afineman
Established
I was wondering if anyone had any thoughts as to what a Used Nikon SA-30 Roll Film Adapter for the Super Coolscan 4000/5000 should cost?
EmilGil
Well-known
I havent tried the SA-30 but roll scanning is great. If you have the SA-21, you can modify it to allow roll scanning for about a nickel. I've done it and it worked like a charm.
angeloks
Well-known
Emil, I'm very interested! How can you modify your SA-21 to allow roll scanning? Are there any tutorials available?
Quinn Porter
Established
I too have modified my SA-21 with great success. I paid someone $5 to do the soldering for me. Currently you can find an overview of the conversion here:
http://www.jumboprawn.net/jesse/cams/scanners/nikon-coolscan-4000-sa30/nikon-scanner-roll-feeder.html
You won't have the film catch that plugs into the back of the scanner, but I've dealt with that by placing the scanner up high and allowing the film to simply hang out the back. At the end of the roll, the scanner still holds the film, so it doesn't fall on the floor.
Beats $500 for a new SA-30!
http://www.jumboprawn.net/jesse/cams/scanners/nikon-coolscan-4000-sa30/nikon-scanner-roll-feeder.html
You won't have the film catch that plugs into the back of the scanner, but I've dealt with that by placing the scanner up high and allowing the film to simply hang out the back. At the end of the roll, the scanner still holds the film, so it doesn't fall on the floor.
Beats $500 for a new SA-30!
EmilGil
Well-known
If you pull out the SA-21 from your scanner, you'll see a female electric contact for about 20 pins. You need to short two of them (don't remember which ones but you should be able to find it with google). If you know how to use a soldering pen, you can do it on the circuit board, otherwise use a hair-thin wire and a piece of scotch tape to keep the wire in place. I used a single copper wire from a multicore speaker cable or something similar, it doesn't matter as long as it is very thin. Then just insert the film holder into the scanner again and open the little hatch on the back to allow the film to run through. Power up the scanner and run your scanning software as usual. If you're using the Nikon scanning software, it will automatically recognize your modified SA-21 as a SA-30 and allow you to select up to 40 frames to scan. (hint: preview scanning a whole roll takes a lot of time and RAM!)
afineman
Established
Thanks for that info.