4000dpi. OK shadow detail sharp enough scans fairly color acurate... doesnt seem to like UC films though

HOLDERS!!!!!!! SOFTWARE!!!! I hate to Nikon Bash, but this scanner is a testiment to why I shoot with canon cameras. Canon just seems to be more professional with better built products and easier to use software. Sorry nikon. Images are not "amazing" for a 2 grand scanner. Acceptable though. Why didnt nikon widen the scanner by one inch and make the thing able to scan in 4x5's tack on like 2-300 bucks for the price. Come on Nikon. Stop lagging

Being a photographer who still likes to shoot film, this scanner is one of those things that you dont like, but cant live without. I am unaware of any other scanners that can do all 3 film formats and be a designated film scanner. I have a an Epson Pro 4870 flatbed, and truthfully, I prefere scans off of that. I use the Nikon just because I spent the 2 grand on a pro piece of equipment, so I might as well use the d*mn thing. It does a good enough job that I can deal with it. Ultimately, its slow, its bulky and I dont know how many times I have had to rescan negatives so that the scanner can recognize one negative from the next. The software is dificult to use. Certain things that you would expect to happen, dont. Its hard to explain, but if you have used the software, certain things just dont seem right. Epson's software is amazing, though. Easy to use and everything. I am a bit pissed at the film carriers. You would think that with amount of comlaining that people do about them, that nikon would do something. But no... its still an extra $250 for glass carriers. Something tells me that Nikon could probably afford to add in those carriers, because something else tells me that it does not cost Nikon $250 for 2 pieces of glass, 2 springs, and a long piece of black plastic. Ultimately, with the glass 120 carrier, the scans are nice. Nothing amazing, but nice. I can get 200mb file sizes from my 6x7 film and blow ups do look really good. They are sharp, and shadow detail is pretty good.

Customer Service

You will always hear about bad Nikon customer service. Well let me tell you, it is REALLY BAD. I called about buying a glass holder, and the representative had no clue what I was talking about or the difference between the 2 or 3 different holders that the had. The wait was long, and the guy was kind of rude. Again, you would never see that with Canon.

Similar Products Used:

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The scanning quality is good, probably best in this price range from what I have seen. One should however not expect to be able to extract 100% of definition and dynamic range. The ICE4 function works very well, but can significantly slow down the scanning even on a fast box. The speed of operation is nonetheless overall good. The Nikon software is very powerful, but beginners might find it a bit difficult to approach. The possibility to control the analog gain is a major plus. Colorwise, I found the ICC profiles provided by nikon to be very good. The sRGB profile provides saturated colors and don't suffer from many posterization problems. It might be best to experience with the other color spaces also depending in the type of images scanned.

I have experienced some problems with Newton rings when scanning 6*45 Velvia 100F with the Glass holder. It seems that this is related to how clean the glass holder/neg is, but it is difficult to predict when problems will show up. Repositionning the neg inside the glass holder often helps getting rid of the problem. The size of scanner is pretty significant, although very reasonnable compared to an Imacon for instance. Amateurs used to small format scanners might find this to be a problem.

Having owned a Coolscan 4000 for about 1.5 years before getting the 9000ED, I was already familiar with the Nikon coolscan familly. Installation was very easy and I was able to carry out my first scan less than 10 minutes after having taken the scanner out of the box. The overall impression is very positive. I would be totally happy if I were able to scan my 4*5 slides with this scanner also. My feeling is that Nikon released with the 9000ED the best scanner in its class for all the formats it can scan. I can only give it 4 stars quality wise and overall because only a drum scanner or an Imacon could IMHO really get more than this, but these 4 stars are more than I would give to any other scanner under 3000 US$.

Customer Service

Never had to use it so far.

Similar Products Used:

Nikon Coolscan 4000ED Epson F-3200