Nikon Coolscan V advice sought

[f16sunshine]

I know this seems like a well beaten horse but, I hope to get some help here.
Could anyone give me some refreshed feedback on this scanner.
I use an epson V700 for all my scanning now and would like to get a dedicated 35mm scanner.
A friend on another forum has a Coolscan V freshly back from service at a nice price.
My concern is primarily what driver to use? I run the latest OSX Lion.
Could anyone running Lion and Coolscan V please report?
Also, for scanning that will include 90% B+W Negatives... is the CS V a worthwhile improvement over the V700?
I don't do a lot of 35mm. I would like to see some improvement over the quality I'm getting when I do shoot with 135. Is there another scanner I should be looking to?


Thanks in advance for replies.

 

[Highway 61]

Use VueScan, scan in TIFF 14bits color as a slide, don't do any post-pro in the driver, save your files, then open'em in PhotoShop, then tweak the image as it should be (inversion, desaturation, levels, curves, layers, dodge/burn, removing of the dust spots and the like).

The Coolscan V is a remarkable scanner and with scanning 35mm yes you will see a difference when compared with a V700.

 

[Particular]

I don't run Lion (yet), but the answer is surely Vuescan. It is the only program that is consistently updated. For 35mm the nikon is a clear improvement over the Epson.

 

[Tim Gray]

I use Vuescan with my V on Lion, no problems. I scan to a 16bit B&W tiff in Vuescan and finish it off in Photoshop. The settings I use in Vuescan (and PS) are more or less what I have written here:
http://125px.com/articles/photography/digital/vuescan/

 

[JuJu]

Coolscan V produces sharper images than V750M, but the Nikonscan software won't work on lion. So you have to choose from either VueScan or Silverfast.
My only complain is its SA21 auto negative feeder. When it gets old, it just won't recognize the films you are trying to feed. I'd suggest that you turn on the scanner, wait for 3-5 minutes, then feed the negative. If the scanner recognizes it, it's safe to buy.
Hope it helps.

 

[ark8012]

VueScan will be the easiest answer for your question. But if you want to use Nikon software on Mac without spending money on additional software, it is also possible. You have to make your own file for the scanner. You can find how to make a file if you google it. It is not difficult at all. I am using IV ed on Window7 64bit with the method.

 

[f16sunshine]

Thanks Guys!

I think I will go for it. The Machine was back at Nikon last November and refurbished. It seems to be a nice 35mm solution. I went to the Viewscan site. The
"expert" edition is $79. I'm assuming I can use it for both my epson which I will continue to use for medium and large format and, the CS V for 35mm.

 

[Particular]

Thanks Guys!

I think I will go for it. The Machine was back at Nikon last November and refurbished. It seems to be a nice 35mm solution. I went to the Viewscan site. The
"expert" edition is $79. I'm assuming I can use it for both my epson which I will continue to use for medium and large format and, the CS V for 35mm.

The great thing about vuescan is that it works for most scanners. So once you have gotten accustomed to it's somewhat irrational interface, you can apply the same workflow to all your scanning. The pro version has the raw output feature. As recommended above, it is best to bypass vuescans adjustments, and output a tiff or dng raw file which you can then work with in photoshop or lightroom (or whatever program you like to use) as if it were a file from a digital camera. Use vuescan for controlling the scanner, and adobe for what it does best.

 

[cabbiinc]

You probably wont need the pro version of Vuescan, but I haven't regretted buying it. The standard version will likely give you decent if not good results. I bought the pro version to profile a scanner I had at the time. I've profiled all of my scanners since. That being said my Nikon scanner (LS-2000) is the one that could get away without profiling. Things just look great out of the scanner. Of course, if you want to ouput a RAW file for using in Photoshop (the ColorPerfect workflow uses the RAW file) then you'd need to pro version.