Nikon 5000 Scanner and Mac

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All

I am using a Nikon 5000 scanner on an old PC using Nikon Scan and things work great.

However the PC is dying. I am considering replacing it with an Apple Mac.

Do any of you successfully use this scanner with a Mac?

Thanks!

 

[robert blu]

i use a Nikon 5000 ed with my i.mac under snow leopard and with Nikonscan. It works great but it is necessary to disconnect all the external hard disk otherwise the mac does not see the scanner. At Nikon they know the problem but do not think necessary to fix it. Of course after the scanning session you can reconnect everything. I'm afraid there will be a problem with the new operating systems, for which reason when I'll upgrade I'll keep an old machine just for scanning...Vuescan does not suffer the hd problem and should work with the new operating systems.
robert

 

[Brian Puccio]

I use a Coolscan 4000 with a MacBook Pro. The FireWire connection goes first to my DVD burner, then onto the Coolscan. No problems at all. For software, I use Vuescan. I hope to use this combination for a decade.

 

[Godfrey]

NikonScan has been buggy and "mostly dead" when it comes to development and bug fixes for at least several years now. I use VueScan to drive all my scanners, and run it on several Apple OS X systems (MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, Mac mini), all running the latest version of OS X (v10.8.2). VueScan is updated regularly and supports all the Nikon scanners.

Currently, my scanners include an HP all-in-one, Nikon Coolscan V and Epson 2450. I'll also be running the Coolscan 9000 with VueScan on these systems as soon as I have the time to pick it up ... on the MacBook Air, it will be connected with a FireWire to Thunderbolt adapter or with a Thunderbolt Display's built-in FireWire connection. I've tested this configuration and it works flawlessly.

G

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

NikonScan has been buggy and "mostly dead" when it comes to development and bug fixes for at least several years now. I use VueScan to drive all my scanners, and run it on several Apple OS X systems (MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, Mac mini), all running the latest version of OS X (v10.8.2). VueScan is updated regularly and supports all the Nikon scanners.

Currently, my scanners include an HP all-in-one, Nikon Coolscan V and Epson 2450. I'll also be running the Coolscan 9000 with VueScan on these systems as soon as I have the time to pick it up ... on the MacBook Air, it will be connected with a FireWire to Thunderbolt adapter or with a Thunderbolt Display's built-in FireWire connection. I've tested this configuration and it works flawlessly.

G

Agreed. I use Vuescan on my Mac Pro with Snow Leopard and Nikon 8000ED scanner. Nikon scan is slow and crashes a lot. It does give slightly better scans from color slides than Vuescan, but for black and white Vuescan is better. Faster, never crashes, same image quality as Nikon Scan for BW work.

 

[Richard G]

Nikon Coolscan V, MacBook Pro, 2009. OS X Snow Leopard. Free upgrade to latest Vuescan recently.

 

[robert blu]

Interesting comments, it really seems I'll have to learn Vuescan, I already tried it but gave up...I'll try again...
robert

 

[animalhairs]

I use a 5000 with VueScan on a MBP running Mountain Lion. No issues.

 

[Godfrey]

A little off the topic, but I was musing about what differences might be seen between scanning with the Nikon Coolscan V ED vs using a lightbox, digital camera and macro lens slide copy system. So I picked a test slide and captured it to digital using the Ricoh GXR with A12 50mm Macro, the GXR with A12 Camera Mount and a Micro-Nikkor 55mm f/3.5, and the Coolscan V using Vuescan (running on a Mac mini, latest OS and latest Vuescan version).

Here are the results:
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/25268645/slide_capture/index.html

My conclusion:
The scanner produces the best results, is the easiest to set up, and is the most consistent in operation. However, the macro-copy setups can do a darn good job if you just need to capture an occasional slide or negative and don't want to invest in a top-notch scanner.

G

 

[notraces]

I use my Nikon 5000 and Nikon Scan software with little or no issues under Snow Leopard. I don't have to unplug external drives, but I do have to make sure I keep my Epson 700 turned off so there's no conflict. I've used Vuescan once or twice but find it tedious versus Nikon Scan. I've been using the 5000 and Nikon Scan for over 10 years on my Mac - scanned thousands of b&w / color negative and slides with nary a problem.

I'm about to take my scanner in to Nikon for a quick CLA -- and to recondition all of my film holders -- the rubber guide wheels are old and cracking - causing some scratching of my negs. Nikon still services the scanner - and refurbs holders.

If you look on my flickr site - 99% of all 35mm was scanned with that combination. I highly recommend it. Good luck!

 

[Godfrey]

Only problem with that is that Snow Leopard is two major revs of the OS back, and cannot boot any current Apple systems... Any system introduced after Lion shipped will not boot with Snow Leopard. (That's any hardware released after July 20, 2011—a long time ago in computer age.)

G

 

[literiter]

I have a iMac with 10.4.11 (Tiger, operating system.) I use a CS9000 with Nikon Scan and now that I have figured it out it's great.

My fear will be if my poor old out of date 5 1/2 year old Mac decides to finally pass on then I have the pleasure looking for a new computer.

 

[JPSuisse]

I'm using my Nikon 5000 with 10.4.11 and 10.6.8.

The newer version of Viewscan on 10.6.8 is better than the older verison for auto-centering film. It also seems that the newer verison is faster. But that could be the fact that the iMac with 10.4.11 is only a 2.1GHZ G5 and the Mac Pro with 10.6.8 is a 3.33GHZ machine with 48 GB of RAM.

But, both work well.

KR, John