Nikon Coolscans - in the future

[RaymondC]

<p>We hear that with digital, media keeps changing. We now see less photo labs and more introduction of purely digital labs. </p>

<p>I plan to get a second hand Nikon Coolscan down the road, maybe a 8000 and a V model b/c I have APS film to scan (for the days prior to my interest in photography). I believe Nikon Coolscans are not available new anymore and arguably the 9000 might not be manufactured anymore. Sure, there are lesser quality scanners like the Epsons. </p>

<p>Will the average punter have more difficulty getting film digitised in the future (be it at home or at a lab)? To a decent level. Like not Epson flatbed quality. </p>

[User_276104]

<p>I almost bought a Nikon D100 in 2003 but opted for a Coolscan IV for about US $700.00. Boy am I glad I didn't spend US $2,000.00 on that D100. As it is, when I went digital I spent US $4,000 on a D2x and basically lost a lot of money on that deal, selling it for $1,200.</p>

<p>Anyway, I almost grabbed a Coolscan V before they went away. I wasn't working much and couldn't justify buying another scanner, but now that I <strong><em>am</em></strong> working I wish I'd done it for future 35mm film use.</p>

<p>I don't know if I answered much, but those are my thoughts on scanners.</p>

<p> </p>

[juan_su]

<p>Greetings all! Sure has been a long time since I posted here. =) I don't know where the future will lead us but all I can say is that I have been investing a lot of time and money of course on digital gear but I have kept my F5 and Nikon LS2000. Even though I barely shoot film now a days, I still at times like to go out and put a roll of black and white film in that old beauty and play around with it. Film is becoming more and more of an art now a days with so much of the industry focusing on digital media.<br>

If I could afford a newer model of the Nikon CoolScans, I'd buy it in a heartbeat. I have still tons of old negatives that I will want to convert to digital one of these days. To me I see this as an investment because I think converting film to digital will become more and more expensive as less and less labs offer this service. I could be wrong, but either way, I just like doing things myself.</p>

 

[photo5]

<p>I inherited a Coolscan V from my late father, and recently bought a second hand Nikon 9000. The 9000 is incredible, it can scan 35mm better than the Coolscan V. My biggest problem is I don't have enough free time to scan all the negatives I have, and the slides, and my fathers slides, negatives, etc. </p>

[jyoungman]

<p>Personally I worry about future software compatibility. After all, if film cameras are rare things these days, will I be able to buy a replacement film scanner that will even work with operating system software released in (say) 2020?</p>

[neil_grant]

<p>James, you need to scan ALL your films to high res before the scanner fails, becomes unserviceable or no longer works in the current o/s. Could be a major job.</p>

[mark liddell]

Good labs will offer film scanning for a long time on imacons etc. for a good while yet at better quality and cheaper than buying unsupported hardware. I don't understand why people always look at buying film scanners if they wantt o scan film unless they shoot film in high volume.

[Ed_Ingold]

<p>People buy scanners to achieve the best possible quality, which is unavailable commercially except at steep prices. Since it can take several hours to scan and edit a single roll of film, nobody should consider scanning if they "shoot film in high volume".</p>

[stwrtertbsratbs5]

<p>"I believe Nikon Coolscans are not available new anymore and arguably the 9000 might not be manufactured anymore."</p>

<p>Not true. They are available new, but Nikon makes them in batches so availability is spotty. I just saw several flickr posts last week by people who just acquired Nikon scanners recently.</p>

[ilkka_nissila]

<p>Epsons are quite crappy compared to a Coolscan 9000; in fact I could get better sharpness from a 6 MP D70 than slow 6x7 film scanned with an Epson 4990 (incl. glass holder). With the Nikon 9000, 6x7 scanned blows away anything I've shot with FX in terms of detail, especially for black and white. The quality of the scanner makes all the difference in the world.</p>

<p>Without doubt, at some point in the future the LS-9000 will no longer be manufactured. Nikon makes this stuff for the masses, after all. However, I perceive that the problem will largely evaporate over time as the resolution of digital SLR increases. You can probably find on E-bay a 85mm Repro-Nikkor or a printing nikkor if you're loaded. Adopt those to a D3X and make sure you don't have reflections or leaks in your light path and you can make digital copies of your slides and negatives much faster than with a scanner. Of course it might be that the quality isn't the same but it may be good enough, and it will keep improving as the resolution of DSLRS increases. Scanners have the advantage that only a line (in CCD scanners, or a single point in drum scanners) is rendered at a time by the lens. Thus the image circle of the lens of a drum scanner can be much smaller, leading to much higher resolution when a high-end microscope lens is used. But I believe most people looking to scan their old film will be satisfied with future FX DSLRs when attached to appropriate copying apparatus.</p>

[ShunCheung]

<p>Nikon is gradually discontinuing all scanner. The Coolscan V and 5000 are already officially discontinued. I wouldn't be surprsied that even the 9000 is no longer produced, but Nikon is releasing remaining stock slowly to keep the prices high. However, you may still be able to find new Coolscan 5000 and V at certain stores, and whoever still has them may be charging some ridiculous prices.</p>

<p>Bottomline: if you want a scanner or another scanner, get it quickly while you can still fine one.</p>

[stwrtertbsratbs5]

<p>"I wouldn't be surprsied that even the 9000 is no longer produced, but Nikon is releasing remaining stock slowly to keep the prices high."<br>

According to whom? A Nikon rep told me that they are manufactured in batches. And I suspect that they only make batches periodically because that are so busy making DSLRs and such. Besides - Nikon sets the price. They could push them into the retail channel at whatever price they choose.</p>

[ShunCheung]

<p>Robert, I typically take whatever Nikon reps tell me with a grain of salt. They are trained to repeat the company line, whatever headquarters tell them to say. Nikon is not going to tell the whole world that they purposely release items such as the Coolscan 9000, F6, etc. in small numbers to keep the prices high.</p>

<p>If Nikon is actually still manufacturing those low-volumn items once in a while, they are having an extremely inefficient model of manufacturing. Those products involve a lot of parts that are no longer shared by any other product. It is much simplier to make a bunch of them and release them slowly until whenever they run out.</p>

<p>But that is just my guess; it is not a fact.</p>

[StuartMoxham]

<p>The real thing to consider is what do you intend to do with the scans. If you only want small prints and web uploads then maybe an Epson would be better. Personaly I don't make large prints and I can't image anyone else being interested in my pictures, so having having large 4000ppi scans from a coolscan for me is not a worth while investment. I would focus on what you want you want to do with your pictures and then decide based on your own use what kind of scanner you want to invest in.</p>

[rconey]

<p>I have moved to VueScan as the software for my 9000 and actually like it quite well. There is no official support for Windows 7 64 bit in Nikon Scan software, although there is a workaround available on this site in the digital darkroom forum. It was beyond my computer abilities.</p>

[j_marrs]

<p>Nikon makes a killing off of those scanners. I shelled out 2K for mine along with the glass carriers. It took 2months to get here, because they don't make a lot. If they flooded the market with them, then the price would fall, and they wouldn't be profitable. So keeping them in short supply, keeps demand high..... Every Photographer with old film or wants to shoot film desires a drumscan quality desktop scanner and Nikon has it. It's unlikely they'll improve it much as 4000dpi drags most of what the film has. I've compared my Nikon fluid scans to tango drumscans of the same slide, and found them so close. The Nikon actually appeared sharper, but the Tango's color was slightly richer. Not by much. And not something that photoshop's color adjustments didn't fix.</p>

[ilkka_nissila]

<p><em>having having large 4000ppi scans from a coolscan for me is not a worth while investment.</em><br /><em> </em><br />I never scan medium format at 4000ppi. 2000ppi is fine for all my print sizes. Even at 2000 ppi, the LS-9000 brings out a heck of a lot more detail in the file than the Epson did. I think the Epson starts to lose detail contrast severely beyond about 1000ppi. What's more the Epson was excruciatingly slow when using ICE provided in the software. With the Nikon, scan speeds are much faster.</p>

<p>To me there is no point at all in having or scanning medium format if the output quality isn't good, since the operation of the cameras is clumsy and there are real costs involved in film and processing. What's more the Epson's slowness made it one of my most expensive mistakes - having to wait 25min at that time to get a scan done with ICE and then seeing that there was no fine detail was very frustrating. I sold it for $100 (since in my opinion that's about the correct value of this $500 scanner).</p>

<p>The Nikon has been excellent.</p>

[ShunCheung]

<p>I went back to my local camera store Keeble and Shuchat yesterday and asked them about the availability of Nikon scanners. They no longer have any of the discontinued Coolscan V and 5000 any more (although they still did a few months ago, as I saw those boxes on display). They had 3 Coolscan 9000 in stock; however, the price has gone up to US$2700. (It was still about $2000 two years ago when I last check prices with them.)</p>

<p>The sales person there told me that very few people are buying film scanners in these days. They main reason people need them is the same reason I bought a Coolscan 5000 two years ago: we have lots of film from the past that we need to digitize.</p>

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