Railfan Technology > Film scanner and computer questions

Good evening.

I really need to get my scanning resumed and have decided I'm just going all new.  I used a Nikon Coolscan V-ED with really great results.  Nikon stopped supporting the software and I was using Vuescan.  No real complaints there, but it would be nice to use something with integrated software supporting current hardware platforms.  My Nikon still works, but was getting quirky, at times requiring multiple restarts to get it working properly or talking to Vuescan.  That is what is pushing me to just outright renew my platform. 

It seems the Epson scanners get a lot of recommendations.  I am looking for something at least as good as my old Nikon (that was 4000 dpi) and am willing to spend up to about $1000 for a good quality machine.  What would fit the bill here?  I'm not wed to any particular brand; but integrated software would be a plus.

I'll also need to get a new computer to run the scanner and house my photo editing software.  I will likely use Adobe Photoshop and/or Lightroom (believe those are sold as a single subscription now, correct?).  This is really about as much as I'll use a computer for.  Question is, how much of a computer do I need to accomplish this?  Full-on laptop, or will something smaller like a Chromebook be enough?

I appreciate any insights offered.

Mike Derrick
 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/29/21 16:45 by ShortlinesUSA.

You might check out an alternative approach using your digital camera. After scanning negatives and paper with an Epson V850, I found this approach to be faster and higher quality.
Good luck

http://chaostomemories.com/

 

A couple of years ago I bought a Pacific Image film scanner from B&H.

It was somewhere around $800 or $900 then. I just looked on the B&H website, and I see it’s on sale through 6-30.

It’s a great scanner, and it works flawlessly with my Mac.

The only problem is that I overestimated my commitment to sit around and scan old negatives, so it spends more time on the shelf than in use.

But one if these days I’ll get back to it.

Posted from iPhone

Scanner technology since your Nikon Coolscan V-ED hasn't really changed much. You'd be hard pressed to improve on the hardware, and certainly not with an Epson, or any flatbed that has transparency capability. I would suggest upgrading your computer and OS, then installing the latest Vuescan, and see if the scanner performs better. 

This site has about the most thorough reviews of film scanners I've found:

https://www.filmscanner.info/en/FilmscannerTestberichte.html

In the end, I went with "scanning" using a dSLR. A Nikon D850, 60/2.8AF lens, light panel, and a copy stand. Plenty of blogs and YouTube videos on how to use a dSLR to scan film, and the processing required to turn a Negative to a positive in case you're not scanning slide film.

Good luck!

Arved Grass
Fleming Island, FL

It depends on how many slides/negs you want to scan. And what equipment you need to buy. And how you value your time scanning as opposed to doing something else.    When you have figgered out this matrix......

You may find that sending them out is reasonably cost effective.    There are several top rate scanning services.

Thank you all for the input.  I do not have a DSLR, so that is not an option for me.  I believe as a first step, I'll heed trainjunkie's advice and see if I can "liven up" my Nikon with updated OS and software.

Norm, I have a large collection of slides, but my scanning is more along the lines of doing a few on a free evening and posting to the net.  Not a wholesale scanning of the entire collection; just a select few.

Mike Derrick
 

ShortlinesUSA Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Good evening.
>
> I really need to get my scanning resumed and have
> decided I'm just going all new.  I used a Nikon
> Coolscan V-ED with really great results.  Nikon
> stopped supporting the software and I was using
> Vuescan.  No real complaints there, but it would
> be nice to use something with integrated software
> supporting current hardware platforms.  My Nikon
> still works, but was getting quirky, at times
> requiring multiple restarts to get it working
> properly or talking to Vuescan.  That is what is
> pushing me to just outright renew my platform. 
>
> It seems the Epson scanners get a lot of
> recommendations.  I am looking for something at
> least as good as my old Nikon (that was 4000 dpi)
> and am willing to spend up to about $1000 for a
> good quality machine.  What would fit the bill
> here?  I'm not wed to any particular brand; but
> integrated software would be a plus.
>
> I'll also need to get a new computer to run the
> scanner and house my photo editing software.  I
> will likely use Adobe Photoshop and/or Lightroom
> (believe those are sold as a single subscription
> now, correct?).  This is really about as much as
> I'll use a computer for.  Question is, how much
> of a computer do I need to accomplish this? 
> Full-on laptop, or will something smaller like a
> Chromebook be enough?
>
> I appreciate any insights offered.
>
> Mike Derrick
>  

As far as recommendations, I recommend you fix the V and stick with Nikon. Over on the dreaded facebook site is a excellant group named Nikon Coolscan Users (https://www.facebook.com/groups/1514948298527146)  that is full of excellant advice and how to fix your scanner information. You can even have Gleb Shtengel fix your scanner for you. He has worked on a my scanners and is great to work with. As far as using Nikon Scan, I have it running on my Win10 machine. It was a fairly straight forward install and instructions are in the group with a little search. Another consideration is these Nikon scanners have been skyrocketing in prices. ED9000's are now into the 4 and 5 thousand dollar range while V5000's are getting close to 2k in price.Getting your scanner fixed fixed is a rather cheap option for something that is increasing in value.

I too would recommend fixing the Nikon if possible...I have a ED4000 and ED5000...the 4000 is defunct with a bad firewire board but I am keeping it for mechanical parts if needed to keep the 5000 going.

So far I have scanned and photoshopped about 37,680 slides (!) one at time while surfing the web or watching TV, etc. I am very pleased with the quality of the scans and I've posted some of them on my Flickr site: https://www.flickr.com/photos/95257499@N04/

I had been looking for the SF-210 slide feeder but prices on those are now unreal as well. I wonder what is driving the prices up so much - when I got my 5000 off eBay the seller said that they had finished scanning their slide collection and no longer needed it. Have people found a lots of slides all of a sudden that need scanning?

It would be nice if Nikon or Canon would make an updated version of these units.

But the idea of using a DSLR is a good one for scanning a bunch of 2 1/4 x 2 1/4 slides....my Plustek 120 scanner will not do mounted slides of that size...only the unmounted film. I am not about the unmount the slides to scan.

Ted

Simple, get your Nikon Coolscan rebuilt.  There is no better scanner.   Marty

Plustek 8200i equals what the Nikon 4000ED could do and its much newer sensor technology.

RWJ

MartyBernard Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Simple, get your Nikon Coolscan rebuilt.  There
> is no better scanner.   Marty

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