here) Category: CE See more digital camera details and other models |
|---|
Digital camera reviews of Nikon Super CoolScan 5000 ED Film Scanner
Digital camera Review: If you're looking at this scanner you're already serious about photography
Summary: 4 Stars
Pros
Best scanner for the money
Fastest high resolution film scanner currently on the market (as of 2008)
Allows you to use your old 35mm as a 19+MP camera
Digital ICE and other corrective extras are great on most images
Works with C-41 process B&W negs
Cons
Expensive
Fastest is still slow, especially since ICE is usually necessary and slows the process down
Does not work with regular B&W negs
Has problems giving proper tone and shadows on some slides, mostly Kodachrome
Conclusion: Good or bad, it's about the best you can get if you need to convert your old negs and slides and don't have thousands of dollars to get something better.
This is my second Nikon scanner. I used to own the LS2000 which was excruciatingly slow and tedious to use. The results were great, yes, but the length of time it took to scan was too long for me. I also really didn't have the hard drive space for storing the huge files. Back then you didn't have hundreds of gigs at your disposal.
I purchased the 5000 because I needed the highest possible resolution and quality within a reasonable price range. If you want better you're probably looking at a drum scanner that costs a whole lot more.
Thankfully, the 5000 is considered one of the faster 35mm scanners you can get. But if you're new to film scanners, plan on waiting. The best to expect is about 30 seconds without any use of ICE or other corrections to the image. In my experience, ICE is always necessary which means the estimated times given by Nikon (under 30 seconds) are overly optimistic at best. I scanned fresh negatives after being developed and they still required ICE. The scanner just picks up every single detail - which is both good and bad.
I use an Intel Mac and overall everything works fine. Ditto what others have said about Nikon's software which is indeed buggy. It's crashed a few times on my computer. However, it's always up and running fine after I restart it (the program, not the computer). Have not tried VueScan yet, but it's something I'm looking into.
I wasted several hours when I first got the scanner trying to find the ideal setting for my work - negatives and slides that go back more than 25 years. They have dust on them and some of them have minor scratches. With that in mind, I strongly recommend the following settings to anyone in a similar situation:
Use ICE on every scan. Start with normal setting at first and go up to "fine" if the image still has flaws.
Enable "post processing" and put ROC at zero (don't typically need it) and GEM at maximum (for grain) for negs. In my experience no more than level 1 for grain is necessary for slides and you might not even need it at all. Negs, however, must have it unless you want a grainy image.
These settings have worked with the majority of my negs and slides.
EDIT: After doing several hundred negs/slides I've discovered that some do need additional help. Digital cameras tend to have highly saturated images and 35mm looks flat in comparison. ROC can boost the colors if they're flat. (If they're already vibrant it will distort them.) I've also encountered a few images that needed DEE (for shadows), but these were images that were inherently flawed to begin with. Keep in mind that the more options you choose (ICE, ROC, GEM and DEE) the longer the scan takes. Check all four and you're looking at a couple of minutes.
A major plus and two major minuses to keep in mind:
This scanner WILL work great with C-41 based B&W film. Because it reads it as color the ICE function works just like it does with color. I was extremely thankful for that.
The scanner's ICE function will not work with regular B&W film. Unfortunately, B&W film is extremely prone to scratching and major flaws that show up when they're scanned. I found major scanning services online that actually refuse to deal with B&W negs because there's so much post-scanning (Photoshop) work involved to make the image look good. Why some company hasn't come up with a solution for this is baffling given the popularity and abundance of B&W film, especially by pros and semi-pros. In any case, I've tried to scan my B&W negs and the end result is horrible. I'm looking at a couple hours of work per image on Photoshop.
The scanner also has a hard time with Kodachrome slides. I've tried several and the scanner does a rather poor job and recreating the true colors of the image, especially in the shadows. Overall, it tends to severely darken these images in my experience. I'm still researching to see if there's a setting fix for this within the software.
This scanner will turn your 35mm camera into the equivalent of a 19+MP camera. The basic setting 8 bit depth scans are about 60MB (tiff, not jpeg) and almost 120MB when you go to 16 bit. This isn't that helpful to anyone who just wants an 8X10, but it's extremely important if you're trying to do commercial work. Online stock photo agencies, for example, want 50+MB files.
This scanner will allow you to keep using 35mm for now. If you can afford a Nikon D300 or better than definitely make that leap and never look back. But if you need this scanner anyway to upgrade your old negs and slides, this will allow you to use that older equipment for a bit longer. I know I have an old 35mm 1:1 macro lens that I still enjoy using and now I can with the help of this scanner.
The two other scanners I contemplated were the less expensive Nikon CoolScan V and Epson Perfection V700 and 750. I chose the 5000 over the V because it was faster - very important given how many scans I need to do. And the Epson became a non-choice after reading about how much trouble those models have with focusing. If you want to spend less and don't have many negs or slides to scan then get the Nikon V. The far more expensive Nikon 9000 is only worth it if you have medium format film. Otherwise there's no reason to pay more for that model.
Digital camera Review: It's The best But could be better
Summary: 4 Stars
I have scanned over 30000 slide with my scanner with not to many problems one problem is that you get is over scan on lite colors white over black as an example as a bulk slide scanner goes it's the best one.Digital camera Review: Mac users beware...
Summary: 4 Stars
I've owned this scanner for several years. I did quite a bit of research when I purchased it and felt that it was the best value for the money at the time. I'm not aware of any new negative scanners coming onto the market in the past few years that would change that assessment.
I also have an Epson Perfection V500 Photo Scanner which I use for large format negatives. I've tried it for 35mm and I can tell you that the Nikon delivers superior results - no question.
I scan color slides as well as color & b+w negatives. The results are good with all of them. The scans are not as good as professional drum scans, but from a cost-per-scan standpoint this is the way to go. The main difference is edge focus which isn't perfect with the Nikon.
For my old 35mm color negs (which are generally from an old point and shoot) this scanner (along with the NikonScan software) does a great job. The software dust removal does a great job as well.
For my fine art 35mm b+w negatives it delivers good quality, high resolution scans. The dust removal software doesn't work on B+w however, so there's always some post clean-up involved.
I'm a Mac user and I have to warn you all that Nikon's included software just doesn't work on an Intel Mac. They seem completely uninterested in helping their Mac users and I have found the whole situation quite frustrating. However, I have had good, consistent success running NikonScan on Windows via Parallels. It seems crazy but it works pretty well. Sure it's inconvenient but after all the crashing in OSX I just gave up.
Nikon's support sucks so pray that you don't have a problem. I did and it took forever to get it handled. Still, since then my scanner has worked like a trooper.
I've demo'd other plugins like Silverfast but I don't like them very much so I use NikonScan in Windows.
I've often considered selling this scanner and getting something else, but I haven't found a better tool in this price range.
Digital camera Review: Much better than expected!! Works great with OS X 10.5 on the Mac
Summary: 5 Stars
I have used the coolscan 4000 for a while with mixed results and recently had a horrible time with it on a friends mac running OsX 10.5 with the newest cool scan 4.02 software.
Well I'm very happy to report that I picked up the 5000 over the weekend along with the 210 auto feeder and have been extremely impressed with the results.
Running the coolscan 4000 and 4.02 nikon scan software, I experienced crashes every 7 slides or so. Not so with the Coolscan 5000, nikon scan 4.02 running on an iMac with 2 gigs ram and sys 10.5.
I've easily bulk scanned 50 slides in a sitting without jam or crash. Now that I've tweaked my settings, the result have been excellent.
Right now I'm scanning kodachromes mostly. I would recommend
Digital Ice on (magically removes all scratches)
Enable Digital DEE shadow adj 40 highlight 10 threshold 100 (lightens dark shadows, drops highlights)
I am not using post processing ROC or GEM
Also in preferences make sure you set advance colr settings to a sample point size of 5x5 and drop contrast calculations to 0 for both black and white. This will prevent the auto contrast function from blowing out your highlights.
I also have auto focus and exposure on in my batch settings.
You will need to tweak the settings obviously depending on what you're scanning, but the above seem to work well for most of my batched images.
Good luck.
For those that have had problems with the 210 feeder jamming, I had a few hiccups at the outset but these calmed down after an hour or so. I think the spring loaded plate can put too much pressure on the right side of the slides causing the uppermost slide to catch on the one below. I put a small felt floor protector on the left side to minimize pressure on the right and enhance on the left and the problem disappeared. Since then, I've removed the pad and have not experienced a single jam scanning hundreds.
Digital camera Review: New Life for Old Slides (and Negatives)
Summary: 5 Stars
I can't add much to the many positive reviews for this scanner. I can say that old slides and negatives that I shot in the seventies never looked so good. Back in the day I worked in a professional photo lab. One of my jobs was making 4x5 inter negatives from slides for large blow ups. It was state of the art at the time and allowed very good 16" x 20" and acceptable 30" x 40" prints. I stil have some of those inter-negs and prints and I can tell you that a digital scan from the Nikon 5000 processed thru Photoshop and printed on a large format ink jet printer are better than any wet process I have seen. Even my B&W TriX negatives have improved with age (and digital scanning). I can place a quality 8x10 from 1972 side by side with an ink jet print from the same negative scanned with the 5000 and the new print reveals more detail and tonal range than I could ever achieve in the darkroom.