Nikon film scanners orphaned for 64 bit

[David]

Nikon has basically said on their web site that there will
not be any Windows 64 bit drivers for their film scanners
and to buy Vuescan instead from Hamrick software. I find
this somewhat arrogant on their part.

David

 

[Toni Nikkanen]

Nikon has basically said on their web site that there will not be any
Windows 64 bit drivers for their film scanners and to buy Vuescan
instead from Hamrick software. I find this somewhat arrogant on their
part.

I wish they had said it earlier if they knew they were not going to write any
drivers.
Even though the driver writing would probably have been trivial for them to do..

 

[Barry Watzman]

I believe that they have discontinued ALL of their film scanners,
including the LS-5000, but possibly (not sure of this) excluding the
LS-9000.

They are simply out of that entire business.

And the cost of used Nikon scanners has gone through the roof, roughly
doubling, in many cases, in the last 12 months or so.

 

[Toni Nikkanen]

I believe that they have discontinued ALL of their film scanners,
including the LS-5000, but possibly (not sure of this) excluding the
LS-9000.

They are simply out of that entire business.

That is such a damn shame.
I daydream that Kodak or Fuji would do something about this, they still would like to sell
film for still photography after all

And the cost of used Nikon scanners has gone through the roof, roughly
doubling, in many cases, in the last 12 months or so.

This, to my mind, proves that they should just produce one more batch
and bundle the devices with Vuescan or whatever.. 50% more than
previously and it's still a much better deal than buying an used one
for 200% the price.

 

[1Scan]

We run film and photo print scanners as a business so our position is
different to most photographers. My Nikons are attached to dedicated
PCs running Vista which I believe I'll be able to run for many more
years.

I have tried Vuescan and it isn't to my taste. I'm sure its a
brilliant piece of software, just wouldn't want to predicate our slide
scanning on it. We do use SilverFast for the Epson flatbeds and maybe
they would deliver a suitable driver for Nikon scanners. In contrast
to Hamrick SilverFast is massively expensive - I would hate to be
paying a premium now for a Nikon Scanner (say £1000+ s/h) then paying
£400 for the software that drives it. Oh, with SilverFast you're
supposed to buy one copy per scanner - at least Vuescan has the
decency to allow one program to drive multiple scanners.

I was speaking to a Kodak executive about our s1220 Kodak print
scanner and dropped into the conversation that a Kodak 35mm or medium
format scanner would have a pretty clear run at the "serious" scanner
market. I don't think Kodak will be wanting to jump back into that
market, even though a big selling point for Nikon scanners is Digital
ICE which is now Kodak technology. Of course up until recently Kodak
did sell 35mm scanners, mainly aimed at photo labs, but the units were
detachable and could be connected to a normal PC. Such units are still
around but only today bundled with their mini-labs (at least here in
the UK).

We have recently installed an Epson V750 and I'm very impressed with
it, if it were the only option in the negative / slide, 35mm / mf
arena I wouldn't be disappointed in terms of single image quality. I'd
need four of them to get the productivity we get with the Nikon
scanner and slide hopper combo. Nikon isn't the only player to have
left the scanning market, Sony dropped out too. It seems that only
Epson are delivering both a quality unit and a range of options.

Jeff Underwood
1Scan.co.uk
freephotscanning.com

 

[Barry Watzman]

But, in fact, while I agree that some of the Epson scanners can match
the Nikon scanners in quality, I'm not aware of either a bulk slide
feeder for the Epson products or an APS scanning capability.

I am in the group that is sad to see this happen, and that believes that
Nikon left this market far too early, leaving no viable products
remaining for certain functions.

 

[Toni Nikkanen]

But, in fact, while I agree that some of the Epson scanners can match
the Nikon scanners in quality, I'm not aware of either a bulk slide
feeder for the Epson products or an APS scanning capability.

I would say that for many purposes the Epsons are good enough, but no, they do
not match the Nikons for detail and sharpness. On the other hand, flatbeds are more
convenient and forgiving when you have "odd" film formats. Certainly I could like with
the quality of the Epson V750 for medium format scans, even though it doesn't "kick ass"
like the coolscan 8k/9k do.
As a Coolscan 8000 user, I am looking to upgrade to the Coolscan 9000 just because it will
have service available for it a few years longer. Maybe I will also benefit with the technical
improvements as well, but those are not the primary reason I dream about the ugprade.

I am in the group that is sad to see this happen, and that believes
that Nikon left this market far too early, leaving no viable products
remaining for certain functions.

Indeed, such a damn shame.

If there appeared a flatbed that's like the Epson V750, but with a focus function and the
ability to scan IR with the same pass as RGB, I guess I could live with that.

 

[Barry Watzman]

The real limitation of the Epson products ... which most seem to agree
are the only real competitors to the Nikon products ... are not in
quality, they are in media handling. The issues isn't results; it's the
effort required to get those results, specifically media handling. The
Nikon products offered a bulk slide feeder, while the Epson products not
only don't, but scanning 35mm film (either slides or negatives) on a
flatbed scanner is, frankly, a PITA. And I don't think that the Epson
product have any capability for handling APS film in it's cartridge at all.