Nikon Coolscan 5000 with Vuescan?

[JohnL]

Using a Nikon Coolscan 5000 with Nikon Scan software, I do not seem to be able to have it retain all the scan settings throughout a batch scan (I have the SA30 roll-film adapter which allows me to scan up to an entire roll at once).

The settings which sometimes seem to be lost after the first frame are Digital ICE (whether normal or fine) and sometimes (it seems) also 16-bit colour depth per channel, brightness adjustments etc.

Frankly, I find this software a bit of a pain, and have wondered about using some other system. One alternative that looks promising would be Vuescan. Does anyone have experience of using this software with the Nikon 5000?

Specific questions:
- Does it support batch processing?
- Does it support global settings for the entire batch?
- Does it support 4000dpi resolution?
- Does it support Digital ICE (normal / fine)?
- Does it support 16-bit per channel colour depth?
- Does it support batch / single frame brightness / curves / color adjustments?
- Are there any features of the scanner that would be lost by not using the Mikon software?
- would anyone recommend some software other than Vuescan?
- and finally, would it also support my Epson V750 flatbed scanner which I use for mainly MF film, photos and documents?

Thanks, John

 

[jonmanjiro]

Using a Nikon Coolscan 5000 with Nikon Scan software, I do not seem to be able to have it retain all the scan settings throughout a batch scan (I have the SA30 roll-film adapter which allows me to scan up to an entire roll at once).

The settings which sometimes seem to be lost after the first frame are Digital ICE (whether normal or fine) and sometimes (it seems) also 16-bit colour depth per channel, brightness adjustments etc.

Frankly, I find this software a bit of a pain, and have wondered about using some other system. One alternative that looks promising would be Vuescan. Does anyone have experience of using this software with the Nikon 5000?

Specific questions:
- Does it support batch processing?
- Does it support global settings for the entire batch?
- Does it support 4000dpi resolution?
- Does it support Digital ICE (normal / fine)?
- Does it support 16-bit per channel colour depth?
- Does it support batch / single frame brightness / curves / color adjustments?
- Are there any features of the scanner that would be lost by not using the Mikon software?
- would anyone recommend some software other than Vuescan?
- and finally, would it also support my Epson V750 flatbed scanner which I use for mainly MF film, photos and documents?

Thanks, John

I have a Coolscan 5000 (just upgraded from a V last week) and yes, you can batch scan using the same settings for all frames with Nikon Scan. But first you have to save a "set" of settings (ICE, bit depth, size, etc.), and then select that "set" of settings after you have selected the images you want to batch scan. Its very easy once you get the hang of it!

The default settings of Nikon Scan are pretty flat and soft. However, if you take the time to learn the software, and adjust USM etc. you can get excellent results. There's no reason why you need to spend more money on scan software.

Just my opinion of course 🙂

 

[JohnL]

Many thanks ... sorry I took so long to get back to this but my broadband at home is down.

I *thought* I had already tried this, but I'll try it again. It only seemed to work on the first of the selected images. I did finally get it to work by setting each image individually before selecting and scanning the batch ... rather a pain.

Anyone else have experience with this?

TIA

 

[furcafe]

I use Vuescan w/my 5000 & I believe the answer to your 1st 6 questions & final is "yes," w/the exception of Digital ICE--I know Vuescan uses the scanner's infrared channel & has different levels of cleaning, but don't know if that's the precise equivalent of ICE as implemented via the Nikon software. I never really used Nikon Scan enough, or read the manual, to know whether it has any special features that aren't covered by Vuescan.

The only other scanner software that I've heard good things about (other than its price) is Silverfast.

Using a Nikon Coolscan 5000 with Nikon Scan software, I do not seem to be able to have it retain all the scan settings throughout a batch scan (I have the SA30 roll-film adapter which allows me to scan up to an entire roll at once).

The settings which sometimes seem to be lost after the first frame are Digital ICE (whether normal or fine) and sometimes (it seems) also 16-bit colour depth per channel, brightness adjustments etc.

Frankly, I find this software a bit of a pain, and have wondered about using some other system. One alternative that looks promising would be Vuescan. Does anyone have experience of using this software with the Nikon 5000?

Specific questions:
- Does it support batch processing?
- Does it support global settings for the entire batch?
- Does it support 4000dpi resolution?
- Does it support Digital ICE (normal / fine)?
- Does it support 16-bit per channel colour depth?
- Does it support batch / single frame brightness / curves / color adjustments?
- Are there any features of the scanner that would be lost by not using the Mikon software?
- would anyone recommend some software other than Vuescan?
- and finally, would it also support my Epson V750 flatbed scanner which I use for mainly MF film, photos and documents?

Thanks, John

 

[JPSuisse]

Yes! You can use Vuescan with both the LS5000 and the V750. I do.

I'm not going to learn to use 30 different softwares... NikonScan only works with the LS5000 and Silverfast requires you to buy and install 2 different programs to scan with both scanners.

What's great about Vuescan is that you scan raw, update the files with Exiftool and then import into Lightroom. Then, you can merge your analog and digital flows right there!

Cheers and good luck!

JP

 

[pphuang]

Many thanks ... sorry I took so long to get back to this but my broadband at home is down.

I *thought* I had already tried this, but I'll try it again. It only seemed to work on the first of the selected images. I did finally get it to work by setting each image individually before selecting and scanning the batch ... rather a pain.

Anyone else have experience with this?

TIA

I would confirm jonmanjiro's experience - the nikon software works quite well, just follow the directions as outlined by jon.

The default settings of Nikon Scan are pretty flat and soft. However, if you take the time to learn the software, and adjust USM etc. you can get excellent results. There's no reason why you need to spend more money on scan software.

I personally like my negatives to be scanned "flat" with no sharpening, so the default works well for me. I like to try and extract the maximum amount of tonal rage from the negative, and then fiddle with contrast/sharpening in Photoshop...