I got Coolscan V ED today

[drjoke]

All pics are taken with ZM Sonnar 50mm and Provia 100F. It makes me glad I am still using film. Now I can show off high resolution and dust free images too.

http://flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=1638380080&size=o

http://flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=1638115602&size=o

 

[tomgull]

Looks good. (I have one in the mail) Now I really can't wait..

 

[EmilGil]

Nice shots!

I want one of those scanners...

 

[JNewell]

Nice shots, and nice scans! Are you using the NikonScan software???

 

[Photon42]

nice colors. I've always thought scanning is tedious, but actually it's not that bad. I'm using Vuescan, Coolscan V and a MacBook Pro. And I'm not photographing that much that processing times really gets an issue.

Ivo

 

[drjoke]

I am still using Nikonscan, and will probably do so for the next few weeks. I don't want to learn too many new things at once. So what does Vuescan do taht I cannot do with Nikoscan? Will it allow me to get better pictures? So shouldn't I even consider Silverfast? I am on Macbook Pro as well.

 

[achi4]

After many years of using Nikon scanners (now the 8000 ED) and having tried Silverfast and Vuescan, I keep coming back to the Nikon scanning software. It is the easiest way to excellent results as shown by your pictures. I often don't use the one-click correction because it tends to give too much contrast unless you change the output values for highlights and shadows. I usually do the postprocessing in lightroom or PS CS3.

regards, maurice

 

[drjoke]

I keep reading about Multi-Exposure with Vuescan and Silverfast. Haven't seen any real results though.

 

[hammerman]

after much input by many helpful RFFers a few months back i bought the Coolscan V ED and for colour i love it. but it still has issues with BW, giving blocked up and "glowing" blacks no matter where i put the settings or instal the software. suggestions for miracles are welcome but i have to be careful with my older BW negs as well as newer ones. and i shoot the slower films, too, FP4, etc.. but it is such a handy and reliable scanner for colour, well done. and enjoy it!

dj in oz

 

[Photon42]

Vuescan

Vuescan

Dr Joke

Vuescan is much faster than the Nikon Software for my 😎 scan V. You may have noticed their (D)SLR cameras are much more useable than their (Mac) Software. It probably takes another three years until they update their scanner software to something like "NikonScanNX".

Vuescan to me seem to give same or better results, and frankly, I cannot really explain why. I am also not sooo much the device tester, really.

Two things I can definitely say: Vuescan is much faster and Vuescan provides a better workflow for batch scanning. It takes of course some time to get used to the again quirky and relatively unattractive user interface. The user guide is something you should consider reading diagonally at least to extract the important things.

But try it yourself. Apart from the nice $$ signs in the results, I think you they allow you to try the software as long as you like.

My BW workflow so far:

- Preview all of the strip
- moderately apply levels and curves, if at all
- scan at full res & light GEM settings
- review tiffs in PS, do some scratch corrections if needed

As well as you, I've read a bit regarding multi-scanning. Tested it only once and didn't find it any much different. But that well could've been me. So I reckon I give it a try again.

Regards
Ivo

 

[JNewell]

Vuescan is much faster

I am not aruging at all, but puzzled a bit - why would Vuescan run the scanner that much faster than other software?

 

[JNewell]

moderately apply levels and curves, if at all

I am probably the least qualified person on the planet to comment on that, but my current workflow is to do pretty much no more than just scan at highest res and depth and then move on to other editing software. Not sure what's the best plan with that...

 

[Photon42]

JNewell,

with "scanning time" I've referred to the overall time until the image is processed and stored. This includes applying certain algorithms like grain smoothening (GEM) and JPEG processing, all done within the controlling software.

Vuescan is compiled for Intel Macs, which speeds up the process by two at least. Give it a try on an Intel Mac.

If you don't do any post processing, that's of course fine, if the results please you. My BW film tend to have a spec here and there and I cannot apply the scanner internal cleaning here like on emulsions not based on silver halide. Also, I tend to scan less contrasty and then toy around with curves and levels in PS.

Ivo

 

[JNewell]

Thanks - two things -

For clarification, I do PP - but I'm doing most of it in Lightroom, not in the scanner software...

On speed, I'm a PC user, not a Mac user - do you think there would still be a speed advantage?

John

JNewell,

with "scanning time" I've referred to the overall time until the image is processed and stored. This includes applying certain algorithms like grain smoothening (GEM) and JPEG processing, all done within the controlling software.

Vuescan is compiled for Intel Macs, which speeds up the process by two at least. Give it a try on an Intel Mac.

If you don't do any post processing, that's of course fine, if the results please you. My BW film tend to have a spec here and there and I cannot apply the scanner internal cleaning here like on emulsions not based on silver halide. Also, I tend to scan less contrasty and then toy around with curves and levels in PS.

Ivo

 

[Photon42]

as for speed, honestly, no idea. NikonScan for Mac does only seem to use one of the two cores in my MacBook, but that may well be to the Rosetta emulation software. Dunno what that means for a multi core PC. Download it and give it a try. It's not a big deal.

 

[drjoke]

I tried Vuescan with Long Exposure (now renamed Multi Exposure). I spent two days fixing all the different parameters. Yet, I cannot get Vuescan to perform better than Nikonscan. The quality is exactly identical.

I installed Silverfast, but it failed to lanuch on my Mac saying it can't locate my scanner.

I also tried using Nikonscan to scan at -2 -1 0 +1 +2 ev, and combining the images with Photomatix HDR software. This apperas to have some hope. However, the images scanned do not line up (register) correctly. Perhaps I should expore this option some more. It this works, it would significantly increase dynamic range.

 

[planetjoe]

Just wanted to add my note of support for this machine; I just started using my Coolscan V after graduating from a Minolta Scan Multi. I lose MF scanning, but the difference in Dmax and resolution is incredible.

I've only scanned my backlog of silver B&W so far, but I'm really impressed. I'm using the same Vuescan-based workflow I established with the Minolta, so the learning curve wasn't too steep. I also like Vuescan, so this could be a biased opinion of the process.

I find that the "multi-exposure" option gives me a little more depth, but that could be subjective. At any rate, when scanning to a raw file, the added time to scan isn't too bad.

Nice example photos here, by the way.


Cheers,
--joe.

 

[drjoke]

Does it matter how many # of passes you choose when you use multi-exposure? Additionally, does Vuescan auto align images for you?