Sharp scan easy to use interface, lots of control over the type of scan you want

the software is horrible, it crashes all the time, I just bought it last night, and the setup was no problem, but using it is another story, the adapter looks cheap, it doesn't fit into the slot securely, I had to tape it against it self

Overall the scanner it's very good for professional, I am a graphic designer/art director and this scanner allowed me to save cost for my clients, the guy at the store warn me to get the 3.1 version of the software he said it will resolve alot of problems, I haven't tried 3.1 yet hopefully it will resolve this, I will also be getting more RAM currently I am working on pentium 667 with 384 Megs of SDRAM

Similar Products Used:

None

sharp scans, great dynamic range, high quality case, very good film adaptors, quiet operation, short "boot"-time, easy setup, professional software, ice3 saves enormous amounts of postprocessing time

Nikon Scan 3.1 is still unstable and crashes quite often. This is the only weakness of this scanner.

Concerning the crashes: After setting up color correction and hitting the "scan"-button or after a successful scan hitting the "save"-button the program crashes. Very annoying. Try "Vuescan" - a very stable shareware program. I hope, Nikon will recognize and fix this only handycap of this great scanner.

Customer Service

Quote: "Version 3.1 of Nikon Scan is very stable. If it crashes on your computer, we can't help you. You're the only one with these problems - so you will understand that we can't take care for this... Check all the hardware components of your system."

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Kodak RFS 3600

Sharpness, Dynamic Range, Speed, Versatility, Controls, GEM & ICE.

Narrow Depth of Field,
Auto Focus on bulk scans not always accurate. Scanner a little noisy at some stages.

This is a second update to my 2 reviews below.

Excellent scanner, but there is a learning curve and one should not plan to use solely in automatic modes. I use saved settings of various types and call on those, which have saved curves & white & black points. I rarely use Auto Exposure
as for extreme tones it can be inaccurate as can AE Camera Meters. I also often recheck AF manually for my highest res scans. With Velvia & Provia, I most often scan with these settings, 16x MultiSample, 14 Bit scan, ICE at Normal, GEM at 1, Unsharp Mask OFF, Black & White Point settings at 8 & 248, and ColourMatch RGB colour space to meet my clients needs.

Nikon Scan v3.1 alone or through Photoshop 6.01 is very stable on my PC, Windows 2000 Pro, Dual 800 MHz Intel CPU's, Tyan Tiger 133 Motherboard, 1.04 GB of RAM. Scanning through PS is slightly faster, with my highest res scans taking about 8.5 minutes. Through Nikon Scan is only slightly slower while saving the file to the Hard Drive.
However, I did boost my system's Virtual Memory (Control Panel>System etc.) to its maximum for Applications and this stabalized v3.0 & v3.1 seems the same. Nikon Tech told me to increase memory to Nikon Scan but this cannot be done to individual programs on PC's, hence my try at using Virtual Memory. I often use the SF 200 Bulk Scanner and High Res scans of 112 MB's thus far no crashing problems. I have recently done a few times, up to 10, 112 MB scans overnight with now problems. However a few scans were not sharp and had to be rescanned. Not sure if that is the scanner, the mount or other problem? I have scanned 50 slides at a time at much lower res for web use with no crashing problems.

I am remounting slides in QuickPoint Mounts with good sucess for High Res/Sharpness needs. For web use I do not remount my images. I also mount my neg film in the same mount as this produces better results than any strip feeder. You can view my website www.pytlowany.com/nikontest.html for more information and scan comparisons and links.

Customer Service

Marginally Helpful

Similar Products Used:

LS 2000
Imacon
Howtek 7500

Great color/sharpness.
Loads of attachments.

Two weaknesses.

1. The software. Regardless of which version (3.0 or 3.1) I use, the program incessantly returns c0000005 errors in Windows 2000 Pro. I tried using this scanner on a Dual-Pentium III system with 1GB of memory using a Taiwanese motherboard with no luck. At the suggestion of Nikon Level II support, I purchased a separate system with an Intel chipset, running 512MB, IDE hard drive, and Pentium III 866MHz ... and still received the same errors.

I welcome email from ANYONE who is experiencing similar errors.


2. When the software does work, and you are scanning a film strip or roll, the automatic thumbnail feature does not allow the thumbnails to be saved. Oh, how I would like this feature!

I have worked with two separate LS4000 units on three different PCs, all resulting in c0000005 error messages in Windows 2000 Pro. I was told by Nikon support personnel on many occasions that, "...You are the first person I have heard from that is having these problems with this scanner." Of course, after calling back multiple times, I was able coax the truth out from one Level II tech that said they are receiving a lot of reports from people who are having the same problem, but he said they are using, "non-Intel chipset motherboards, and we haven't tested our software with those chipsets." This same Level II tech insisted that NikonScan v3.1 was supposed to resolve all the problems.

Keep your receipt handy. If the software ever gets fixed, THIS MIGHT BE THE BEST SCANNER ON THE MARKET. However, if you need to get work done in the meantime, you may want to purchase a Polaroid (with Silverfast AI) in addition to the Nikon.

Customer Service

24-by-7 support is great but it only gets you in touch with a group of Level I's that will tell you that your problem requires Level II support which is available M-F from 10A-4P EST.

The latest program update from v3.0 to v3.1 has done little if anything to resolve initial memory addressing-related problems in Windows 2000 Pro. I have yet to hear of anyone having problems with this software on a Macintosh.

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Polaroid SprintScan 35 ES