Any of you who had film scanners that went bad?

[RaymondC]

<p>What are you guys using now? The affordable film have packed up now and they are more expensive? I'm thinking of using just a flatbed and maybe using my macro lens for the occasional scan. We have asked Japan and they don't fix them either.</p>

<p>I bought a Coolscan 4000 off a local auction site and he was a professional so it went a bit buggy probably from day 1 but it worked with Vuescan, with Nikon Scan it was showing up error messages and occasionally deep cyan cast, you could prob search my previous Coolscan threads. I cleaned the mirror and that sort of went away but if you used it for 30min or longer it plays dead and needs several hours rest. Now - when you plug it in, the lights just go out but if you pull the firewire cable it comes back on and whirls but never gets detected by the computer.</p>

[starvy]

<p>Hi Ray, all depends on the volume you have to scan. I had been very slow of late and after pluggin in and scanning three rolls, came to the realisation that I had not scanned anything since the Spring of 2012. For me personally, the last 15 months had been very unsettling. I shot more digital because it allowed the instant gratification. I also shot a lot less. However, having scanned two rolls from the Rolleiflex and one roll from the Zeiss Ikonta, I know that I must go out with both a lot more. At my most active I was shooting around a dozen films during the year alongside the same number of exposures on digital. However, my meager Epson 4490 and the worlflow need requires around 7-10 minutes per frame from scanning to post processing. Some may take a few more minutes depending on what resolution I am scanning. This slowness does not allow for a lot of shooting. So I want to savour my exposures knowing all too well that they may not see the light of my online galleries for months or even a year.<br>

If you have been used to a Nikon nothing would come close to it really. You could try the best of Epson. If I could afford it I would get myself a new Pacific Image.</p>

[victor_ho2]

<p>I have a Coolscan 5000 bought new and used intermittently since 2009. It was purchased just as Nikon stopped selling. I got a bulk slide feeder about a year later. The bulk feeder is a bit finicky like it says but it works. I have scanned more than 25,000 slides (approx). Most of this was done in a blitz over a few months in 2012. Don't ask. I'm not done, as in many thousands to go. But so far no problem. Fortunately the price of external harddrives was low until the floods in Thailand drove the prices up by double. Vuescan software made a big difference. Nikon scan was slower and very buggy. Nikon software does not support the scanner any longer. Imagine having the hardware without support. But that's business. Not much film being shot to justify continuing a small market for scanners. I am very very grateful that Hamrick Vuescan still supports and updates his software. I too have wondered if the scanner will give out at some point.</p>

[Wouter Willemse]

<p>I work with very low volumes, but my Reflecta Pro Scan 7200 (Pacafic Image Elect Prime Film 7200U in the New World) doesn't disappoint.I've seen Nikon scans (never had one myself though) and yes, you won't get that quality. But for the price, I really can't complain. <a href="/photo/17522011">This</a> is a recent example of this scanner; it's heavily downsized, but the part on the left really shows reveals how much detail got captures - to me, it certainly looks enough to make some seriously large prints.<br>

The Plustek scanners are also an option. All these are 35mm only, though, if you deal with MF negatives, it's not going to help much.</p>

[mendel_leisk]

<p>Victor, just to comment:</p>

<p>I've <em>never</em> used NikonScan with my Coolscan V. I think I opened it once or twice, just out of curiousity. But other than that, Vuescan all the time.</p>

<p>That said, I have another scanner (Minolta) where I sort of flip-flop between Vuescan and the Minolta software. The latter has proprietory ICE, which I found superior to Vuescan's alternative, by a long shot.</p>

<p>I'm lucky with the Nikon: what I'm scanning is pretty clean, the need for ICE is not that critical.</p>

<p>And all that said, I haven't touched either of my scanners in more years than I care to admit, and I've got stuff that needs scanning.</p>

[steve_leblanc]

<p>I recently bought a Plustek Optiscan 8200Ai and am quite satisfied with it.<br>

I used to have a Canoscan 2700 that was SCSI based and of course my computer became outdated and then had a hard drive crash. <br>

I've still got boxes of slides to scan so I figured when the hey..<br>

$500 at B&H. About the most reasonable price you'll get.</p><div></div>

[francis_t]

<p>My Minolta Dimage Scan Daul IV. While scanning it would constantly lockup. I couldn't even eject the holder. The only workaround was to unplug and replug the power cord. This was one of the main reasons I purchased a DSLR. </p>

[plasma181]

<p>For several years, I used a Nikon Coolscan LS-2000, which worked very well. Then about a month ago, my hard drive cashed and I had to buy a whole new computer. I didn't want Windows 8, so I bought an old stock Windows 7 computer from Walmart. This computer could not take my SCSI card from my old computer, so I couldn't use my LS-2000.<br>

I sold my LS-2000 on eBay ( what you people call "the auction site" ), and bought a Coolscan IV, also known as the LS-40. This uses a regular USB connection. The seller sold it cheap because he thought it was defective. The scans were "grainy". I guess he didn't know that film has grain, and that Vuescan can reduce it somewhat. </p>