david_darrow2

<p>Hey, <a href="../photodb/user?user_id=869561">Matthew Currie</a> , The Nikon IV ED is certainly not obsolete. I'm still getting great scans from mine using VueScan from<br>

<a href="http://www.hamrick.com/" target="_blank">Hammerick</a> . I have 3 scanners including my Nikon Coolscan IV ED connected to my Mac G5 (Leopard, 10.5.8) via USB, and am able to control each separately right from the Vuescan interface.<br>

I scanned this a few days ago from a 20-year-old neg, developed at Costco:<br>

<img src="http://www.darrowart.com/other/forums/truck.jpg" alt="" /></p>

<p>I have been using VueScan (latest version, as of this date), and the Pro version of it, for several weeks now. I am on a Mac, OS 10.5.8 (Leopard, not Snow Leopard) on a G5.<br /> Nikon 4.02 became almost unusable with the advanced/changed Mac OS, and it appears Nikon has not vested interest in helping older scanner buyers. The scanner works just great.<br /> Anyway, as for VueScan...<br /> Pros:</p>

<ul>

<li>It operates 3 of my scanners, including the Nikon CS IV ED (Which show up in the menu-choice as LS-40)</li>

<li>Scans and Previews at a variety of preset resolutions</li>

<li>Its default scans from negs come out surprisingly beautiful</li>

<li>Does infrared scratch and dust removal, pretty well.</li>

<li>Histogram-style Levels adjustment available pre-scan.</li>

<li>Auto save</li>

<li>scans to JPEG, TIFF, RAW, PDF and even does OCR on text.</li>

<li>Source choices include File (for making adjustments, crops and new scans from already scanned image files), color film neg, b/w film neg, magazine (which has a fully adjustable moiré removal for varying line-screens [the size and distribution of printing dots] which does a remarkable job -- see sample below), line art and text (for OCR)</li>

<li>Manufacturer claims it works with all scanners.</li>

<li>Taps into unique capabilities of my different scanners.</li>

<li>Switches between scanners, even though all of my 3 are connected via USB</li>

<li>Sample Photo scanned from a 2.5" tall picture from a catalog using Magazine setting:<br /> <br /> <img src="http://www.darrowart.com/other/forums/magtest.jpg" alt="" /> </li>

<li>Sample of a color neg scan. Scanned at 967 dpi, 1/3 of scanner's 2900dpi capability. Image has been reduced and sharpened in Photoshop for this post:<br /> <br /> <img src="http://www.darrowart.com/other/forums/truck.jpg" alt="" /> </li>

</ul>

<p>This is from a Kodak Neg. Purchased and developed at Price Club / Costco in 1987. The prints NEVER looked this rich.<br>

Cons:</p>

<ul>

<li>The interface is clunky</li>

<li>it has so many settings that I often overlap settings confusing it and have to reset to default often</li>

<li>Confusing or vague meaning to choices.</li>

<li>Manufacturer updates software often (presumably adding more scanner models) -- but some have complained that the updates are 50x per year!</li>

</ul>

<p>My scanner was down for several months because, as it turns out, I had replaced the mirror poorly after cleaning it, and it generated error messages.<br>

Anyway, in the mean time, I forgot a bit of the functionality using Nikon Scan 4.x -- right now I am getting bad previews every time. I have to go to each dialog/palette and had-reset each to "default settings," then prescan, then make all the adjustments, and scan. It's taking 5 - 10 moinutes per scan.<br>

I seem to recal being able to load in a slide or neg and clicking preview and it would do a pretty decent scan-and-adjust automatically, even if the slide was a little dark. Is there a setting i am missing somewhere that sets it to auto-mode so that it will adjust itself for a "pretty good scan" right away, and reset back to normal/default when a new slide or neg is inserted?</p>