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Rating  - An excellent scanner with lousy software...
I've been using this scanner for about a year to scan my slide collection. First thing I learned--don't even try to use it with the Nikon Software (I'm on a Mac). Use VueScan instead. It works great and handles individual scans and bulk scans with ease, automatically naming slides to fit into my file naming system.
The scanner works very well. I've had no problems. The bulk slide feeder and the individual slide feeder interchange well and work well. Quality of scans is excellent. ICE (Nikon's photoprocessing method to reduce noise from dust) is great! I very rarely retouch slides due to dust. In fact, film grain is more of a problem.
Recommended!
Rating - Very Good Scanner
I guess I should prefix this review with the caveat that I haven't had a lot of experience with photo or film scanners. However, I have to say I've been really happy with the quality of the scans I've gotten out of the CoolScan 5000. I've been using it to digitize family slides dating from the late 50's through to the mid 70's. I'm a bit of a neophyte, so I don't have much insight into how I should use the more advanced settings, but in general I've found that the scans seem to look better with digital ICE on. Digital ICE removes specks and spots with very little degradation that I can notice (that doesn't mean there isn't any, I'm sure there is, but I just haven't noticed it). You can't do ICE with post processing because it requires an infrared scan (there's a separate bulb for this in the scanner). I've also had a chance to scan a few relatively recent color negatives (from the 90's) and those look a bit better than the prints I have. So over all I've been very happy with this scanner, though I have to admit I haven't had experience with similar (and certainly cheaper) devices.
Rating  - Nikon Disappoints Again
Until it arrived - and this device is hard to find even on Amazon - I didn't realize the Coolscan 5000 can only scan one slide. One slide! Even my much cheaper Konica-Minolta Dimage IV came with a four-slide adapter that fed the scanner. The 5000 comes with a 35mm film adapter, but that only accepts two to six-frame strips of film. It's a problem, but as usual Nikon as an expensive solution: the SF-210 that stacks up 50 slides to automatically feed the 5000. Amazon has a new SF-210 for $424.95 - or used for $399.95. Another annoyance that surprised me was this USB 2.0 scanner cannot be plugged into a USB hub, it must be plugged into the computer directly, and no other USB devices can be used while you are using the scanner. The manual says on page 22, "The scanner may not function as expected when used with other USB devices. Should the scanner not function as expected, use the scanner with all other USB devices disconnected." Speaking of owner's manual, the manual on the CD, when copied to my hard drive and opened, keeps referring to the paper manual with advice like "for details, see the owner's manual." What! What's the point of putting an owner's manual on a CD if it's not the same manual? Beware of the Nikon Coolscan 5000. You can scan those old slides a lot cheaper.
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Customer Reviews for Nikon,9238,018208092383,0018208092383,B0001DYTOY, |
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Electronics : Nikon Super CoolScan 5000 ED Film Scanner Customer Reviews
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