Good resolution and great compromise between high resolution and manageable file size. The ED lens is indeed sharper than that in LS-30, which failed recently (perhaps quite timely). I used to use 4 - 9 passes per image (using VueScan) with the LS-30; now I only need a single pass for majority of the negatives! Noise was an issue with the LS-30 but the LS-40 has much better noise performance. Therefore, instead of spending many hours scanning a roll of 24, now it typically took just over an hour.

NikonScan 3.1 refused to install over 2.5. Since I have not been using 2.5 for almost two years, I did not even remember it was there; but I could not remove it either. When using Vuescan, positioning of an image can be random. I have to preview first to set the offset position, then scan a film strip. This behavior is different from LS-30.

A piece of well designed and built equipment. Excellent value! The scanned images are perfectly adequate for fairly large enlargement. The package includes Genuine Fractals, which allows even larger enlargements from cropped images. USB connectivity is very convinence and scan speed is acceptable. The usit is only slightly warm after hours of operation.

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LS-30

Dust removal and enhancing software. Small desktop. Accepts all sizes of slide mount.

Refuses to focus on lith slides. Also microscopy specimens, histology specimens. Powerpoint slides are difficult. In short if it''s not your average subject I was in trouble even using manual focus!

I''m a medical photographer and was looking for a good scanner on a tight budget.I wanted ''dust removal'' software as a lot of the slides I deal with are old. The enhancing feature is a bonus that works well.

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Polaroid sprintscan 35 plus, Jenoptic JS21

Great scan quality with great features. digital Ice and GEM really works! (Never tried ROC so far) Great software and the machine itself is very well built.

CD ROM manual not that informative, preview is only abt 80 percent sccurate (wish there''s adjustable quality for prescans) Thinking about trying vuescan but will lose all the wonderful digital GEM. Should have film eject button outside of the software. Software powerful but not that user friendly, and batch scanning capability should be improved also.

Great scanner for the price. 2900dpi good enough for great A4 print-outs. Great quality with great features loaded with good software. Currently I''m using it with PIII866 with 512MB RAM, and so far the 3.1 software has been quite promising and never crashed. Scan time is acceptable and the machines scans quietly. Color is decent even when scanning negatives, only minor adjusting is needed. Many times better than my previous Minolta Dual scan II, basically it''s a piece of trash. Color profiling is still a pain in the neck if you would like to get some decent printouts. My choices were the Cool scan 4 and Canon''s FS4000, I picked the Nikon and am very happy with it. I''ve been thinking about trying Vuescan software but will lose the great digital GEM capability. Overall great film scanner for advanced amateurs.

Customer Service

None required

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Minolta scan Dual II

The ICE/ROC/GEM features are fantastic... have worked some pretty nifty miracles on very old, faded and scratched slides my father shot back in the ''50s. Works very nicely on all my color negs and Ektachromes. Scans are nice and sharp, on the whole. The strip film and slide adapters are ''hot swappable'', so you can switch them easily without powering down. I''ve read a lot of complaints about the NikonScan software, but I''ve found it to be pretty feature-rich and stable. The ''batch-scan'' function allows you to automate scanning any or all negatives on a single strip (up to 6 images). At 2-3 minutes per image, that gives you a lot of free time to get other things done (coffee, anyone?)

Digital ICE doesn''t work with Kodachromes or B&W negs, since the technology relies on infrared sensitivity... and these emulsions block infrared. This translates into a lot of clean up work to remove dust, scratches and other imperfections. Scan Times are also quite long when using any of the ICE/GEM/ROC features - plan on 2-3 minutes per scan if you''re using all of these features at once. That''s acceptable for the actual image scans but the previews also take nearly as long! I find myself turning off the ICE/ROC/GEM features for preview and then turning them back on for the scan. It would be a big time saver if Nikon allowed the user to establish separate defaults for previews and scans. Also, I use NikonScan within PhotoShop 6 (TWAIN-style)... and have to close the program completely before I can edit and save the scans in PhotoShop; that''s a lot of extra keystrokes in one session! Finally, a nit to pick about the optics. Oh, don''t get me wrong.. They''re sharp alright... but the depth of field is very small. Most of my slides curl slightly around the edges (don''t yours?) and tend to scan noticably ''softer'' when compared to the image center. Stip film tend

A nice piece of hardware; well-built and performs as advertised. Great for color negatives and Ektachrome slides. Not so great for B&W or Kodachromes (see ''weaknesses section below). At roughly half the cost of its ''bigger brother'' (the Super Coolscan 4000ED), this is a nice value.

Customer Service

none needed.

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first film scanner.

ICE/GEM/ROC rules!!

Scanning time.....I have 766 with 384 MB, it takes a bit of time for the preview to appear (I turn ICE/ROC/GEM on). This will be cut down if you do not use those.

Extremely pleased with all the scans that machine has given me. ICE is really fantastic and cuts down cleaning time in Photoshop. I find that using GEM/ROC even when the film is not old, sharpens the image. The color also gets more saturated.

Customer Service

Pretty good, but it takes forever to get someone on the line

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HP S20

ICE--if you don''t think you really need this, you either never take your slides out of the box or are deceiving yourself. Good dynamic range. 12 megapixel resolution equals or exceeds the resolution of most slide film. Software version 3.1 is very Mac stable.

You need to invest in MORE memory for your computer. No batch-scanning capability. This scanner will not be "detected" by Nikon''s scanning software if you have added USB to your older machine via a 3rd party card. The driver patch is available at Nikon''s tech website. www.nikontechusa.com

This is a follow-up on my earlier review. Absolutely a great scanner, better than the LS-2000 in many ways. Nikon''s new driver patch now enables this scanner on computers with 3rd-party USB cards installed (although they will probably deny it). Outstanding quality and the ICE software is worth the price.

Customer Service

Phone support available 24/7 for free in the US. Most of the techs I''ve spoken with have been friendly, although one of them got on a MacIntosh vs. PC rant that was really unnecessary. I shouldn''t

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LS-2000 film scanner.

Speed, quality, easy of use, reliable.

Nikon Scan sw

Very good results.. high quality, reliable hw, less reliable sw using Nikon Scan v3.0. After upgradng to 3.1 it is better but not perfect. Very high sharpness and contrast handeling. Recommended.

Customer Service

very good

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Olympus ES10

Good specs and features for pricc.

Did not ship with Nikon SW---an expensive boat anchor for now.

Probably a good scanner, but I got a first ship without any software in the box. The dealer tried for a week to get the sofware from Nikon. After severa tries, Nikon shipped out a set of burned CDR software with a typed label 'Nikon Scanner SW' only. I going to pass on this until Nikon ships a 'gold' version instead of some thing that could have been pulled off a hard drive. Who know what you are really getting and based on some other comments, this might be a wise choice for now unless you like doing free beta debugging work for Nikon.

Customer Service

working with srore

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none

construction

included software!

I have been waiting for this scanner for 3 months-it's my first film scanner. Unfortunately, I can't get it to reliably scan a single slide or negative so far...NikonScan 3.0 software seems to be a complete mess, in that I have yet to get it to complete a scan without crashing. I have both a PC and a G3 Mac here, and have tried on both systems, with same result. Maybe I have a defective scanner, but it seems to work fine with VueScan, a 3rd party software package.

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None

Quality of results
Digital ICE
Depth of options available in driver

Slow preview
Would have been nice to get Photoshop 6LE instead of 5!
Overpriced

I have had this scanner for a week now. I had no problems installing it on a PIII-600 running Windows 98 (I also installed it in the shop on a PC with more scanner drivers installed than most users would ever have!). Plugged into USB hub on my keyboard with no problem.
This is the first film scanner that I have tried although I also have an Epson GT-7000 flatbed scanner with film adaptor - the Nikon blows the Epson into the weeds for scanning 35mm film!
The quality of the scans is amazing, and despite being sceptical, Digital ICE really does work! I haven't needed to try ROC or GEM, but for removing dust and scratches ICE is amazing. Only a minute (you don't even notice unless you zoom into the picture) loss of detail and well worth the extra scanning time. It would take much longer (with poorer results) to clean up once in Photoshop.
I love the amount of options available in the driver, with the Nikon I can get the scan that I want without needing to fix it in Photoshop later.
My only criticisms are the slow preview and the price which I think is relying on the Nikon name, but overall I am most impressed with this product.

Customer Service

Not needed

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Epson GT-7000 with film adaptor