Coolscan 5000 ... Some good news for Mac users?

[JohnP]

Hello,

A couple of days ago I bought a Coolscan 5000.

Before buying, I had the salesperson give me a demo on the in-house Mac which happened to be running system 10.5 (Leopard).

He scanned a couple of negs and a couple of slides without a hiccup.

When I challenged that many Mac users cite incompatibility between the 5000 and later OS X, he said there could be software conflicts (extensions) at work on certain computers.

I also noted that the Coolscan box says the software/scanner will run under: 10.1.5, 10.2.8, 10.3.9, 10.4.10

... These numbers are in advance of the 10.1.4 cited in the Coolscan pdf, downloadable from the Nikon site.

Does anybody have any knowledge of any Nikon literature, CD, or box claiming that the Coolscan 5000 runs under 10.5?

The Nikon Scan software in the box is 4.0.2.... Is this the latest version of the Mac software?

Thanks,

John

 

[leivo311]

Hello,

I use my Coolscan 5000 with OS 10.5.7 and Nikon Scan 4.0.0.3020 on a 2 x 2,66 GhZ Dual-Core Intel Xeon without problems.

 

[jke]

I think the Nikon 5000 works just fine with the current version of OSX. The scanner cannot be that different from the 9000 as they both use the same scan program, Nikon Scan, to drive them. There is one bug that I know of - after upgrading to 4.02, your copy of Nikon Scan will continue to say that it is the next earlier version, which I think is 4.0.0.3020; however, you have in fact completed the upgrade.

First install 4.0.0. Link here.

Then do the update to 4.0.2. Link here.

4.0.2 is the latest version for OS X, so if you have a disk with that, then you should be good to go.

Nikon has said that they will not produce a compatible version of Nikon Scan for OS X, but that's not the same as Nikon Scan not being compatible. It just means they aren't going to certify it as being compatible, i.e. you are on your own. May also be the reason they seem to bury Nikon Scan for OS X on their website.

 

[dcsang]

Use VueScan - there are no worries there.

I'm on a Mac Pro (still on Tiger though 10.4.something-or-other) and have been using a Nikon 5000 for the past year and a half with VueScan and no worries.

Dave

 

[MPerson]

I have not been able to get it to run on my two new iMacs. I now know the problem stemmed from using the Migration Assistant to copy over all my settings, docs and progs from my old Macs!

I have NikonScan 4.0.2 now running flawlessly on both iMacs - Mac OS X 10.5.7, 3.06 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 4Gb RAM.

I have received info on how to get it to run and it worked for me.

================================================== =========

"Thank you for contacting Nikon Technical Support.

Other users seem to be running the application fine under Mac OS 10.5 and so the program may simply need to be reinstalled.

Two methods but Method 1 should resolve the problem. To un-install NikonScan you will need to put the CD back into the drive.

Method 1

When the install program comes up we want to go to the custom install menu and select just the NikonScan program.

Now click on install.

In the new window there will be a drop-down menu in the upper left - choose un-install from this and then click on the un-install button at the bottom.

When that finishes we can quit out of the install program.

Next Trash the preferences, we want to click on Go - Home.

Now navigate to Library - Preferences and delete any Nikon Scan files/folders located there.

Next empty your trash and restart your Mac.

Now please reinstall the software and after a reboot try it again and see if that works.


Method 2

If it does not please uninstall it once again following the same steps and then try creating a new Admin account and installing the software into the new account.

Click on the Apple Menu

Click on System Preferences

Click on the Accounts

Right below Login Options you should see a + and -

To create a new account click on the + sign.

Then fill in all the information, including assigning a picture and ensuring it has full Admin rights.

Once everything is filled out click on one of the existing accounts, this well save the account you just created.

Now we want to log out of your current account and into the new account.

Install the software and give it a shot."

================================================== =========

Method 1 worked just fine for me.

It will also run perfectly under: Crossover for Mac

 

[Efra1]

For me it is impossible, I can not make it work, I try to create a new user,, nothing.
I delete and reinstall, NOTHING, the software runs, but I can not see the main windows for the previus and all that, I only have the tools palettes.

When I try in Paralles emulation soft, I dont know how to install the driver, the software runs Ok but there is allways a message tellingme thet there is not Scanner Found....

I also try in Crossover, but the same thing like i Parallels.....

Any sugestion of how to install the driver?? I dont have the original CD so I install all fron file in the desktop.

Thanks

Efra

 

[imush]

vuescan for me... No drivers needed, and works similarly on every supported OS.

 

[rya]

I have found that patience is what makes Nikon software work best once installed. Some days I fought with it, but anymore we (the scanner and I) never miss a beat and the software rarely crashes. The key for me is to never touch anything (including on the computer or the scanner itself) until whatever I just did has completed. Turn on the scanner, wait for sounds to stop before starting Nikonscan. Turn on Nikonscan, wait for all the windows to open before loading film, and so forth. I have gotten pretty quick at doing scans and sorting negatives and such in the mean time this way. All on the latest version of Mac.

Let's hope Snow Leopard doesn't change any of this...

 

[popeye]

I realize this thread is a tad old, but I am about to install this software on an Intel unit running 10.5.8 and was thinking about using the SF-210 slide feeder as well as the film strip feeder.

Has anyone who has managed to get NikonScan to work on their Intel/10.5 box used either or both of these feeders? Thanks in advance...

Nevermind, both seem to be working as advertised 🙂 There seems to be many out there with issues, hopefully I will not add my name to the rolls...

 

[bwcolor]

Snow Leopard 10.6

Snow Leopard 10.6

Snow Leopard is out for Intel Macs and I've seen posted that the Nikon Scan is working on it. I have 10.6 on two Macs and have two more upgrades for my other computers. So far, it seems to make for a faster experience and memory is now truly 64bit. I suppose that it will take some time for software, such as PS to catch up, but for little money, it is a nice upgrade. My Nikon scanner came from B&H a couple of weeks ago, but have yet to install. Fingers crossed. I will disconnect all other Firewire devices prior to install.

So, I've yet to have a program running in 10.5 that won't work in 10.6, but time will tell.

 

[rya]

My Nikonscan appears to be working fine on 10.6.

 

[popeye]

^^^ Xlnt! Well I think a $29 investment is in the near future 🙂 I'll post back when the results are final. My initial impression is that since I did a fresh install, I had no detritus from previous OS installs and or machine migrations and this led to all the proper prefs and such being installed for this machine

 

[pagpow]

So what's the difference between "A double-venti, extra hot, white chocolate, soja moccha" and "A .85 black chrome Leica MP a la carte with 35mm/f1.4 pre-asph Summilux and LHSA, E43 aspherical 50mm/f1.4 Summilux" ?

One's hard to drink and the other is impossible to drink?:😀

 

[popeye]

^^^Hahaha I stole that from another user after reading a thread on 'borrowing' ideas and such and calling them our own...

 

[popeye]

It's official (for me...), Nikon Scan 4 is the worst excuse for software development I can think of from a major manufacturer.

Aside from the poor user interface to begin with and general bugginess (nothing else can run during it's use), the fact that I cannot scan a strip of Kodachrome without issue is frustrating without end it seems. While scanning BW strips presents it's own issues I have scanned 8 to 10 rolls with reasonable success and will continue to do so as long as my motivation is up to the challenge.

Nikon, you suck.

 

[popeye]

So forget the above and do your selves a favor and purchase Vuescan.

I had an old copy but it would not start up and couldn't properly shut it down (Force quit didn't work either). So I trashed the app and all the prefs and bought a Pro license.

What a difference!

I was concerned that the strip feeder might not work which caused me to hesitate in using it in the first place as I'd read something to that effect. Or so I thought, works fine. Preview and scan are faster, I can multitask during the scanning, silly errors don't cause it to close and on and on. It's brilliant!

My only critique so far is that the learning curve is steeper as the controls are more detailed and less dummied up so to speak, each tab (input, output, color etc) has many features and adjustments to give the user ultimate control over the scanning process beginning to end. The manual is a bit daunting in this regard as it feels a bit like a flight manual for a unmanned drone (something I'm familiar with...) and well I'm not always apt to really read those things...

 

[dfoo]

What I find is that color scanning in nikon scan is significantly better. The color balance is quite good right from the scanner. With vuescan the color balance is not good at all, and with negative films compared with a raw shot from a digital camera, the color balance is very difficult (for me at least) to get right.

 

[rxmd]

What I find is that color scanning in nikon scan is significantly better. The color balance is quite good right from the scanner. With vuescan the color balance is not good at all

I guess it's because both programs have different presets for the various film types and their individual colour reproduction. It's quite normal with negative film. Shoot a picture of an IT8 target on your film of choice once and have the scanning software pick up the calibration, and colour balance shouldn't be a problem anymore with either program.

 

[popeye]

Just as an FYI the batch scanning in Vuescan seems to be fixed in the last version. I always had problems with the alignment of frames previously. I still prefer to use the Nikon software unless I am doing just one scan.

Frame alignment seems to be easier in Vuescan, Nikonscan was often dodgy and counter intuitive in terms of which direction one should move the frame to suit and then it might not hold that when doing the actual scan

What I find is that color scanning in nikon scan is significantly better. The color balance is quite good right from the scanner. With vuescan the color balance is not good at all, and with negative films compared with a raw shot from a digital camera, the color balance is very difficult (for me at least) to get right.

I noticed this as well, but for the time being I will accept this and only use Nikonscan for certain applications (SF-210, ICE etc), as working with Vuescan is such an improvement over Nikonscan and therefore I now have a desire to get the job done.

Shoot a picture of an IT8 target on your film of choice once and have the scanning software pick up the calibration, and colour balance shouldn't be a problem anymore with either program.

Very good idea and since I paid for the pro version I could do this... Problem is scanning older emulsions tho, right?