Railfan Technology > The Nikon Coolscan V scanner (first impressions)

Purchased February '06 from B&H. Nice, compact little box. Sits upright between my monitor and tower. Most functions easy to learn (so far). Primary use is for scanning nearly 30 years of slides.

I like the separate scanning settings for Kodachromes and for "positives". Cropping is easy (even for me). It has a B&W setting called grayscale, which I haven't yet used.

Still have a lot to learn. Not sure about "unsharp mask", "analog gain" and "threshold". So far, I'm scanning slides to my documents folder. Need to learn how to send a scanned image to an e-mail address and to a website(TO). Also need to learn to scan to a CD.

Most of my scanned images look sharp, although when I compare some to the original transparencies viewed with a 10-power loupe, the transparencies look better. I'm thinking this is probably an operator problem rather than a scanner problem. Will Photoshop help? I know I'll need it to save some of my scratched slides.

As noted above, I've been photographing railroads for nearly 30 years, but scanning is new to me. All suggestions welcomed.

LK (pleased with the Coolscan so far)

Start by reading here http://www.scantips.com/

Len, read the link below if you haven't already - "too much grain".

Note that some of the features that can improve your scans can
also take away from your scan. Lower the values, even the defaults,
and take note as you raise the values of ICE, DEE, and the unsharp
mask.

If I start now, I should be done scanning in a next life.......

> separate scanning settings for Kodachromes

How does it do on Kodachrome?

I had an early Coolscan that was great on negatives and Ektachrome, but was horrible at Kodachrome. If they have this licked I would consider buying one for home.

Did your early Coolscan have a separate setting for scanning Kodachrome? I'm presently scanning slides from 1994 (I file all my slides chronologically). Most are Kodachromes. They don't seem to scan any better or worse than other slides.

Here's a paragraph from the bottom of page 46 of my Coolscan User's Manual:

"When scanning Kodachrome film with the 5000 ED or Coolscan V ED, select "Kodachrome" in the film type menu." ( and then this:) "Depending on the film used, blurring or localized loss of detail may occasionally result when Kodachrome film is scanned with the 5000 ED or COOLSCAN V ED."

LK

Hi Len,

Somehow my address book on cox.net got wiped clean so I could not find your e-mail address. Send me an e-mail and I'll send you some advice on scanning for e-mail and web posting. I use Photoshop Elements and Microsoft Digital Image Suite and they both work great.

Bob

> Did your early Coolscan have a separate setting
> for scanning Kodachrome?

No. This was very early, so there may have been a later software update.

I believe unsharp mask is an old technique getting its name from darkroom days, you probably don't want to use. Remember what you view on screen is at 72 dpi and is meant for viewing at normal distance. Not for close examination. I would think almost by definition the screen cannot appear as sharp as thru your viewer, better to compare what you woud see with a projector.

All photoshop programs have some sharpening. Remember to save your originals scans best in a seperate folder before any modifications. Main thing is not to oversharpen. Photoshop also will be great for cleaning up images, brightening up others etc. Can really due a good job on scans you may have thought were marginal. I think good test will come if you want to print some of your favorites.

Bob

Congratulations on buying the scanner. I really enjoy mine. I just learned about the ICE setting. Check out this thread to compare images without it, and with it on.

http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,1132080

It isnt so much the scanner, but the software version which supports seperate settings for Kodachrome. The trouble is Nikon is only upgrading the software for certain hardware models, so limitations exiast for older scanners.

TV-10 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> It isnt so much the scanner, but the software
> version which supports seperate settings for
> Kodachrome. The trouble is Nikon is only
> upgrading the software for certain hardware
> models, so limitations exiast for older scanners.

Just doublechecking, but does the "better" Kodachrome support exist for the Nikon Super Coolscan 5000 ED?

Cheers,
Harry

As far as I have read only Nikon 9000 That advertises that they have Kodachrome friendly ICE. Of course it is the most expensive one at $1700 plus. It also does medium format film. I tried asking if you could upgrade a older or cheaper coolscan with it but received no response.

Scott O'Dell

I have a nikon coolscan iv but i have bought the vuescan program it works great...