Slide Scanners

[vaphoto]

Thanks for the feedback on the Konica Minolta 5400-II Scanner. I am now looking at these two Nikon units. The 4000 cost about $600 and the 5000 is around $1,000. Both are 4,000 dpi scanners. I have seen good reviews on both. Is the cost difference justified? I need to scan only 35mm slides, but want the best quality to be able to print good size prints for use in exhibits and possible sale.
Thanks
VAPHOTO

[Gregory]

I've used the 4000 which unfortunately has been in the Nikon repair shop for several months now while they try to find out what's wrong with its FireWire communication in their spare time :-(

the 5000 is faster than the 4000. if you're scanning a lot of slides at 2000/3000/4000dpi resolution, this may be important to you.

the 5000 uses USB High-speed. the 4000 uses FireWire 400.

incidentally, I think you're lucky to be scanning slides. the Nikon scanners (at least the 4000) have big problems discerning the borders of frames in negative film strips. I purchased the film roll adapter (which costs the same as the 50-slide adapter) and it was basically a wasted of money because without accurate frame border discerning capabilities, I was never able to scan a full roll of film automatically. I have since decided that when my scanner comes back, I will pay to get all of my negatives framed and buy the 50-slide adapter instead, perhaps selling my film roll adapter on eBay.

from what I've heard at the Nikon service centre, the quality from both scanners is roughly the same although the 5000 supports a level III hardware/software dust/noise removal technique.

btw, if your slides are Kodachrome, the infrared dust removal technique will not work. it's a known limitation.

for the record, I used SilverFast Ai Studio to scan with the Nikon 4000 ED on an iMac G4 1GHz (which doesn't have USB High-Speed).

and for the record, the talented (seriously) developer folks at SilverFast once told me that they regard the Super Coolscan film scanners as the best in their range.

if you have any specific questions, I'd be happy to answer if I can.

regards,
Gregory

[dalex]

I think you mean just the Coolscan V, since the Coolscan 4000 is a different model (it's the predecessor of the 5000), and is no longer manufactured. Both the V and the 5000 have a max resolution of 4000ppi.

I have the Coolscan V, and from what I've read on the forums it gives the same scan quality as the 5000, except that it only scans 14-bit whereas the 5000 is 16-bit. But in the end there's not going to be much difference between 14 and 16 bit.

The other main differences between the V and the 5000 is that the 5000 is faster (Nikon's promo. material says 20 seconds vs. 38 seconds per frame, but this is without ICE or multisampling). Also, with the V you can only scan 1 slide at a time. You can buy the slide feeder (and roll film adapter if you scan negatives) only for the 5000 to do scanning in bulk. The bulk adapters don't work with the V.

For negatives on the V it takes strips up to 6 frames. I have not had any problems with the frame registration for negatives (Silverfast and Nikonscan find the frame perfectly, but Vuescan doesn't even try, so you have to set it manually).

So, main differences:

1) 14 vs. 16 bit
2) Speed
3) Options for bulk scanning
4) Price ($550 vs. $980, and the slide feeder is an extra $450! Note: these are B&H prices).

[Jay Kaplan]

Here is a review by Thom Hogan on the 5000 ED from his website. A useful article and review by an experienced Nikon expert.