Nikon 5000 ED Coolscan, tips and tricks?

I have almost finished accumulating gear to go back to film fulltime, I have my

New F1 and primes from 20 through to 300, still hunting a 500/4.5.

 

I have now ordered a Nikon 5000 ED film scanner and am reading as much as I can

about it but not really finding any solid info on settings etc. I am shooting

Reala and velvia 50, 100 and 100F.

 

Those who have this is there any tips in setting it up so as I don't have to

sepnd countless hours adjusting settings.

 

Any tips gladely taken on board.

use SilverFast AiStudio scanning software. Profile using either the SilverFast Fuji IT8 or

(better) the Huchcolor HCT reference target. Use their multiscan option to reduce shadow

noise but more than 4x is overkill

 

The IT8 profiling is only good with transparency films not color negative.

 

with slides keep your black point at 0 but drag the white clipping point in till it is about 5

points outside of the highlight end of the exposure.

 

Use Joseph Holmes' Chrome Space 100 profile

 

http://www.josephholmes.com/profiles.html

 

to scan into and scan at 16 bits per channel.

 

Remember what you want coming into Photoshop is a fairly flat looking "open" scan. That

will mean you have as much information as you can wring out of the film

The biggest trick in the US right now is finding a scanner in stock. I'm looking for a CS 9000

and they are nowhere to be found.

 

As for actual tips - I just started playing around with Photoshop plugins from CF Systems.

They are fantastic if you really want to nail your color adjustments. Not the most polished

web site, but the plugins work really well and the set of 3 only cost $67 US.

 

http://www.c-f-systems.com/Plug-ins.

"I'm looking for a CS 9000 and they are nowhere to be found. "

 

That is because either in individual dealers are not ordering them or cumulatively are not ordering them in enough volume for Nikon to start up a manufacturing production run of them.

Start here:

 

http://www.photosafaris.com/Articles/ScanningImagesWithNikonScan.asp

 

John settings work very well.

Nice article by John Shaw, but he's dead wrong on one point. Analog Gain is NOT for compensating for failures of the light sourse.

 

What analog gain effectively does is adjust the brightness of the light source. Now, I don't know if it does that, or whether it sets the bias on the CCD sensor. But it works.

 

What you use analog gain for is to deal with slides that have more density range than the CCD can read. For instance, slides on films with really high Dmax, like Kodachrome and Velvia. What you'll find with these films is that often the histogram doesn't hit 0 at either shadow or highlight. Using the analog gain, you're basically sliding the histogram back and forth, deciding what part of the highlights to blow out, or what part of the shadows to drop.

 

Now, as you get into the higher Nikon models, which do have some additional dynamic range in their sensors (but not as much as the marketing claims), analog gain may get less important. But I have a Coolscan IV, so I do need to use it.

 

I've even occasionally used analog gain on a per-color basis. You do that looking at the histogram of each color in turn. Of course, afterwards, it's up to you to sort out the color balance again.

 

The other important thing you need, which is well discussed in the Digital Darkroom forum, is a color managed workflow. You NEED a monitor calibrator. You need to use ICM. Otherwise you will go insane.

 

Other than that, there's just the long path of learning to see color balance issues. It's hard going, learning to tell "too magenta" from "too red" or "too blue". I have found that a Kodak color print viewing filter kit can help.

Lots of good info here. I have this scanner and love it. Seldom do I use Digital ice when scanning as it just doesn't work that well for me, often confusing tones, textures and suble colors of delicate slide films. It works a bit better with print films like Reala. I find Kodak UC 400 (what I shoot people with) to scan very nice and responds to digital ice.

 

For most films and all slide films, however, I do noise and grain reduction and all dust and small scratch removal later in photoshop.

 

Also, I try not to get a perfect image right out of the scanner. You will just wear it out trying differnt things. Once I get my Analog Gain set (pretty well neutral for me works best) I try to scan slightly flat in contrast and and flat in color saturations (I set my colors right down the middle)...but just a slight suble bit and make sure no tone or highlight is blown out. I fix these later in photoshop as well. Like Digital cameras shooting in RAW, I try to get an image that will be easy to work with later also like Digital, all images must go through photoshop anyway.

 

Have fun. That scanner is awesome.

<p>I completely concur with Ellis when it comes to transparency scanning. Nothing beats calibrated Silverfast when it comes to accurately and painlessly nailing transparency film. It's a bit confusing to set up, but once you do, scanning slides is as simple as it gets. When it comes to color negatives, however, I prefer using Vuescan and Erik Krause's "Super Advanced Workflow". He's posted his method in various forums, so you can find it in several places - <a href="http://www.ademero.com/resources/scanner-archive/msgview.php?messageid=22504"> here's one of them.</a></p>

 

<P>Which brings me to "analog gain", which is used in Krause's method. John, analog gain does NOT in any way adjust the LED light source. It's simply a fancy name for exposure control, shortening or lengthening exposure time, either collectively or on a per-channel basis. But being able to individually adjust RG&B exposures makes it a valuable tool.</p>

 

<p>As for Nikon Scan, well... you can get where you need to go with it, but Nikon Scan does have some serious flaws, not the least of which is its funky "color management", which does not allow any sort of color/tone calibration, and limits you in terms of output profiles available.</p>

 

<p>As for John Shaw's tutorial - it does offer some good suggestions, but I strongly disagree with several of his recommendations. I never, ever, ever sharpen scanned film with any global sharpening method - doing so unnecessarily exaggerates grain - so obviously I'd leave scanner software sharpening turned off. I'd also recommend using the largest gamut color space available for a variety of reasons, including the fact that, though it shouldn't, color space changes seem to impact how Nikon Scan interprets color negatives, particularly in terms of contrast. See comments above about NS' color management. :-(</p>

 

<p>In any case, be prepared to spend some time, have some patience and be willing to experiment. There are numerous techniques that'll get you where you want to go, and if you're like most of us who've been doing this for a while, your workflow will evolve over time to suite your style and preferences.</p>

 

<p>David Gale is right on when he says that this scanner is awesome, so you've much to look forward to.</p>

 

<p>Good luck,</p>

 

<p>Scott</p>

To Robert,

 

Do you mean the Nikon Super Coolscan 9000 ED?

 

If so, check these people out, it's where I bought my Nikon Super Coolscan 5000 ED

 

http://www.glazerscamera.com/

Thanks, Stephen. Glazer's is out of stock, too. I'll have to wait for the next shipment from Japan.