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Nikon’s Coolscans are still the best
February 8, 2008
After being the printer service technician last weekend, I switched hats to be company scanner operator for my projects this week. I don’t scan film very often these days (though I still have thousands of frames of film that I would
like to scan). When I do scan film, I find myself impressed with the quality of scans from my
Nikon Coolscan.
In the interest of full disclosure I must tell you that I worked on the software that ships with the Nikon scanners; I wrote the built-in Help system. As nice as that is, no one ever uses the Help screen system, I fear.
The Nikon Coolscan 9000 ED scanner allows me to scan film up to 6 x 9 cm. It's the best scanner I have ever used.
Today I was scanning from 35mm film strips from a consumer camera. The film is about 17 years old, and in good condition. It was still wrapped in the sleeves that came from the lab (back when we used film). Despite its proper storage though, there were many small scratches and bits of dust that did not come off with a light cleaning. And, the negs were incorrectly exposed – the camera was spooked by backlighting in almost every frame.
I have the larger Coolscan 9000 ED, which can scan film up to 6 x 9 cm. I used to shoot with
Hasselblad medium format cameras, so this scanner makes it possible for me to translate my library of transparencies into digital images. It is excellent for this purpose.
Nikon was the first company to adopt the
Digital ICE technology developed by
Applied Science Fiction in Austin, Texas. The technology scans the film with an additional infrared sensor in the scanner, and then the Nikon software makes a “defect map” which, after the scan is complete, is subtracted from the image removing nearly all dust, scratches and other flaws. It is nothing short of miraculous. The photos I scanned today would have required about 20 minutes of retouching each. WIth ICE turned on, there was no retouching necessary. I scanned, saved and was finished.
The Coolscans (35mm Coolscan 5000 ED and 6 cm. Coolscan 9000 ED) are not the fastest scanners on Earth, but having run a variety of scanners from a variety of manufacturers, I still think they are the best film scanners ever made. I have owned a lot of scanners – including a Crosfield 646IM – and I argue that the Nikon scanners are better (this comment usually causes some controversy among drum scanner aficionados). Considering the net effect of the scans, the results are more commercially acceptable more often.
Resolution, you say? Yes, I admit the Nikon scanner can’t deliver quite as large a scan as the Crosfield. But, when I scan at full resolution (about 67 MB for a 35mm transparency) I can see the grain, and what is the point of more resolution when I am already scanning more detail than there is grain in my images? With the Digital ICE technology (Kodak bought Applied Science Fiction a few years back and now applied
Digital ICE to its motion picture scanners) and the superb quality of the scanner, I have a winning combination.
Another big advantage is that I can put the Coolscan on my desk. The Crosfield took two air conditioned rooms!
The only catch... Nikon’s “cool” software is not yet compatible with Apple’s most recent operating system –
Leopard. I have checked the Nikon support site, and there is no update available now. I hope that Nikon’s software geniuses can get that done soon.
For my thoughts on the best flat-bed scanners, read my blogs in the coming days.
Posted by Brian Lawler on February 8, 2008 | Comments (6)
