Nikon Super CoolScan 5000ED

I've had my Nikon Super CoolScan 5000ED 135 film scanner since 2007 & I must say that it is one fantastic film scanner, only beaten in my eyes by it's bigger & far more expensive brother, the CoolScan 9000ED. The 5000ED connects to either a PC or Apple Mac via a USB 2.0 interface, no Firewire!

When I first got into photography in 1978, there were only film cameras available in different formats, 35mm being the most popular size. Digital photography was still decades & tens of thousands of pounds away.

As I have hundreds if not thousands of negatives and slide film shot over this period, this scanner has proven truly excellent in transferring them into digital images which can then be worked with Photoshop or similar.

Included with the scanner is the Slide Mount Adapter MA-21, Strip Film Adapter SA-21, the usual power, USB cables & four CD's. These include drivers & the brilliant Nikon Scan 4.2 software which allows this scanner to be used with a PC or MAC.

The scanner GUI software is easy to use & the usual file formats such as JPEG, TIFF, or Nikon's NEF RAW files can be chosen. This particular NEF RAW file doesn't seem to be compatible with Nikon's NEF RAW file format that they use in their D-SLR cameras and many digital imaging software packages may not recognise it. To date, I know of only Photoshop CS4 being able to work with this RAW format. Of course these files can be later converted into Adobe's very own DNG RAW files using their DNG Converter so it's not really bothersome.

There's also a Colour Management for choosing RSB, AdobeRGB etc, Single & Batch scanning in conjunction with the various automatic actions which makes for easier scanning, such as scanning strips of 6 negative frames each time that I've selected.

The scanner is fairly noisy during use but you get use to it quickly & to date I've scanned 100's of both colour slides & monochrome negatives films with it. It does a really good job too. You can select which frames you want by viewing them in Thumbnail form before you commit to scan. There are some very good software tools contained in what Nikon calls the Tool Chest. Some of the better tools are listed as:

1. Curves - which makes adjustments to brightness, contrast & colour;

2. Colour Balance - which adjusts the overall brightness, contrast, & colour

balance;

3. Unsharp Mask - which Sharpen images by making colours more distinctive;

4. LCH Editor - which adjusts brightness & contrast targeted to a specific tone range, or the hue & chroma editors;

5. Digital ICE4 Advanced - that are actually four tools used for:

. Digital ICE: mitigate the effects of dust & scratches,

. Digital ROC: restore faded colours,

. Digital GEM: reduce the effects of film grain

. Digital DEE: increase detail in under or overexposed areas of the frame;

6. Analog Grain (American English as ever!) - which adjusts exposure values for each of the coloured elements in the scanner's light source;

7. Scan Image Enhancer - which performs automatic brightness, colour & contrast adjustments;

8. Scanner extras - which control features specific to the type of scanner

currently connected such as,

. Multi Sample Scanning to reduce noise,

. Scan Bit Depth which is a depth of 8 or 16 bits.

If you've ever shot slide film then there's a great probability that you've used Kodachrome film at some time. As this was a specially formulated slide film (sadly no longer available I think) it requires special scanning or the colours may not come out as they should. Luckily, Nikon provides a Kodachrome setting on it's GUI and as long as it's selected, Kodachrome will scan correctly.

There are also a number of optional extras you can buy for this scanner ranging from the cheapish single frame Film Holder FH-3 and Medical Slide Holder FH-G1 to the very, very expensive Roll Film Adapter SA-30 & Slide Feeder SF-210.

Now for the disadvantage of this Nikon film scanner.

1. They are no longer manufactured though some stocks may still be available somewhere & prices have risen. You can always buy the Nikon 9000ED if you have about £2500!

2. Nikon, like all other popular camera manufacturers are now concentrating on their digital photographic range. Because of this, they are no longer supporting & updating their drivers & software whenever Microsoft or Apple release their later operating systems such as Windows 7 & Snow Leopard. This is infuriating!

As I cannot see Nikon (or Canon) ever releasing a new professional film SLR camera, Nikon may not be replacing their present scanner range either.

There are a couple of alternatives to Nikon's software available such as Vuescan & LaserSoft/SilverFast imaging software. Vuescan is cheaper but is being constantly updated so it pays to buy the Pro version of this software as those updates are then free for life. The SilverFast software though very good as it can scan Kodachrome slide film too, is extremely expensive costing many hundreds of pounds for use with one scanner only!

However, I got around this problem by buying VMWare Fusion 3 software for my 2009 Mac Pro computer at a fraction of the SilverFast price & I installed a virtual copy of my Windows XP Pro OS onto my Mac which allows me to use Nikon's fantastic original software. Phew!