Luminous Landscape Forum
Equipment & Techniques => Computers & Peripherals => Topic started by: Ian MacDonald on February 13, 2021, 10:13:43 am
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My trusty Nikon SuperCoolscan 4000 ED film scanner is in fine condition. However, it only produces output in the old Apple Firewire format - no USB. To date it has been fed by an old laptop that has a Firewire input port. That laptop could fail any day and I wonder what my options are for finding a current laptop able to interface with the scanner, or for some sort of adapter / converter (for example, to convert Firewire to USB 3.x.) I've done a fair bit of searching on the internet but have not found any useful information. When one searches with the word "firewire" all the responses seem to refer to USB 3.x. Has anyone found a solution or does anyone have some suggestions?
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if i remember correctly, the Nikon drivers were a little finicky about firewire interface. You might have better luck using PCIe card if you are using Windows.
If apple, i think they even sell a dongle.
Otherwise, consider Vuescan or latest Silverfast (wrote their own driver for CS series)
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Mac or PC? You're better off getting a spare machine that you can pre-load & test with before you are in a pinch. If a Mac, grab a TB-FW800 adapter or two. Or keep an eye on Macsales.com for a dock that has fw800 as they go on special, or a late 2012 Mac Mini that has a fw800 port.
Tech lasts years longer than it use to, no need to wait until something dies.
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I'm on PC so I'm not sure of Mac equivelant, but I kept a couple of old laptops laying around because they have Express Card slots for FW 800, which I use for my older Phase back. You could get something like that for $200 on eBay and such I would think. Just a thought.