Hello,
I'm looking for a slide scanner suggestions. We need high quality and speed, and I've narrowed it down to two: The Nikon Coolscan and the Nikon 9000. The price difference seems to be about $1000. Can anybody sell me on one or the other? Or another? Thanks again!
Brandon
With the coolscan 5000 or 9000 you can get an optional (and expensive) slide feeder that holds about 30 to 50 slides (depending on mount thickness) and lets you scan in batch while you go to bed or have dinner. This is extra handy if you are using the much slower multi-pass scanning as doing one at a time demands that you sit there to feed new slides in or else the job will take forever.
You do not need the 9000 if you only scan 35mm slides or film.
The Nikons also have no sheet of glass between the slides and the lens, unlike a flatbed scanner such as the V700. That is theoretically beneficial but whether or not you'll notice depends a lot on what you are scanning. Some films are much better than others.
"You do not need the 9000 if you only scan 35mm slides or film. "
Why not? Is it's benefit the ability to do larger format stuff? So far, we have only done 35mm stuff, but the way I am seeing it, you never know what somebody could request down the line.
But then again, I would tend to think 35mm would be the bulk of what we do with it.
Which brings me to the V700. Why does it lack on 35mm? It looks good in that it does 12 slides at a time.
We now using the Canoscan 4400 and it's done great. In fact, we've blown up a few 24X36'' prints from it's 35mm scans and had them hung in a gallery and they look great, but I don't think it's the BEST quality we can find, and it certainly is not as efficient as these. Let me know what you all think. I've got to make a purchase this weekend.
the Epson 4990 specs out about the same as the V700 and is half the cost (as long as you can find one, they're discontinued)... if that is way you want to go. 35mm is pretty good... actually, grainy "true b&w" kind of scans better on my 4990 than my on Coolscan V IMO.
The coolscan 5000 does an excellent job on 35mm film. The 9000 is bigger but not better. It may or may not be a little faster but there's little in it. They both do the same dpi and use the same software and take the same optional hardware. The coolscan V, on the other hand, is a step down the ladder in terms of quality and accessories.
If you are doing the scanning commercially then a 9000 may be worth the invstment for you, but I was thinking that you were scanning your own stuff and that you had only 35mm film. These scanneras are only half the price they were a few years ago so maybe it is affordable for you. On the other hand, how much extra commercial work will you have to do just to recoup the extra cost ?
You might still be better off with a coolscan 5000 for 35mm and a V700 for the larger stuff and for printed documents.
You cannot practically do 12 high quality scans at a time with the v700 or any other scanner without incurring major system delays. A single slide scanned to 16-bit tiff at 4000 dpi is 135MB. 12 would be about 1.5 GB. With extra space in between it would be well over 2 GB. The scanner software may separate them for you automatically during scaning but don't try scanning an A4 page of slides into a single document and then edit it or you'll bog your computer down intolerably.
Check out the articles on film scanning by Norman Koren. Very technical but interesting and thorough. http://www.normankoren.com/
I'm mainly repeating what others have said at this point, but "what if" isn't the greatest reason to spring for a 9000 if all you've got to scan is 35mm. There's a fairly large price differential between the 9000 and the 35mm-only models, and you don't really gain a whole lot in the process if you're not scanning medium format. In fact, I find the Coolscan 8000 and 9000 to be more finicky than the 35mm models (which is tolerable if you need medium format, but just annoying otherwise).
Scanning, for most segments of the industry, is billable. If all you shoot is 35mm, you're probably fine with a 35mm scanner and using lab services for larger scans.
If you absolutely positively have to be prepared for all options, I'm with Duncan: get a 35mm CoolScan and get a cheap Epson V700 or V750M to go with it. Then you really can handle any (sane) format, whereas the CoolScan line tops out at medium format. Especially if fluid mounting is compatible with your workflow, the current high-end Epsons offer excellent results for medium and large formats. It's passable for 35mm stuff, but it's certainly not at the same level as a CoolScan. Better focus, better detail, lower noise, and better dmax make a huge difference when you're dealing with small format.
Ok, ya'll have sold me on the Nikon 5000, but where can I find it? Nowhere Online seems to have it in stock. Anybody know if it's still being sold?
Thanks all for your opinions, it's GREATLY appreciated.
Brandon
