Topic: A Word about Nikon Scanners (Read 9143 times)

ThomasH_normally · « **on:** May 01, 2010, 02:39:17 pm »

A year ago my trusty Coolscan LS4000 ED died suddenly, the Firewire connection got lost. And so the scanner went to Nikon, returned and died short after again. One of the components played bad as it seems, the issues appeared after being powered up for several minutes. And so the scanner went back to Nikon a few times, only to return with a similar problem. I thought, the trusty thing would be 1st piece of Nikon made gadgetry in my ownership to die on me for good. Meanwhile a look at eBay for a LS-5000 was quite a shocker: Nikon has discontinued them, and the auction prices reach anything between $2500-$3000 for a scanner. Nikon told me, sorry, no can do, there will be no more LS-5000.

But not for me: Just two days ago a big box arrived from Nikon with my scanner, I opened it and... I found a gift from Nikon: In lieu of my old LS4000, they gave me a LS5000 together with utensils, manual and CD... Wow, I was lost for words, and I thought that I should at the least spread a word about Nikon's customer support!

Aside of being enormously grateful to the Nice Person who made that call, I was experiencing first hand what has changed between LS4000 and LS5000:

1) The scan of negatives has improved dramatically. Gone is the old black point offset of LS2000/LS4000,
2) The scan of positives seem unchanged to my eye. Theoretically the resolution is now 16bit, not 14bit, but I have to yet find an example where it would show,
3) I am making some experiments with DEE, but my impression is that this is a mere software post-processor, not a HDR kind of solution based on a multiple exposure scan, as I hoped it would be. I am not quite conclusive about how to use the DEE slider values yet. I wonder if some of you made some research on this and could share insights?
4) Last but not least: Firewire is gone for USB2, and considering the market position of Firewire as well as ESATA and upcoming USB3, it it surely a good thing.

Thomas[/size]

revaaron · « **Reply #1 on:** May 02, 2010, 12:44:03 am »

wow... cosmic irony here... I'm packing up my LS-9000 to mail to them cause the scan is stretching out a pixel or something.. I made a thread about it here.
mailing in a 20lb package.. uff.
Here is a scan with a 100% crop on top.
LL might shrink it.

revaaron · « **Reply #2 on:** May 02, 2010, 01:07:58 am »

I'm also sent PLENTY of my nikon gear in to get fixed, but I shoot a lot. my D3 has over 240K on it,
my D2X has over 120K.
my D2H has over 75K
my D70 has over 40K
my D100 has over 100K (I had a second D100 with 40K on it too).

I've sent in all those cameras for various things under warranty. I've also sent in 3 SB-800's and 2 of my sc-29 (both of which need to go back in so I bought a 3rd).

revaaron · « **Reply #3 on:** May 02, 2010, 02:10:29 am »

what is the address you sent it to? I need to send it in on tuesday.

ThomasH_normally · « **Reply #4 on:** May 03, 2010, 10:30:46 am »

Quote from: revaaron

what is the address you sent it to? I need to send it in on Tuesday.

The address is on Nikon's service web page alongside with instructions and a shipping label printing feature. Now I am curious: If you have shipped to Nikon so many times before, how do you do that without using it? I did shipped lenses to them and a body for a generic lub/cleaning once. The shipping feature is quite nice organized.

revaaron · « **Reply #5 on:** May 04, 2010, 09:49:44 am »

I usually use the address on the warranty card, but my scanner is packed up with the warranty card in it. All of my regular nikon boxes (and all my girlfriends) are directly below me, but it's a million times easier to post on the internet asking a question than climbing around a crawl space.

revaaron · « **Reply #6 on:** May 04, 2010, 09:53:08 am »

http://form.nikonimagesvcapprove.com/

huh, never seen that before. the nikon services pages have always been a strange collection of junk. They once kep my gf's D100 for 5 months to replace the shutter. Other times, I get my stuff back in 2 weeks.

revaaron · « **Reply #7 on:** May 05, 2010, 02:49:48 pm »

FEDEX was really confused by all the papers that nikon had me send in with the scanner. anyhow, I sent it in yesterday and they got it today! plus, they sent me a $0.00 estimate on the scanner. This is the absolute FASTEST nikon service has ever done anything. I remember 7 years ago when they had to mail you a letter and you had to either call/mail back the approved estimate. Then the website they had was never updated. Even 2 xmases ago, it was slow...

revaaron · « **Reply #8 on:** May 12, 2010, 09:15:55 pm »

I got the scanner back today.

revaaron · « **Reply #9 on:** May 12, 2010, 09:29:49 pm »

nope
it's now doing it on the top and the bottom of the scan.

LiamStrain · « **Reply #10 on:** May 13, 2010, 01:07:43 pm »

revaaron - couldn't find your other thread.

I've only seen anything like that when the calibration area of the film holder was blocked (on a flatbed). Never seen it with the Nikons. Have you tried your scanner on a different system?

revaaron · « **Reply #11 on:** May 13, 2010, 03:06:13 pm »

I've seen SUPER bad things on flat beds with the calibration covered. And I have done that on the nikon, but it was a color issue, not false pixel info.
I'll post later, but now there are giant holes missing on the edges of the scan.

I tired this on 3 different OS's all on the same PC. Maybe I'll install their FIREWIRE card and see if that works better for me. I also have a FW PCMCIA card some where that I could try on my laptops. I basically am running everything on laptops now and only have one desktop/workhorse.

revaaron · « **Reply #12 on:** May 14, 2010, 11:49:08 pm »

hm.. they sent me my 2 sync chords back as is claiming they work perfectly. my would I have bought a 3rd one and send them those 2 if they worked perfectly. The funny thing is I've sent these 2 in for the same exact thing twice before.

FlashDB · « **Reply #13 on:** May 15, 2010, 06:31:33 am »

I still in love with my Hasselblad X5, superior quality and rock solid!

/David

revaaron · « **Reply #14 on:** May 15, 2010, 11:23:13 pm »

if only I could go back in time and spend $17K more!

revaaron · « **Reply #15 on:** May 21, 2010, 11:24:47 am »

here is what it is doing now... data where there should be none and that white where this is missing data.
It is happening on the same spots in the film on different scans and I even reinstalled windows on that machine between scans.

revaaron · « **Reply #16 on:** June 04, 2010, 03:31:05 pm »

ok... now the preview and the scan look COMPLETELY DIFFERENT. It's scanning the preview and then when I say "ok scann" the images that come back are in different locations.

revaaron · « **Reply #17 on:** June 04, 2010, 04:14:36 pm »

see... this is really infuriating. Also, when I stop the scan and eject the slide, I have to reboot the scanner for it to work again

revaaron · « **Reply #18 on:** June 04, 2010, 04:25:04 pm »

and all my scan have a speckling of missing data... these move and disappear on different scans.

edit "Error You did not select a file to upload" I'm getting that message when I try to attach a file.

LiamStrain · « **Reply #19 on:** June 04, 2010, 07:03:15 pm »

I would suggest trying this on another machine entirely. Maybe its a problem with the data bus it is using?

But honestly I'm stumped. I'd be on the horn to Nikon.

Author Topic: A Word about Nikon Scanners (Read 9143 times)