HOLY KIBBLE! Flatbed scanners are crap at scanning 35mm negatives!

[Deja Q]

I finlally hooked up my new Nikon Coolscan V ED scanner.

:WOW: :WOW: :WOW: :WOW: :WOW: :WOW: :WOW: :WOW:

This thing blew my Epson Perfection 3170 Photo out of the water.

I still needed to do a small amount of unsharp masking (normal to do, even with expensive drum scanners), but with NeatImage to remove the grain, these pics are indistinguishable from digital. And of much higher resolution. :9

Woo-hoo! Now I can't wait to import my favorite negs!

[2Design]

1. you have confused me.....is the scanner good for scanning

negatives or Excellent...your title says bad....your words say good.

How much was the scanner...what is model?

[Deja Q]

3. I have that effect on people... this should clarify:

The Coolscan V ED is a dedicated film scanner. Made only for 35mm film and color slides. Nikon makes it, the model in the US is the Coolscan V ED. It goes by another name in other countries. The US price is $599.99 - and is worth every penny. Indeed, the Coolscan 5000 (the next level up from the V ED) costs $1099 and whose ONLY difference is the dmax rating. The V ED has a dmax of 4.2. The 5000's dmax is 4.8. The dmax, simply put, determines how well it can capture shadows. (okay, the 5000 may scan negs faster too, but for $500 less, I'm astonished by what I got. Film scanners used to cost THOUSANDS... )

A flatbed scanner is useful for larger documents, but for 35mm it stinks because flatbed scanners can't get the fine detail from a neg (in terms of sharpness, detail, shadows, or color gamut). Even Epson's new 4870 scanner doesn't come close, costs only $100 less, and is being pitched as a 35mm scanner solution. Its dmax value is 3.8. It would be great for medium-size film (6x6) and transparencies, but not 35mm. Of course, the 4870 is superior to Nikon's ORIGINAL Coolscan model, but the original Coolscan is MANY years old. I saw that comparison on a website and laughed; of course a newer 2004-make high end flatbed will do better than a 90s dedicated film scanner. They're ages apart.

[shadu]

2. I need to buy an awesome scanner

tell us tell us tell us

[Deja Q]

4. I'm hoping to get examples up soon...

The Coolscan V ED has lots of built-in features, though the best one is the Digital ICE 4 that does an AWESOME job at removing dust and scratches. The Digital GEM that removes film grain is decent as well (though I still need to use NeatImage Pro). The other features work just as well, if not better in, Photoshop (namely the Unsharp mask feature that fixes sharpness and, again, even drum scanner processed film needs some unsharp masking done.)

I'm scanning a great bridge photo now. Digital ICE alone is a godsend. It cleaned up the scratches left behind by the photo developer's crap machinery that made the scratches. And Digital ROC (this restores faded color) has to be used with care, but can do a great automatic job of fixing up faded colors from old negs.

At 3200DPI without digital enhancement features, the scanner takes as much time as a Epson Perfection 3170 at 3200x6400 DPI. And looks MUCH, MUCH sharper. The Epson can't be really 3200DPI. (negs are best scanned at 3200DPI; at 4000DPI more of the grain becomes pronounced. The Coolscan V ED can do 4000DPI but it seems redundant.)

[2Design]

5. how many hard drives do you have or where do you store all those

pictures...are you a professional photographer (make your living at photography)