Nikon Super Coolscan 5000 ED, 4000 dpi, 35mm, Film Scanner

Comments about Nikon Super Coolscan 5000 ED Film Scanner:

I'm scanning my 35mm images (both slides and negatives)
from about 1961 until I finally switched over to digital
SLRs.

This review program does not work with Opera on a Sun
workstation, but apparently works with Firefox.

Great:
1) Resolution -- better than the grain in Plus-X
let alone pushed Tri-X.

2) Speed (relative to an old Nikon LS-3500 on
Window 3.11. (Vastly better for about the same size
image files.)

3) The ability to scan a whole 6-exposure negative
strip at one time.

Not Great:
1) as others have said -- software reliability. I'm
running on an Intel Mac Mini

2) I would prefer to scan using my Sun
workstations, but ... Nikon does not support the
unix machines, and does not make the command set
available so the maintainers of SANE (the unix scanning
program) could write a frontend for it.

3) I could not use the slide feeder, as many of
my slides were glass mounted in rather thick metal
frame mounts, so I did not purchase that.

4) This review is rather late, I fear, as B&H marks
this scanner as discontinued.

Comments about Nikon Super Coolscan 5000 ED Film Scanner:

I use the Nikon Coolscan 5000 with Mac OS 10.5 to digitalize family negatives (either b&w or colours) and transparancies taken few years ago as a professionnal photographer : for these two types of film, it is much faster than the Coolscan 4000 and give good resolution images... But if the hardware is awesome, the Nikon Scan 4 software hasn't been improved for years... It still works, but it is far from the sophistication of SilverFast.

Comments about Nikon Super Coolscan 5000 ED Film Scanner:

This scanner has digested 1500 (of 7600) slides of various ages and mounts with little trouble. The ICE software does an impressive job of cleaning the slide scan and can accomplish professional results in a reasonable amount of time. I am digitally archiving at maximum resolution. At 4000dpi with "normal" digital ICE cleanup and 4x "fine" multi-sampling, the scans are done in about 70-75 seconds and 65mb large. I run it off a Mac (OSX10.5) laptop so I don't tie up my main cpus. Don't let the Mac sleep or go to screen saver, it will disrupt the software and scanning will stop (fail). This is a rock solid scanner. The SF-210 slide feeder leaves much to be desired, but works if you keep an eye on it.

Comments about Nikon Super Coolscan 5000 ED Film Scanner:

The best scanner on market. High resolution, quick, good rmoving of dust etc.

Comments about Nikon Super Coolscan 5000 ED Film Scanner:

the software constantly drops the tool palette and nikon tech has been of very little support. the best they had to offer was uninstall and reinstall. I've had to manually delete multiple files in regedit and regsweeper.exe. these are areas where the consumer should not be. The software has not been updated in 6 years and it shows. I guess I'll have to spend another several hundred on silverfast.

Comments about Nikon Super Coolscan 5000 ED Film Scanner:

I have replaced an LS-4000 , running on Vista Business (64bit) and it's really outstanding. Even the Nikon Scan software performs well on this platform. I've been doing slides I shot in 1977 when I was a working photojournalist, family negs from 1985 forward to leave for my kids. The detail captured, and the tonal range are excellent. Many require only slight modification in CS4 other than cropping. Highly recommend this product.

Comments about Nikon Super Coolscan 5000 ED Film Scanner:

The Nikon Coolscan 5000 ED is an outstanding piece of equipment both in its 8 and 16 bit modes. I have compared it with a drum scan of the same image, and find the Nikon scan to be superior.

Comments about Nikon Super Coolscan 5000 ED Film Scanner:

very easy to set up and use.

The software is somewhat buggy with occasional crashes under OS X, but a relaunch of the program takes care of that. If it were not for this I would give it five stars

Comments about Nikon Super Coolscan 5000 ED Film Scanner:

NIKON COOLSCAN 5000ED:This is my first major slide scanner purchase. There were lots of choices,,, with nearly all units lower priced. My first project consists of 2500 slides to scan from the late 40's and later, mostly KodaChrome. After this first set, I'm looking at a set of 10,000 slides to scan and archive. After reading many reviews I decided to purchase the Nikon CoolScan 5000 ED with SF-210 Auto Slide Feeder.

Setup and install on an XP Windows box went well with no hiccups. Make sure to check out the extra info on the immediate update procedure (Update is on the CD install app disk.)

The manual is thin but adequate. The software controls take a little getting used to, but work as indicated and expected, no surprises here.

This group of transparencies were family My first scans used the KodaChrome settings without the Digital Ice (as per software instructions.) I'll tell you, if you've got transparencies that haven't been housed under archival conditions,,, they are going to be dirty and the scans looked it, even after cleaning. I thought to myself "Boy, this is going to take months." Just as a try, I used the regular transparency / positive setting with Digital Ice (default values.) Incredible. Very adequate scans, detailed, color was good, and minor to big minor junk ... GONE! The focus still looks good even with some of the problems that might be encountered with Digital Ice and KodaChrome.

SF-210 AUTO SLIDE FEEDER:
The SF-210 Auto SLide Feeder works great too. It seemed a little light weight,, but as I installed and used the unit, it seems sturdy and accurate. It was also easy to install and adjust. I loaded many different types of slides in similar batches and out of about 400 slides only had two jams. This was in part to making sure the slide throat was adjusted properly (easy thumb wheel.) The jams were easy to fix and get back up and running..

Like I said, this was my first scanner. I'm used to regular letter/legal sized flatbed scanners and the associated stepper motor noises etc. that happen when you scan. The only downside to this scanner might be the noise level that the scanner makes. At first I was concerned that something was wrong with the machine. That doesn't seem to be the case,,, it's just louder than I would have expected. (About 4-5x the level you might hear on a standard flatbed.) The machine works so well that I'll just make sure not to set it up in the sound lab.

Overall I would purchase this unit again in a heart beat. If you have lots of slides / transparencies to scan, this is the unit to give good consideration.

Comments about Nikon Super Coolscan 5000 ED Film Scanner:

For the price, you can't beat it. It's early days for me, but it provides good, clean scans with excellent resolution and clarity. Dust is always a problem, but not unique to this unit. It's VERY noisy.

Comments about Nikon Super Coolscan 5000 ED Film Scanner:

Film Scanner manufacturers are a dying breed and I keep hearing rumours of Nikon's discontinuance so decided to get it while I still can.
My previous Nikon LS2000 was a great little scanner , never had a problem and still working but I bought the 5000ED specifically for scanning Kodachrome slides which have been so troublesome and for the newer technology for scanning Color Negs.
In every way it's a great improvement over the 2000...definitely recommend it!

Comments about Nikon Super Coolscan 5000 ED Film Scanner:

First off, let's give Nikon credit. The "Super" Coolscan 5000 ED can actually produce a pretty good jpg file from an itsy bitsy color slide or negative. When I can read a 3" logo on the jacket I wore at Niagra Falls in 1967 alongside my 4 sisters posing in front of the flower clock, I concede to being impressed. It did a pretty good job on a film negative zooming in on a Elk's tongue next to it's neighbor grazing on a Colorado hillside in 1996. I didn't notice that on the original print.

Not sure that you can get a picture to look like it just came out of your D70, but so far the results are more than acceptable. I think if we keep in mind what kind of cameras and film we were shooting those slides and negatives with 10-50 years it may be yielding better results than I have a right to expect.

So far, I've only processed about 30 images and this is my opinion. The manual gives almost no advice on how to use the software settings for ICE, GEM, etc. so after you've set it up you're on your own regarding how to use it. Other people have noted that it is slow. Clearly the more settings you engage along with the fine/superfine multiple scan settings, the slower it gets. Yesterday I used the superfine settings and spent about 4 hours on 20 slides including using Capture NX to trim the enormous NEF files down to manageable sized jpg files. The scans make really BIG files from between 20-80MB each. Apple Aperture does NOT read/import the Nikon NEF files this scanner produces.

I wouldn't begin to say I'm a pro on this or that I'm getting optimal results from it. Just that until you learn how to use the 5000 ED, it appears that you will be getting some really big files and taking a long time to get them. I'm hoping once I've scaled the learning cliff that it will be better.

There are no complaints about the image quality of these scans, it's almost like magic. Your relatives/parents will be very pleasantly surprised to see some very old pictures brought back to life.

It's an easy 4-star rating, perhaps a 4.5 star rating... OK, maybe 5 stars after I figure out how to use all the settings to get the best scan possible while keeping the file size under 20MB.

Comments about Nikon Super Coolscan 5000 ED Film Scanner:

Easy to use and scans fairly rapidly. The software is also easy to use and allows you to do basic stuff like adjusting color balance, contrast, etc.
Have only used for slides so far, no opinion yet on scanning color negatives.

Comments about Nikon Super Coolscan 5000 ED Film Scanner:

Hello, I use this scanner on a Vista 64 bit operating system by using the Nikon Scan 4.03 for Vista 32 bit, but by installing the Vue Scan driver labelled "Windows Vista, x64, XP, 2000, NT". Nikon Scan works like a charm, and the software also runs very smoothly on my powerful 8GB RAM, Intel Quad core processor Dell XPS 630i machine.

Leave no doubt, this is a professional product capable of making professional quality 12x16" prints at 300 dpi from color negatives.

I scan 36 frames at a time at 8x or 16x oversampling using the SA-30 film adapter pieces that attaches to the front and back (optional accessory).

Comments about Nikon Super Coolscan 5000 ED Film Scanner:

This unit gives faster scans than the Coolscan V, increasing productivity with top notch results. I use it with Ed Hamrick's Vuescan as well as with the supplied Nikon Scan software. Works well with Vista.

Comments about Nikon Super Coolscan 5000 ED Film Scanner:

I have been using this product to scan in 4000 slides and about 1000 negatives. I bought this in conjunction with the SF-210 Auto Feeder which makes scanning the slides a breeze. It works perfectly with the plastic mounts and only jams on one our of every 20 carboard mount slides.

The ICE software that comes with the scanner is worth its weight in gold and can make almost any picture look better then it was originally. It is easy to use and understand and allows you to use the same settings for everything you scan without having to reset it. It does take 3-5 minutes per slide to scan a slide when you have it pass 2 times over and use most fo the enhancements, increase that to 10-15 minutes per slide if you do the 16-bit depth and 16 pass scan.

Comments about Nikon Super Coolscan 5000 ED Film Scanner:

I had a PrimeFIlm PC3600. It showed lots of dirt and marks on the slides and had poor color rendering. The Nikon Scanner is results in very clean scans. The s/w toolbox is really great for tuning ht ecolor and contrast balance of the scans. Surprisingly I found htat the color reatoration tool helped a lot with underwater shots. I have scanned both negative and positive over the course of a month and had good success. Be careful about pushing the tools too much - it results in funny colors in prints and other artifacts.

Comments about Nikon Super Coolscan 5000 ED Film Scanner:

I just purchased the Nikon 5000ED to replace my old ScanDisc 3600. I should have done it years ago! The Nikon cuts my processing time per slide by 70%, was easy to load and use, and the Digital Ice program is amazing. The only MINOR complaint is that the Nikon is louder, but who cares, it does a superior job.

Comments about Nikon Super Coolscan 5000 ED Film Scanner:

I had lots of slides and negatives that I wasn't doing anything with. Now that I've scanned them to digital I am using lots of them. I wish that I had done this years ago.

Comments about Nikon Super Coolscan 5000 ED Film Scanner:

Easy to setup and operate. NikonScan software is very powerful and flexible tool for enhancing quality of faded and scratched images. One big flaw - Does not work with newer Windows Vista 64bit PCs. Nikon says they do not support and do not have a timeline to support as of 1/22/09. Have to use this on my older computer so suffer longer processing times for scans. Wish I had known.