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NIKON scanners 4000 ED and 8000 ED: any comments.


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Since this is posted on the medium format forum, I guess it should be noted that the 4000 does not have medium format capability. Is the Nikon 8000 ED very good? Sure. Best in class? Maybe, maybe not. The new Minolta model and the Polaroid Sprintscan 120 are both good performers with many supporters. Lots in this forums archives about some buggy technical issues with the Nikon that may well be worked out by now. Polaroid doesn't have Digital Ice. Minolta has nominally higher dpi -- 4800 v. 4000 for the other two. All three are expensive at about $3,000 USD, which has driven many to the Epson 2450 flatbed at about $400.
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The Nikon 8000 is very good, lots of people recommend if your going to spend $3000 on a scanner that you just spend the extra $1500 and get a flextight. In it's class the 4000 is without a doubt the best scanner - I suspect the 8000 has some stiffer compertition.
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The Minolta Scan Multi Pro has an optical resolution of 3200 for full frame medium format. It has an optical resolution of 4800 for 35mm and it is possible to do 4800 for the central 4cm of a medium format image. This is useful if you want to scan a panoramic out of the center of a 6x7 image for example.

 

The Nikon LS8000, Minolta Scan Multi Pro and Polaroid SS120 are all excellent though each has certain advantages over the other. I recommend a lot of research.

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I`ve had the 8000 for about six months now and am very happy with the results so far( even up against a flextight from which I had some scans done before I brought the Nikon.)The Nikon isn`t fast but to be quite honest I just preview at low res and anything I fancy I just go and have a smoke and a cup of tea while it`s scanning. I have seen newtons rings once when scanning with the glass carrier but have learnt not to clean the glass too often with glass cleaner and it really isn`t a problem.The digital ICE and the film grain remover are superb. The 35mm carrier is also good. I have tried vue-scan and silver-fast and have settled on the simplicity of Nikons own software. I only do resolution changes,cropping and ICE/GEM before scanning prefering to do any other changes in photoshop. don`t forget you are going to need plenty of ram( I have 1GB and would like more really.)

Setting up was just a matter of inserting the cd with the scanner plugged in and the firewire card in place and off you go. When you fire the unit up from cold it takes a minute or two to initialize.

Basically, it does exactly what it says on the box (high res high class scans)I haven`t had any personal experience with any other MF scanners but judging by the one of the forums that is concerned with the Multiscan only I would be a bit careful after reading some of the posts. I suppose I went with the 8000 because I had an LS2000 Nikon that was very good.

 

Good Hunting

 

Dave C

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Although I haven't got an LS8000 myself ( yet! ) I have had some

transparencies scanned by a friend with this scanner and the quality of the

scans was excellent. If you can afford this scanner and need its medium

format scanning ability, I would definitely recommend a closer look at it.

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I am duly impressed with the Nikon 8000 ED. Because of the

price, you may want to consider others, such as the Flextight

mentioned earlier, but I doubt you'd be dissapointed with the

Nikon. The scans I've gotten out of the 8000 ED at work are

excellent.

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I am not trying to sway you from the Nikon but will offer my

experience with the Polaroid Sprintscan 120.

 

It has been a very good performer on everything since I installed

Silverfast v 5.5. Prior to that I was very disappointed in its

performance on both color and B&W negs.

 

With the new software it's an excellent performer. I've never used

ICE but I've not had any particular problems in its absence (I

haven't wished I had it).

 

Just wanted to offer an alternative (not opposing) point of view.

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