Nikon Coolscan 5000ED & Windows 11

[marceppy]

I just upgraded to Windows 11 and wondering in anyone has had success with hooking up and installing software for a Nikon Coolscan 5000 film scanner.  I found a post that it worked with Windows 10.  But before I get started anyone with experience and advice would be appreciated.  If so, details for any hardware or software appreciated.  Thanks

[Bill Neubaum]

I have an old Nikon Coolscan V ED that I haven't used for years and Windows 7 and couldn't find the CD rom that came with the scanner.  Through google, I found VueScan, and they hooked up with the software I needed, and have been doing a lot of scanning recently!  However, it cost me a hundred bucks for it.  Don't know if this info will help you, but thought it was worth saying, Bill

[marceppy]

Hey Bill, 

Thanks for the note as I didn’t see it until now.  I looked at  VueScan and Silverfast as alternatives but I use the scanner so infrequently that I was unsure of the cost.  I still have the Win 7 computer so I decided to just re-hookup the scanner to it for now.  
 

Thanks again for responding and the note to alert me to it.  Every little bit helps 👌

[marceppy]

Bill or anyone actually,

I was just wondering what you thought of VueScan vs the basic Nikon software that came with the scanner?   Is it worth the cost in terms of resulting image quality? Or does post processing apps pretty much do the same?  There seemed to be different versions, Silverfast also.  

Thanks,

Marc

[kmac]

VueScan would be the easiest way to go. And at $100 it's far cheaper than Silverfast. The quality of VueScan is not bad, plenty good enough for home scanning of family pics and images posted on the internet. You can however, by using the controls in VueScan Professional, get pretty good enlarged prints from it, but it takes a bit of learning, there's a learning curve with the abundant controls featured in the software.

Updates are important for scanning software. Old Nikon native software may not be receiving updates any longer and it can go pearshaped without them, so a new software like the latest version of VueScan may be your only alternative for your old Nikon 5000 if you want trouble free scanning at low cost.

[ajkocu]

You can use VueScan (at least the professional version) with any scanner they support at no extra cost.

[Archiloque]

For what it's worth, the 20 years old Nikon Scan software works fine on Windows 11 as long as you install unsigned drivers for the Coolscan 5000. I've tested Vuescan with my 5000 and vastly prefer Nikon Scan which I use in conjunction with Negative Lab Pro in Lightroom.

Here is a video tutorial  :

It's really not that complicated.

 

Edited May 25, 2023 by Archiloque

[marceppy]

I have looked at the video but have not tried it because of a warning that pooped up:  

Disabling driver signature enforcement allows unsigned drivers to be installed on the system. This can be useful for installing older or custom drivers that Microsoft does not digitally sign, but it can also increase the risk of installing malicious or unstable drivers.

So the question is, once you go through with the process and allow the unsigned drivers to be installed, can you go back and reverse the driver policy to only allow future signed drivers to be installed, and then will the Scanner still work???
 

It seems risky in this age to continue to allow unsigned drivers to be installed on computers.

[ben_hutcherson]

On 4/27/2023 at 9:12 PM, marceppy said:

Bill or anyone actually,

I was just wondering what you thought of VueScan vs the basic Nikon software that came with the scanner?   Is it worth the cost in terms of resulting image quality? Or does post processing apps pretty much do the same?  There seemed to be different versions, Silverfast also.  

Thanks,

Marc

I don't use Windows so can't comment, but do have a Vuescan license and have used it a lot with a wide variety of different scanners going back to when I first bought a license in 2007 or so. I've also used Nikon Scan a lot with a Coolscan III, V, and 8000.

The short answer is, first of all, the Nikon software is not "basic" by any means. It's not fancy, but there's a lot buried in it. Vuescan is much easier to use. If you're a Mac user, of course you can also run Vuescan on current OSs, where the absolute newest version of OS X that will support Nikon Scan 4.x is 10.6.8, which(practically, and with a very few exceptions) needs a computer introduced before roughly the middle of 2011. Even then, I've had stability issues with some 2011 computers running Nikon Scan. You can run Nikon Scan in a virtual machine, but note that you can only do this for USB scanners(which means the V/5000)-there's no way to "patch through" a Firewire connection as used on the IV/4000/8000/9000 to a virtual machine(at least on Macs). If you're trying to use a SCSI scanner(Coolscan III and earlier), heaven help you if you're connecting it to anything other than a PowerMac G4-finding a SCSI card that will work in a G5(much less an Intel Mac) and has a connector that you can have a hope of being able to attach your scanner to...well if you can do it I'll be impressed.

That said, I bother with doing all of this because I think Nikon Scan gives better results at the end of the day. It REALLY gives better results if you're trying to use infrared dust and scratch removal. Note that this is often called "Digital ICE." Digital ICE has two components-the infrared scanning channel(which is on the scanner hardware side) and the algorithm to make use of it(which is the scanning software). Digital ICE was developed by a company called Applied Science Fiction, and I think the patent ended up with Kodak somewhere or another along the way. Who knows where it is now. Nikon Scan includes Digital ICE. Vuescan's Infrared Cleaning is better now than it use to be, but it's still nowhere as good as ICE.

[marceppy]

1 hour ago, ben_hutcherson said:

I don't use Windows so can't comment, but do have a Vuescan license and have used it a lot with a wide variety of different scanners going back to when I first bought a license in 2007 or so. I've also used Nikon Scan a lot with a Coolscan III, V, and 8000.

The short answer is, first of all, the Nikon software is not "basic" by any means. It's not fancy, but there's a lot buried in it. Vuescan is much easier to use. If you're a Mac user, of course you can also run Vuescan on current OSs, where the absolute newest version of OS X that will support Nikon Scan 4.x is 10.6.8, which(practically, and with a very few exceptions) needs a computer introduced before roughly the middle of 2011. Even then, I've had stability issues with some 2011 computers running Nikon Scan. You can run Nikon Scan in a virtual machine, but note that you can only do this for USB scanners(which means the V/5000)-there's no way to "patch through" a Firewire connection as used on the IV/4000/8000/9000 to a virtual machine(at least on Macs). If you're trying to use a SCSI scanner(Coolscan III and earlier), heaven help you if you're connecting it to anything other than a PowerMac G4-finding a SCSI card that will work in a G5(much less an Intel Mac) and has a connector that you can have a hope of being able to attach your scanner to...well if you can do it I'll be impressed.

That said, I bother with doing all of this because I think Nikon Scan gives better results at the end of the day. It REALLY gives better results if you're trying to use infrared dust and scratch removal. Note that this is often called "Digital ICE." Digital ICE has two components-the infrared scanning channel(which is on the scanner hardware side) and the algorithm to make use of it(which is the scanning software). Digital ICE was developed by a company called Applied Science Fiction, and I think the patent ended up with Kodak somewhere or another along the way. Who knows where it is now. Nikon Scan includes Digital ICE. Vuescan's Infrared Cleaning is better now than it use to be, but it's still nowhere as good as ICE.

I have installed the original 4.0 software from the CD and updated to 4.03.  The first attempt gave me an error of no drivers, which I did find and installed.  Yes, the scanner loaded and I am able to scan slides.  However, the tool pallet that lets you adjust settings, like digital ice, didn’t show up even tho I click the menu and the scanner dialogue for it?

Then, Dang, I got it to work!  I have 2 Windows 7 computers and tried installing the software on each as mentioned above.  On 1st one, the scanner loads but not the tool pallet.  On the 2nd one, the tool pallet loaded but not the scanner. The latter was giving me a no driver error.  So, I copied the files from the 1st on a stick drive. Plugged it into the 2nd.  Went to device manager, right clicked the Nikon icon, clicked update driver, browsed to the stick drive folder, and updated drivers.  Of course I did a restore point before hand just in case but Bingo!  It worked.  It works just like new.  I’m still at a loss as to why but 😉

Computers, sheeesh!  

[AlanKlein]

Is ICE in the Epsonscan software for their Epson scanners the same ICE from NIkon or the same software manufacturer?

[ben_hutcherson]

2 hours ago, AlanKlein said:

Is ICE in the Epsonscan software for their Epson scanners the same ICE from NIkon or the same software manufacturer?

Yes it is AFAIK.

If the scanner itself is branded "ICE" on it, as my Nikon scanners are and I'm 99.9% sure my V700 does, there is a very good chance that the manufacturer's software will use ICE. They had to pay to put that badge there in the first place 🙂 , and even if the software is still being actively updated(don't know the status of Epson software or its compatibility) more than likely they still have the ICE algorithms integrated into their processing. I doubt there's any current development of ICE, but the most recent versions I've used(such as in Nikon Scan 4) are pretty darn good.

My first film capable scanner was a Canon flatbed that I bought 2006/2007ish. I wish I'd gone for an Epson then, but was a freshman in college on a tight budge, and the $250 or so I paid for this scanner was already a stretch and it was the most affordable medium format capable scanner I was aware of. It actually served me well and I liked the film holders better than the Epson(especially the MF one). It had Canon's implementation of IR cleaning that they called FARE. it actually worked decently-about as well as Vuescan's version, but not as good as ICE.

[AlanKlein]

2 hours ago, ben_hutcherson said:

Yes it is AFAIK.

If the scanner itself is branded "ICE" on it, as my Nikon scanners are and I'm 99.9% sure my V700 does, there is a very good chance that the manufacturer's software will use ICE. They had to pay to put that badge there in the first place 🙂 , and even if the software is still being actively updated(don't know the status of Epson software or its compatibility) more than likely they still have the ICE algorithms integrated into their processing. I doubt there's any current development of ICE, but the most recent versions I've used(such as in Nikon Scan 4) are pretty darn good.

My first film capable scanner was a Canon flatbed that I bought 2006/2007ish. I wish I'd gone for an Epson then, but was a freshman in college on a tight budge, and the $250 or so I paid for this scanner was already a stretch and it was the most affordable medium format capable scanner I was aware of. It actually served me well and I liked the film holders better than the Epson(especially the MF one). It had Canon's implementation of IR cleaning that they called FARE. it actually worked decently-about as well as Vuescan's version, but not as good as ICE.

That's good to know.  I was scanning on a V600 and now a V850, both with ICE although often I won't use it and just correct in post with Lightroom.  ICE doubles the scan time. 

[digitaldog]

Digital ICE (the scanning technology) is Digital ICE, but there are differing implementations (Lite etc). It is a hardware-based dust removal technology. 

https://support2.epson.net/manuals/english/scanner/perfectionv800pv850p/use_g/html/featr_3.htm
https://files.support.epson.com/docid/cpd4/cpd41530/source/scanners/source/scanning_software/tasks/scanning_special_digital_ice.html

[marceppy]

 

17 hours ago, AlanKlein said:

That's good to know.  I was scanning on a V600 and now a V850, both with ICE although often I won't use it and just correct in post with Lightroom.  ICE doubles the scan time. 

I do use digital ICE, not always, but I guess you’d have to consider PP time vs ICE.  It’s not too slow on the Nikon.  The Nikon scanner has a few more options for image enhancing but it’s been a while since I’ve used them.  Maybe Ben can add some detail about them.  I’ll have to do a refresher on YouTube. It’s been a while.  Here’s an image I did a day ago of a Very small Dusky Pygmy Rattlesnake. It was taken with Fuji Velvia.