New member with question about my LS-5000 scanner

[tony_p6]

<p>Hi everyone. I'm new here but have been on other photo fora over the years. I can here because this seems to be a great site that has more than a few threads about the Nikon LS-5000 scanner. I own one and am trying to decide what to do.<br>

I was already planning to send the scanner in to Nikon for cleaning and service. It's pretty old so I wanted to get it looked over. I also have two SA-21 negative feeders. One of them will feed anything; it's completely reliable in that regard. The other one is very picky; it will often fail to feed strips that give the first SA-21 no trouble at all. I've cleaned them both using the instruction in the manual.<br>

The thing is the picky SA-21 produces scans that are just fractionally sharper than the other feeder. This is quite repeatable. What I'm not sure about is whether I should send in the picky SA-21 along with my scanner - in the hope that Nikon can get it to feed flawlessly and not have it lose it's ability to get razor sharp scans, or send in the other SA-21 and hope they can get it to scan as sharply as this other one. I know I can use manual focus of course, but I'd certainly be happier if I didn't have to on every single scan.<br>

Anyone have experience in this area?</p>

[User_4754088]

<p>Never had that experience with my LS-5000, but the question I have is will Nikon still service that scanner? I have been told that Nikon won't service any of their old film scanners.</p>

[Mary Doo]

<p>I have not used my scanner for "a hundred years". ;) And I know that I would probably never take the time to scan all the old film slides that - once upon a time - I had hoped to turn into digital, as I don't even have time and determination enough to deal with the digital files I have accumulated in more recent years.</p>

<p>So, since you asked, here is my opinion: You probably would not need to fix your second, not-so-good, Sa-21. The harder question is when are you going to scan your negative strips? It is a time-consuming endeavor, especially when you would then need to tidy them up after scanning. And, when you do scan them, why would you need two SA-21, since you can only use one at a time?</p>

 

[ilkka_nissila]

<p>The LS-5000 is actually very fast, about 30s per scan at full resolution (depending on what processing is used; I would use both ICE and a bit of GEM for color negatives (for slides, just ICE) to save time in post work. Also be selective about which images you scan. I'm facing a similar process; for the slides I have thrown away the bad ones a long time ago (but my criteria may have changed); the good ones are easy enough to pick, but negatives are problematic because you can't see the image in a normal way from looking at the negative. I'm trying to get the time to do all this in the next 12 months or so.</p>

<p>I would think that since it's less than ten years since the scanner was discontinued they'd still keep parts for it. It would be pretty bad customer service if they didn't.</p>

[cbender]

I too had thought Nikon was no

longer servicing scanners. If

the scanner is actually scanning

(sounds like this is the case)

then I think the only thing a

servicing would do is clean the

mirror. You can do that yourself

- there are instructions online.

I cleaned my ls-4000 a couple

months ago and it only took me 30

minutes.

 

I can't offer any advice on the

feeder units. I've only got one,

and it'a always fed like a champ.

[tony_p6]

<p>Thanks for the responses so far. Nikon will service the scanner - at a price. But as I've discovered with other photo friends who use the same scanner or the LS-50, one of the things that can happen with the older units is the caps on the power supply start bulging. This pretty much means either the caps or the supply would need to be replaced. Since my unit is one of the older ones I figured I'd send it and one of the SA-21s in to just have everything checked out and repaired. In all likelihood I figured we're nearing the end of Nikon having replacement parts.<br>

As to the scanning itself, I do have the time, willingness, and resources (read: help) to finish what I've been doing for quite some time at this point.</p>

[tony_p6]

<p>I decided to send in my LS-5000 and both my SA-21 feeders to Nikon for evaluation and any fixing / adjustment that may be needed. I still have a bit of work to do and I'm figuring the chances of getting any parts replacements are not going to get any better in the future. I'll post with the outcome.</p>

[tony_p6]

<p>Thanks Les. My 5000 is already in Nikon's hands so I guess I'll have to just wait for the outcome.</p>