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Nikon Rebates and lowered prices on scanners and Pro-SLRs


efusco

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Just got an e-mail from the Nikon Mailing list which addresses some

points brought up in recent questions...

 

Apparently Nikon has responded to Canon with lowering of the prices on

the D1x and D1h--perhaps forshadowing of something new on the

horizon--please let that be true! Nothing on the site about the new

prices, I'll look at B&H and see if they've responded yet.

 

Also, the prices on their scanners has been reduced--$1300 for the

4000ED and $2600 for the 8000ED (suggested list; obviously you'll

probably find them much lower at the usual discounters).

 

They've also extended the rebate period on most of the stuff that

expired on March 31. Interestingly you can double the rebate on

several lenses when purchased with a body. Dunno if that could be

taken advantage of by returning the body after purchase or not.

 

http://www.nikonusa.com/usa_home/home.jsp

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Evan or others -- I would love to upgrade my cheapie scanner, but AFAIK, other than the higher DPI (which others also offer) -- the main advatage of upgrading to a Nikon Scanner is ICE. However, based on my limited understanding of ICE, it primarily benefits color film, and does NOT work very well with B&W.

 

Since I shoot B&W at least 95% of the time, that won't work for me. That being the case, then is my upgrade path basically to look for higher dpi film scanners?? Is there any film scanner feature set that would primarily benefit B&W scanning??

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Duncan,

Your point of view is well taken. I would point out, however, that there would be no harm to the individual dealers as the rebate is from Nikon. But clearly that shifts the harm to Nikon which is probably no better. I mentioned it as a thought off the top of my head and perhaps should have thought it through better before stating it outloud. Although I don't think there's a legal problem with doing this it is certainly not ethical and would not encourage anyone to do anything unethical. Again, my apologies.

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Jack,

 

Indeed, ICE does rule. It's simply amazing. And you're 100% correct -- it doesn't work with BW. I forget how much crap gets on negs and slide until I pop in a BW strip of negs, and don't get ICE, and see the several dozen spots from dust that I have to fix in Photoshop.

 

Thank goodness I do 95% color these days.

 

~ ~ ~

 

To All,

 

If time is money to you, like it is to me, then the Nikon line of scanners (because they come with Digital ICE) will actually pay for themselves in a span of several dozen - several hundred slides/color negs, depending on how quick you are with Photoshop and how much your time is worth to you.

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Applied Science Fiction sure does have the best automated dust removal as long as you're not using Kodachrome or traditional B&W materials. Similar technologies, such as Canon's FARE suffer from the same problem.

 

However a major issue with the Nikon in using ICE is softness. When ICE is engaged on the 4000 it tends to become unacceptably soft. Details are lost which cannot be USM'd back. The Nikon 8000 also has the terrible banding problem which as led us to recommend that our students not use it for 35mm color films. In B&W it isn't a problem, but using the ultra fine scan mode negates any time saved when scanning color materials. The scanner is also slow regardless.

 

Food for thought.

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Thanks for the food Carl; I recently have some of my 35mm and rollfilm slides scanned with a Nikon 8000ED and none shows banding at all (yes, some pics had vast skies). Note: the operator was a competent one.
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