Nikon Super Coolscan ED software help

[marco_buonocore]

Hello all,

 

I realize there are some posts on the subject, but nothing that really

helps me out.

 

Here's the situation. I've rented a Coolscan 9000 for the weekend.

While I'm familiar with scanning (normally renting an imacon 848) I am

not familar with the Super Coolscan ED software. It doesn't strike me

as being very nice.

 

I don't need bells and whistles. All I need is a histogram fuction.

I don't want sharpening, ICE (B&W negs is what I'm doing) or any

autoexposure whatsoever. Just nice raw 8bit files I can dump into

photoshop and tweak later.

 

Would anyone be able to provide a step by step for this sort of thing?

The manual, as mentioned elsewhere, is pants. Trousers even.

 

What's all the multisampling, "scan image enhancer", analog gain,

etc...? Just bells unt whistles, or should I be using these features?

 

I don't want to waste much time, just scan a heap of old 645 negs.

 

If anyone could help, boy oh boy, it'd be appreciated.

 

Thanks!

[fp1]

Man...wish I could be of assistance.

I have that scanner; love the scanner HATE the software. It sucks!

I can't figure out how to get it to stop defaulting to digital ice when scanning 35mm b/w negs.

 

Good thing is, you can turn all that stuff off, one by one, negative by negative. There must be a more efficient way, but I don't know of any.

 

sorry.

[marco_buonocore]

I'm even wondering what other users do insofar as Multi Sampling and CCD Scan Mode.

 

If you multi sample, what mode do you use?

 

Is it worth activating the CCD Scan Mode?

 

Right now, scanning a B&W 645 neg at 2200 dpi (for 9x12 prints at 400dpi), at 8x multisampling and CCD Scan Mode activated, it took 24min for a poxy old 16.6mb file. That's abysmal. There was still heaps of noise. Gads.

 

Maybe I spoiled myself with the Imacon, but this seems like a bit of a piss take. Surely I'm doing something wrong, and there's a nice happy way around this. I'm going to try and scan as a positive, as others have suggested.

[arnold_theisen1]

You may want to download a free trial version of Vuescan. I use it on my Nikon Super Coolscan 4000 ED and I prefer it over the Nikon scanner software. You can make Vuescan as simple or as complex as you like. Vuescan also runs my Epson 3200 flatbed scanner and numerous other scanners as well. If you decide to buy make sure you determine if you want the regular version or the pro version because the prices and features differ. The Pro version will create 16 bit RAW files if you like so that you only ever have to physically scan an image one time. After that you can rescan in 8 bit or 16 bit and make various adjustments to white balance etc., without having to pull out the slide or negative again. The trial version imprints some kind of watermark on your image, but at least you could see if you like the interface before buying.

Probably not worth your investment ($49.95 or $89.95)if you only intend to do this one weekend, but if you are a frequent user of rented scanners this could be helpful.

 

http://www.hamrick.com/index.html

[marco_buonocore]

Arnold,

 

Thanks - I had actually just downloaded Vuescan, and had a look. I'll give it a go, as I've heard good things. Seems to still use the template from the ED Software though...

 

Unrelated to Vuescan - can anyone tell me, does the 9000 sound very similar to a sump pump? Perhaps a faulty unit? Can it really be as loud (click click click whir...) as it is? It doesn't sound like high end technology to me... Grinding away as it is now... Gads....

[marco_buonocore]

Also (yeah, I know, this thread is getting ugly)

 

Do most use this in Photoshop through TWAIN, or as a stand alone app?

[joe_manthey1]

Yes, it makes a lot of noise. There's a histogram within both Curves and LCH Editor. Crop, autoexposure, autofocus, and ICE are about the only features I use, but I've done no B&W. Personally, I find the machine easy to use. Some folks have said that it's necessary to always crank up analog gain to get the correct exposure, but I haven't seen that myself. There's also a general complaint about MF film flatness with the glassless holder and consequent lack of sharpness at edges.

[arnold_theisen1]

The Vuescan web site says it only works as a standalone application. You can't call it up from some other application. I haven't found that to be any kind of impediment. You can trigger Vuescan to open up your favorite editor automatically upon completion of a scan, but I found that to be a nuisance. I'd rather get the scan and then decide which application I want to edit it in as I may use several depending on my intent.

[robert_martin5]

I have a Nikon 9000ED scanner and use it to scan color negatives with Nikonscan software. I find the software works very good, but like any software you have to learn how to use it. I have scanned over 2000 images since I purchased the scanner - I do a lot of batch scnning which speed up the process. I have not scanned any B&W with the scanner, so don't know if any issue exist with B&W.

 

First turn on the scanner and allow it to complete it's calibration and self check process before you open NikonScan. When you first turn it on, you will notice the green light is flashing about once per second. When calibration and self check is complete the light will stay on. Open Nikonscan after this happens.

 

Load the film carrier and insert it in the scanner. It will take a while for the scanner to position the film carrier - when this is complete you will see the thumbnail drawer pop up in the scan area. After this happens, you can set up how you want to scan using the Tools Palette - this is where you can turn off Digital ICE and anything else you don' want. You can also set up the crop information, multisample, etc. Once you have everything set like you want, click on the settings tab in the scan window and save the settings for future use. Under the settings tab, you can also make these the default by clicking on the "set user settings". I find it necessary to eject the film carrier and reinsert it to make the settings I just set apply to the entire strip - If I don't do this they only apply to the first image.

 

Select everything else you need in the scan window - like negative type, calibrated RGG or what ever you need. Then click on the thumpnail tab and it will pop out - then click on the square in the corner of the thumbnail drawer and the scanner will do a quick scan of all the images. When the thumbnail scan is complete, you can select the image or images you want to scan. If you only want to scan one image, click on it and either click the preview button to preview the image or the scan button to scan the image. If you click the preview button, the image will appear in the scan window and allow you to make asjustments to the tools palette that will be applied to the image when you click the scan button. If you click the scan button, the image will be scanned using the settings you set using the "set user settings" and after complete you can do a file save to save the image where you want.

 

If you selcet more than one image in the thumbnail drawer, the scanner will do a batch scan and automatically save the images in the location specify in the pop down menues.

 

Hope this helps.

[marco_buonocore]

Joe, Arnold, Robert;

 

Thanks for the replies - I appreciate your taking the time to lend a hand. I'm onto my 10th hour of scanning (only 44 more hours to go!) and things are looking a bit more reasonable.

 

I've settled on 2200 dpi, 16 bit scans. I'm scanning as a positive image, with 4x multisampling. It's not speedy, but it's not a 20min scan time. Come time for the colour negs, I expect I'll use the NegPos Photoshop plugin tool and hope for the best.

 

I can't imagine anyone sitting through an RGB 4000dpi 16bit scan, with the 16x multisampling and ICE turned on. I mean, surely it'd take an hour? It amazes me that on the Imacon 848, that sort of scan only takes a few minutes, and the quality is very high.

 

I suppose I can't gripe about the coolscan quality until I make some prints from these scans. The scans are a bit soft, and that's probably due to the carrier and the flatness issue. Such is life. For 6x8 and 9x12 prints, it should suffice.

 

So thanks again! If anyone's vaugely curious, I'll post some remarks when I fire off a few prints from the DLab.

 

Cheers,

[robert_martin5]

Marco, glad to hear you are making progress. Nikonscan works very well once you get down the learning curve.

 

I think scans from the Nikon are softer than the Imacon because the Imacon has sharpening by default - even if you think you have it turned off. You can turn if off on the Imacon, but I don't remember how. Default sharpening for the Nikon is very samll, and it's easy to change.

 

I find the glass carrier is necessary to get the best corner to corner sharpness. There is also an aftermarket wet carrier for the Nikon 8000 and 9000 that some users think is required for the larger medium format images.

[matt_clara]

As I recall, Ed Hamrick says if you're using the CCD scan you shouldn't multisample, too, as there'll be no added benefit to your images.