Coolscan 9000, Nikon Scan & Leopard - A problem

[vieri]

Hello there, I just upgraded my old Mac Pro to a new 8 core 2.8 Ghz Mac Pro, and had thus to move from the old faithful Tiger to Leopard. To my dismay, after reinstalling all my stuff on the new machine, I noticed a strange behavior with Nikon Scan.

The software installed just fine, recognizes the scanner (Coolscan 9000) just fine, thumbnails show up just fine, it scans just fine;

BUT

it has a serious problem when it comes to saving: it generates 0 KB TIFFs that cannot be opened neither in Nikon Scan nor in Photoshop or any software; scanning times are as expected, so I think the software really scans the files but when it comes to saving them it doesn't work. The problem appears in the same way with Nikon Scan 4.0.0 and 4.0.2.

The only thing I can think of, besides Leopard having troubles with Nikon Scan's save, is that I might be short on RAM (I have the 2 GB that came with the machine, and am waiting for 8 more to come either today or on Monday).

Has anyone experienced the same problem, and if so has anyone found a solution? Thanks! 😀

Btw, in the meantime I purchased and am using Vuescan - good results, but I am still not used to its workflow and would like not to have to spend time (a commodity I don't have in big amounts) to learn a new workflow.

 

[horosu]

Hello,

I have the Coolscan V with Leopard, and Nikon Scan works OK. But, I also have 4 GB RAM

 

[Gabriel M.A.]

I think there was a similar thread not too long ago. If you use the Search function it may show up. Thread titles are so generic, oft mispelled and non-informational that they usually don't come up with normal search criteria, but if you dig a little they may come up.

If all else fails, use VueScan. I've found that sometimes it's just way faster and more stable than Nikon's software. I just updated my version (I have the "Professional" version) and it's a lifesaver.

 

[vieri]

Hello,

I have the Coolscan V with Leopard, and Nikon Scan works OK. But, I also have 4 GB RAM

Thank you for answering - I am glad it works for you 🙂 However, I got now 6 GB RAM and the problem persist. How did you do your installation?

I think there was a similar thread not too long ago. If you use the Search function it may show up. Thread titles are so generic, oft mispelled and non-informational that they usually don't come up with normal search criteria, but if you dig a little they may come up.

If all else fails, use VueScan. I've found that sometimes it's just way faster and more stable than Nikon's software. I just updated my version (I have the "Professional" version) and it's a lifesaver.

Thank you Gabriel, indeed threads title aren't helpful at times (I hope this has a clear enough title to be able to help someone eventually, if we can find a solution, that is 😀 ). VueScan looks promising, but I have lot of work to deliver and not much time to look into it; speed seems up there with Nikon Scan, results look ok now but I definitely need to spend some time to tweak them and that is a luxury I don't have at the moment... 🙁

 

[russianRF]

Buy a Windows PC...
Problem solved.

 

[srtiwari]

I have the same setup - 9000, Nikon scan, Leopard, 2.5 GB RAM, but am using a PowerPC G5 IMac machine. It all works fine. Just wanted you to know that a similar setup as yours CAN work. Sorry, but I don't know what the problem is...
Subhash

 

[horosu]

Well, nothing fancy, if I remember well, but that was a long time ago.

One more thing: I have the latest Nikon Scan (4.0.2, I think) downloaded from Nikon's site.

Hope this helps, Horea

 

[historicist]

There's a Yahoo group called Coolscan 8000/9000, asking there might be worthwhile. I seem to remember reading that Nikon Scan won't work with computers with more than 2 or 4 (can't remember which) processor cores, though I have no direct experience of this problem as I have a Macbook Pro.

In general, Nikon Scan is quite problematic, especially with Leopard, which isn't supported. When i first upgraded to 10.5, it stopped working, only to start working again for no apparent reason. Then some time later, it stopped working again, also with no obvious cause, and no amount of uninstalling/reinstalling would make it work again.

So I sold my Coolscan IV, to rely on my Epson flatbed. Recently, I purchased a Coolscan 8000, intending to use it on my Thinkpad, having heard that Nikon Scan works fine under Vista. Yet while the scanner and the computer recognise one another, as soon you try to preview or see thumbnails either the scanner shows an error or Nikon Scan crashes.

In desperation, I installed Nikon Scan on my Mac again. Lo and behold, it works 100%! For how long, I don't know, which is quite frustrating as the workflow is good, despite its quirks. Vuescan just isn't as good to use, and Silverfast is incredibly expensive.

In the long term, I think the best solution would be to try running Nikon Scan in Windows under bootcamp, or keeping an old G4 knocking around just for running the scanner, now that they can be bought so cheaply.

btw, my configs in case they help:

Macbook Pro Core2Duo 2.16Ghz, 10.5, 3Gb RAM (RAM can't be the problem, in the past I only had 1Gb or 2Gb and it still worked fine), Nikon Scan 4.02

Thinkpad X61s, Vista SP1, CoreDuo 1.6Ghz (not sure to be honest), 2Gb, inbuilt firewire, Nikon Scan 4.03

 

[historicist]

Rather ironically, my case shows that using a windows computer isn't always the answer.

But to summarise what I know about the problem:

Nikon Scan is not officially supported under 10.5, and may or may not work properly, though the majority experience according to the internets is that it works more often than not. The chances of Nikon releasing an update to fix this are slim to none (how long has 10.5 been out now?), though they did one for Nikon Scan on Vista.

Intel macs with a lot of cores seem to be especially problematic. I have just remembered that I was in a camera shop recently talking to its owner, who had a Coolscan 8000. He had experienced no problems under 10.5 (not sure what mac, I didn't ask), but did as soon as he got a current Mac Pro.

On the windows front, no idea why my Thinkpad doesn't work - the interface works with firewire HDDs, so it is working, but I have read that the Coolscan 8000/9000 are fussy about the firewire chipsets in the computers they talk to.

EDIT: also, the problems I had with Nikon Scan under 10.5 were the software locking up, or crashing immediately on startup, irrespective of whether the scanner was attached or not. I have never experienced the 0Kb TIFF thing.

 

[dfoo]

I have run nikonscan under leopard, but I found it very unstable, although I didn't have the same problem that you are reporting. I switched to using it with fusion in a windows XP VM, and it is very stable. I highly recommend that solution, if possible.

 

[dfoo]

My machine is quad core, yes. I find nikonscan simply crashes on a regular basis. Most irritating. Its also very slow, not to scan, but rather to look at the scans if you are not using batch mode. Nikonscan under Fusion, in contrast, is very fast and stable.

 

[Way]

I have been running Nikon Scan 4.0.0 fine since I bought the 9000 about a month ago. OS X 10.5.5 on the newest iMac, 2gig RAM. I usually scan MF 6x6, 6x7 at 8 bit (because I'm impatient) and 8x sampling. I also have no problem at 16 bit and 16x sampling. Have you tried 8 bit and saving as a jpg? I would also try reinstalling the Nikon Scan software (after uninstalling it).

 

[historicist]

Imacs are dual core, so are less likely to have problems than Mac Pros, but deleting and reinstalling is often a good thing to do. But before anyone does that it might be worth deleting the preferences folder for Nikon Scan, this has solved a problem I had in the past.

I'm glad to hear it Nikon Scan works in a VM - in the long term, this may be something I'll have to do.

 

[Knarxx]

SilverFast is on the right way

SilverFast is on the right way

The official Nikon statement: link
Sad but true. Though, it's running on many Leopard systems, but what's with upcoming Snowleopard ?
Better switch to SilverFast, nice News for Nikon & Mac users over there.
Nikon should bundle it with their scanners, when they stop supporting their own software.

 

[dfoo]

Silverfast under mac is a piece of garbage too...