Nikon Coolscan V settings

I have just purchased a Nikon Coolscan V film scanner, and wanted to know if any film users are familiar with optimum settings for scanning slides: I need max. resolution (approx. 57MB) For example,is it better to scan with 8 or 16 bit depth? It has a few new features, like DEE, which I haven't used (I had a Coolscan IV). In particular, I would like to improve details in shadows areas, and deal with the 'ol sunball dilemma.

Cheers,

Marli Wakeling

I have a Coolscan 5000.... so some of this will not apply directly. but:

I scan at 16 bit depth to tiff. I rarely use the DEE function, as I find that Photoshop's "Shadow/Highlight" control does a better job of the same thing. DEE is really, really slow on my computer (Apple 1GHz G4 Powerbook), and adds about 3.5 minutes to the scan processing time.

The new ICE IV is really good, better than the previous versions by a big margin. If I am careful to clean the slide before scanning (I have a dedicated microfibre cloth for slide scanning that is tied to the scanner) I commonly get scans that require NO retouching.

The Coolscan V is actually a 14 bit per channel scanner, not 16 bit, so you're not going to get 16 real bits of information per channel.

A 4000 PPI 16 bit full scan of a 35 mm slide comes in at 110-117 MB, depending on the size of the film rebate. I get 117 MB files when I scan the entirety of the frame on unmounted film, and usually 110 when the slide is in a mount. For printing purposes there's no point in staying at 16 bit. Sampled down to 8 bit the scans are 54-58 MB.

An issue has cropped up since installing XP SP2. Now, when my scans are finished, and I close the Nikon Scan 4 window, whether in Photoshop or Scan 4, the program closes. Arrgghh! I've unistalled and reinstalled, whilst being coached by Nikon Tech support, to no avail. I've seen other forum threads about this issue, and wondered if anyone else has encountered the problem and/or found a solution. The only way that works is to scan in Nikon Scan, save before closing the window, and then reopening in Photoshop. Everything worked just peachy before SP2.

Nikon blames Bill G., of course, and won't admit they know anything about the problem. No need to tell me Mac's a better choice........... :wink:

An issue has cropped up since installing XP SP2. Now, when my scans are finished, and I close the Nikon Scan 4 window, whether in Photoshop or Scan 4, the program closes. Arrgghh! I've unistalled and reinstalled, whilst being coached by Nikon Tech support, to no avail. I've seen other forum threads about this issue, and wondered if anyone else has encountered the problem and/or found a solution. The only way that works is to scan in Nikon Scan, save before closing the window, and then reopening in Photoshop. Everything worked just peachy before SP2.

Nikon blames Bill G., of course, and won't admit they know anything about the problem. No need to tell me Mac's a better choice........... :wink:

Yes, I am now having the exact same problem and am doing the same workaround. Did you ever come up with a resolution to this problem?

I had the same issue, and after repeated emails back and forth to Nikon, gave up. They just blamed Microsoft, and said they don't support any other manufacturers software issues. I got used to the extra step of scanning in Nikon Scan, saving as a TIFF, and then editing after in Photoshop. I did not have the issue with SP2 when it was installed first, than Photoshop. It all hit the fan after I had to reformat the hard drive, and the order was reversed. Funnily enough, after installing CS2, I don't seem to have the problem anymore....but it will probably reappear!

Cheers,

Marli

Well, as I expected, the problem is now back even with CS2.

Marli

Well, as I expected, the problem is now back even with CS2.

Marli

I never had any other version of CS2. I got the scanner and CS2 at the same time. When I scan through CS2, using the "import" feature, if I go to close Nikon scan program, that's when both programs shut down. I can't save the image any way unless I shut down CS2. So now I just scan using Nikon as a stand-alone, and save it, then open through CS2. There must be something I am doing wrong, in the wrong order I imagine, but I can't for the life of me figure it out, and I'm pretty computer-literate.

Exactly. That's what happens to me to. Sorry, I've just given up. I saw a bunch of stuff on Nikonians.org about it and some fixes that involved fooling around with files in a way that is beyond my knowledge and fear of really screwing up my hard drive. You may want to look there under SP2 and Coolscan V.

If you find a solution, I'd love to know.

Marli