Best replacement for Nikon Scan?

[grat]

Best OS Windows ever made too.

Not really. XP was pretty awful until SP2, and it's determination to allow everything to run as Administrator was a security nightmare. Windows 7 was probably the best OS Microsoft released, although Windows 10 is pretty solid.

If you're going to run Windows XP on a modern desktop, please either virtualize it, or firewall the heck out of it, preferably with a physical firewall device.

 

[Fredrixxon]

I run Nikon Scan with Nikon Coolscan V ED on win10. It takes some magic - found on internet. The only annoying thing is that I have to register driver in the system after every major system update.

 

[Dismayed]

I run Silverfast. It's expensive and complicated, but it does work well. That said - I do miss Nikon Scan!

 

[BMbikerider]

As a windows user it was easy, I kept my old PC, really old with XP on it so I can use my Minolta scanner with the board. It must be slow by current standards, resolution is not as high as using a DSLR with macro lens, but it keeps on trucking.

Yes, me too. A cheap used laptop with XP installed and all the other non essential bits and pieces uninstalled will work fine It should have 8 gig of RAM or it can get a bit tedious. But no, it works just as well as it did with my old desktop and I transfer the images onto a memory stick to be processed with Photoshop.

The big advantage is the Nikon scanners ae they will scan in RAW, whilst primitive, compared to modern RAW images they can hold a lot more digital information than a Jpeg and easily recovered with PS (And cheaper than a new scanner too)

 

[calico]

I run Silverfast. It's expensive and complicated, but it does work well. That said - I do miss Nikon Scan!

I remember trying Silverfast a long time ago, and it did indeed seem complicated (unnecessarily so?).

Since I last posted here, I've been dealing with a lot of computer problems.

I bought a used 2010 Mac Pro on ebay to replace mine which wasn't working, but I was unable to get OS 10.6.8 on it. It was exact same model as mine. I had both the installation OS 10.6 disk from my Mac Pro and also a retail OS 10.6 disk which I had found in my box of old software. Neither worked. From what was going on, I think there was something wrong with the computer's hard drive. Returned it.

As I had found the retail OS 10.6 disk and wasn't limited to the one matched to Mac Pro, I was able to try a 2010 Mac Mini.

I bought one on ebay which was supposed to be from 2010. But when it refused to take OS 10.6.8 installation, I looked up its serial number, and it turned out it was a 2011 (can't go down to OS 10.6 on a 2011).

I have just ordered another Mac Mini -- really a 2010, I checked serial number this time. Hope this will work.

Meanwhile, I bought a new Mac Studio for everything other than Nikon Scan. Dragged into 2023, kicking and screaming! I saw that the Adobe subscription for just Photoshop and Lightroom is $10 a month. I can live with that. I don't need InDesign, etc. anymore which would be something like $55 a month (I used to do design work).

I still don't like Adobe as a company, though. Greedy and fascistic. I tried installing my old Creative Suite 6 on the first Mac Mini on which I could put OS 10.7 (which works with CS6), and Adobe will not accept the serial number, despite all my efforts. It's a perfectly legal copy.

At one point, I got message saying my software has "expired". So now, in addition to only offering subscription plans, the software you bought previously expires? I think I paid about $1000 for that years ago.

Also, I would get message saying I'm not connected to internet when I was. Their solution of validating serial number manually on another computer didn't work either. Troubleshooting page had many hoops to jump through. I tried some of them. They say you can't call them.

I was only trying to get CS6 working so I would have InDesign available. Maybe I'll return to this later, but right now I just want to get Nikon Scan to work. Hope I can get 10.6.8 on the new Mac Mini and be back in business with Nikon Scan. Then do everything else on the Mac Studio.

Very unsettling to have my whole photo work flow totally messed up.

By the way, I tried Affinity Photo 2 on the Mac Studio to see if I could pry myself away from Adobe, but there were things I didn't like about it. I have been using their version 1 on my laptop which has come in handy there at times. But it's not Photoshop.

 

[Alan Edward Klein]

Yes, me too. A cheap used laptop with XP installed and all the other non essential bits and pieces uninstalled will work fine It should have 8 gig of RAM or it can get a bit tedious. But no, it works just as well as it did with my old desktop and I transfer the images onto a memory stick to be processed with Photoshop.

The big advantage is the Nikon scanners ae they will scan in RAW, whilst primitive, compared to modern RAW images they can hold a lot more digital information than a Jpeg and easily recovered with PS (And cheaper than a new scanner too)

I understand Nikon has better resolution and dMax than flatbed scanners like my Epson V600 and V850. But Epson scans in 48-bit (16-bit per color channel) and you can save in tiff as well as jpeg. So what do you mean RAW is better with a Nikon?

 

[Alan Edward Klein]

I remember trying Silverfast a long time ago, and it did indeed seem complicated (unnecessarily so?).

Since I last posted here, I've been dealing with a lot of computer problems.

I bought a used 2010 Mac Pro on ebay to replace mine which wasn't working, but I was unable to get OS 10.6.8 on it. It was exact same model as mine. I had both the installation OS 10.6 disk from my Mac Pro and also a retail OS 10.6 disk which I had found in my box of old software. Neither worked. From what was going on, I think there was something wrong with the computer's hard drive. Returned it.

As I had found the retail OS 10.6 disk and wasn't limited to the one matched to Mac Pro, I was able to try a 2010 Mac Mini.

I bought one on ebay which was supposed to be from 2010. But when it refused to take OS 10.6.8 installation, I looked up its serial number, and it turned out it was a 2011 (can't go down to OS 10.6 on a 2011).

I have just ordered another Mac Mini -- really a 2010, I checked serial number this time. Hope this will work.

Meanwhile, I bought a new Mac Studio for everything other than Nikon Scan. Dragged into 2023, kicking and screaming! I saw that the Adobe subscription for just Photoshop and Lightroom is $10 a month. I can live with that. I don't need InDesign, etc. anymore which would be something like $55 a month (I used to do design work).

I still don't like Adobe as a company, though. Greedy and fascistic. I tried installing my old Creative Suite 6 on the first Mac Mini on which I could put OS 10.7 (which works with CS6), and Adobe will not accept the serial number, despite all my efforts. It's a perfectly legal copy.

At one point, I got message saying my software has "expired". So now, in addition to only offering subscription plans, the software you bought previously expires? I think I paid about $1000 for that years ago.

Also, I would get message saying I'm not connected to internet when I was. Their solution of validating serial number manually on another computer didn't work either. Troubleshooting page had many hoops to jump through. I tried some of them. They say you can't call them.

I was only trying to get CS6 working so I would have InDesign available. Maybe I'll return to this later, but right now I just want to get Nikon Scan to work. Hope I can get 10.6.8 on the new Mac Mini and be back in business with Nikon Scan. Then do everything else on the Mac Studio.

Very unsettling to have my whole photo work flow totally messed up.

By the way, I tried Affinity Photo 2 on the Mac Studio to see if I could pry myself away from Adobe, but there were things I didn't like about it. I have been using their version 1 on my laptop which has come in handy there at times. But it's not Photoshop.

When I upgraded my Windows computer, I has trouble getting my Lightroom Classic installed. I couldn't get the download working from their site and it wouldn't let me see the purchase code. So I called Adobe and they helped me through the maze to get it loaded and working.

 

[Adrian Bacon]

It's my desktop (Mac Pro 2010) which seems to have died. From the way it's acting, I suspect it can't be repaired. But the main reason I haven't taken to tech is that I had a lot of private info on the system drive which I don't want to hand over to stranger at repair place.

At the risk of de-railing this thread, this is exactly why I don't keep private info on the system disk. Anything that I'm not comfortable handing over to somebody else, gets stored on either an external drive (or NAS), or on a separate internal disk that I can just take out when I need to take anything in for service. The system disk doesn't have anything except what it needs to run the computer, that way if I need to take my Mac into apple or to a service tech, I can just drop it off and don't have to worry about anything. The cost of drives these days, if you have the bays to do it, it's super easy piece of mind.

 

[Lew_B]

I still don't like Adobe as a company, though. Greedy and fascistic. I tried installing my old Creative Suite 6 on the first Mac Mini on which I could put OS 10.7 (which works with CS6), and Adobe will not accept the serial number, despite all my efforts. It's a perfectly legal copy.

At one point, I got message saying my software has "expired". So now, in addition to only offering subscription plans, the software you bought previously expires? I think I paid about $1000 for that years ago.

Yea, Adobe's not greedy at all ;-) ..... I have CS6 running on an Intel Mac under OSX 10.10 (last version it worked under) in a Fusion VM. The VM was created from a working install of CS6 on 10.10, prior to upgrading the base OS of that Mac to something more current. Unfortunately, that can only work for Intel Macs, Fusion VMs can't run on Mac silicon. The only other thing I can think of to check is whether you still have licensed copies on other machines (older), which can be disabled, as you might have come up against a license limit (I think CS6 was 3 "seats"). Unfortunately, IIRC, you can only disable a license on a running machine (not from the web, I don't think)...but check! So, if you have a valid license on a dead machine, there may be no way of disabling it to get the "seat" back...

 

[BMbikerider]

I understand Nikon has better resolution and dMax than flatbed scanners like my Epson V600 and V850. But Epson scans in 48-bit (16-bit per color channel) and you can save in tiff as well as jpeg. So what do you mean RAW is better with a Nikon?

Alan.
What I have found using the Adobe RAW plugin that you get with PS, when you scan in RAW with the NIkon, the amount of available information from a converted negative is actually quite astounding. I would think around 3-4 stops, even under exposed ones! It is however not quite as good with over exposed negatives, but these arestill easily corrected in PS

The colour BIT depth has never bothered me because I personally cannot tell the difference, perhaps some can but can my printer? (Canon Profraf 300) Whatever, I have never had a problem or found it wanting. Unlike my previous printer, the ill fated pile of junk called Epson P600. That was a world wide disaster before being withdrawn and parts re-designed.

Then the quality of the Nikon lens in the scanner is almost certainly the best in the business as far as scanners go.

I also use a Epson V600 for medium format film scans and the Nikon gives scans from 35mm that are easily as good as a med format from the Epson. The Epson scans always have colour fringing, some bad, some extra bad. But with the Nikon it is very very rare to get anything other than very good. Oh yes the Digital ICE also works very well, more so than the Epson version

 

[Tom Kershaw]

By the way, I tried Affinity Photo 2 on the Mac Studio to see if I could pry myself away from Adobe, but there were things I didn't like about it. I have been using their version 1 on my laptop which has come in handy there at times. But it's not Photoshop.

Depending on what type of image editing ability you require, PhotoLine works well, on Windows and Macintosh, and is available at a very reasonable price without subscription. www.pl32.com

Some unofficial documentation in English. http://www.russellcottrell.com/photo/PhotoLine/index.asp

video: https://www.youtube.com/@russellcottrell7884/videos

 

[calico]

At the risk of de-railing this thread, this is exactly why I don't keep private info on the system disk. Anything that I'm not comfortable handing over to somebody else, gets stored on either an external drive (or NAS), or on a separate internal disk that I can just take out when I need to take anything in for service. The system disk doesn't have anything except what it needs to run the computer, that way if I need to take my Mac into apple or to a service tech, I can just drop it off and don't have to worry about anything. The cost of drives these days, if you have the bays to do it, it's super easy piece of mind.

Yes, that is my usual practice, too -- to keep personal things on external drives (and all drives, internal and external, are backed up). I happened to be rushing that week and accidentally left something on desktop of the internal drive.

 

[calico]

Yea, Adobe's not greedy at all ;-) ..... I have CS6 running on an Intel Mac under OSX 10.10 (last version it worked under) in a Fusion VM. The VM was created from a working install of CS6 on 10.10, prior to upgrading the base OS of that Mac to something more current. Unfortunately, that can only work for Intel Macs, Fusion VMs can't run on Mac silicon. The only other thing I can think of to check is whether you still have licensed copies on other machines (older), which can be disabled, as you might have come up against a license limit (I think CS6 was 3 "seats"). Unfortunately, IIRC, you can only disable a license on a running machine (not from the web, I don't think)...but check! So, if you have a valid license on a dead machine, there may be no way of disabling it to get the "seat" back...

Yes, I was wondering about that.....if they weren't accepting the serial number because the software was on too many machines already. It was only on two, now both dead.

I remember, years ago, when I was trying to install on my laptop, I had to call Adobe. Just typing in the serial number wasn't working. I was able to have on both desktop and laptop simultaneously, but I had to call to make that happen. I think I also called when I got a new desktop. That was in the days of installation disks -- and when you could talk to someone.

I never disabled on dead machines before, but maybe when I called Adobe, they disabled.

I may be in trouble, as you say, because I can't disable on dead machines -- and I can't talk to anyone.

In current situation, it seems if the number of computers was the problem, the message would say that, not that license expired. But who knows. The "license expired" doesn't make sense.

I haven't given up. When I get the second Mac Mini going.....and I hope I can get OS 10.6.8 on it.....I will install CS6 again from disk and try again to validate serial number. Assume since I was unable to validate the serial number on the previous Mac Mini, that's not counting as a "seat."

I read at Adobe site today that you can download CS6 from their site if you have a registered serial number. Looks like you give the serial number first, then download. Maybe that would work better than installing from my disk and then trying to validate the serial number. I'll try that, too.

If I can't get it going either of those ways, I'll see if there's any way to talk to someone at Adobe. It's just not right for them to not let me use my software.

I subscribed to the current Photoshop CC and Lightroom which are now on my new Mac Studio. I have tried PS, and I have to admit, it is nice to work on a really fast computer.

But I still want to get CS6 going on the Mini for InDesign, so I can access all my old InDesign files without having to subscribe to InDesign CC. I don't need InDesign for jobs anymore, I just want to be able to access all my old files. I could subscribe to InDesign CC and convert all the files to PDFs within the two-week trial period (then cancel), but that's not ideal. (BTW, Affinity Design, only $40, will open InDesign IDML files -- but not indd files, which is what mine are.)

Also hope I can get Nikon Scan going ..... after I get OS 10.6.8 going...... on the Mini. That's the most important thing right now. If I have Nikon Scan and Photoshop CC, I can work with my photos.

What a maze.

Thanks for your input. The Fusion VM software sounds interesting. I'll have to read about that. I see how you say won't work for Silicon Macs, though.....

 

[calico]

When I upgraded my Windows computer, I has trouble getting my Lightroom Classic installed. I couldn't get the download working from their site and it wouldn't let me see the purchase code. So I called Adobe and they helped me through the maze to get it loaded and working.

Was this recently? I used to call Adobe, too, but don't know if they take calls anymore. I will look into it.

 

[Patrick Robert James]

I am still using an old MacMini for my Nikon scanner but I am going to get the firewire/thunderbolt adapter dongles so I can just use my current Silicon Mac. I run Vuescan. It is better in some ways than Nikon Scan and vice versa. Black and white is better in Vuescan and batch scanning entire rolls is much faster with Vuescan. Color is better/easier with Nikon Scan. I keep an old Powerbook around for Nikon Scan but I only use it from time to time just for fun.

 

[calico]

I am still using an old MacMini for my Nikon scanner but I am going to get the firewire/thunderbolt adapter dongles so I can just use my current Silicon Mac. I run Vuescan. It is better in some ways than Nikon Scan and vice versa. Black and white is better in Vuescan and batch scanning entire rolls is much faster with Vuescan. Color is better/easier with Nikon Scan. I keep an old Powerbook around for Nikon Scan but I only use it from time to time just for fun.

How is Vuescan better for b&w than Nikon Scan? I tried making just one b&w scan on Vuescan, so I don't have much experience with it. (I always scan b&w neg as positive then invert in Photoshop.)

Also, why do you like Nikon Scan better for color?

Just curious about the differences, in case I can't get Nikon Scan going.

I had trouble getting my Hassy frames (after the first one on strip) to appear properly in VueScan when I made that one scan I made on VueScan, but I read about adjustments people make in settings to deal with that, which I haven't tried yet.

Re firewire into Mac with Thunderbolt 4 port, I read you need two Thunderbolt adapters: Thunderbolt 3 to Thunderbolt 2 adapter and Thunderbolt 2 to Firewire 800 adapter. I was glad to see the two firewire drives I use currently have USB 3 ports in addition to the firewire, so I can connect to Mac Studio directly and avoid the expensive Thunderbolt adapters.

I'll be glad when I get everything working again.....

 

[Alan Edward Klein]

Was this recently? I used to call Adobe, too, but don't know if they take calls anymore. I will look into it.

You're right about calls. I forgot the circumstances. This happened in July 2022 when I got a new Dell Windows machine. I just checked.

The problem was my serial number code for Lightroom classic wasn't accessible in my Adobe account for some reason, probably because it was so old. So Adobe wouldn't let me download the old LR program. What happened was I posted my problem starting a new thread in the Adobe forums for Lightroom Classic. One of Adobe people posted a response telling me to forward a private email to her directly explaining the problem. I did that and she corrected their system and notified me by email that it was corrected. So I was then able to download the LR app.

Good luck with your problem.

 

[calico]

You're right about calls. I forgot the circumstances. This happened in July 2022 when I got a new Dell Windows machine. I just checked.

The problem was my serial number code for Lightroom classic wasn't accessible in my Adobe account for some reason, probably because it was so old. So Adobe wouldn't let me download the old LR program. What happened was I posted my problem starting a new thread in the Adobe forums for Lightroom Classic. One of Adobe people posted a response telling me to forward a private email to her directly explaining the problem. I did that and she corrected their system and notified me by email that it was corrected. So I was then able to download the LR app.

Good luck with your problem.

Okay, that is helpful. If I can't find a way to get through by phone, I'll post on the forum and hope an Adobe employee will respond.

Crazy to have to jump through hoops like this. I love their software but hate the company.

 

[Patrick Robert James]

How is Vuescan better for b&w than Nikon Scan? I tried making just one b&w scan on Vuescan, so I don't have much experience with it. (I always scan b&w neg as positive then invert in Photoshop.)

Also, why do you like Nikon Scan better for color?

Vuescan has more control for black and white and it delivers a scan with more tonality. I always thought the NS delivered a gritty scan. I don't scan to print for black and white though, I scan to proof and catalog. Honestly if I scanned for printing I might use NS because I dig the gritty scans.

For color NS is pretty accurate right out of the box. Vuescan takes some work to get good color.

Overall Vuescan has a lot more control but that also makes it more complex. You have to put some effort into learning the program.

 

[calico]

Vuescan has more control for black and white and it delivers a scan with more tonality. I always thought the NS delivered a gritty scan. I don't scan to print for black and white though, I scan to proof and catalog. Honestly if I scanned for printing I might use NS because I dig the gritty scans.

For color NS is pretty accurate right out of the box. Vuescan takes some work to get good color.

Overall Vuescan has a lot more control but that also makes it more complex. You have to put some effort into learning the program.

Thanks, maybe I'll experiment with VueScan.

I find negs scanned as negs with Nikon Scan gritty, which is one reason I scan as positive then invert later. I also found highlights get blown out if scanned as neg.

 

[Patrick Robert James]

You can download and try Vuescan for free I believe. Under the color tab you can change film type to Kodak then under TMax 100 and TMax 400 you can change the gamma (CI they call it). Really useful.

 

[calico]

You can download and try Vuescan for free I believe. Under the color tab you can change film type to Kodak then under TMax 100 and TMax 400 you can change the gamma (CI they call it). Really useful.

I already downloaded Vuescan. That's how I was able to make the one b&w scan from Hassy neg I mentioned above.

Will check out the settings you mention. Thanks.

 

[HDRWIT]

So my old Mac Pro on which I had OS 10.6.8 so I could use Nikon Scan (for my LS9000) and Photoshop CS 6 died. Forced to get new computer.

I see Nikon Scan won't work on any recent operating systems.

However, VueScan will work with LS9000 on current operating systems. Is that what most people are using? I still have to look into Silverfast.

I remember trying VueScan and Silverfast a long time ago and decided I liked Nikon Scan better, so stuck with it.

What do people here use with their LS9000?

Thanks.

(BTW, I do have a laptop, too, which has recent OS on it.....so I haven't been stuck in 10.6.8 for everything.)

I got the Coolscan 9000 to work on an HP 180T after upgrading from Win 7 to 10. Had to monkey around a bit, but instructions are on-line in youtube.

 

[Flighter]

Another option may be to use a virtual machine.

I use Windows XP setup in a virtual machine (using Oracle VirtualBox) running on my desk top with a CoolScan IV connected via USB. My main OS is Linux Mint but VirtualBox is available for Windows and macOS as well as Linux. Tutorials on the net and Youtube were very helpful in getting VortualBox setup.

Occasionally Nikon Scan flashes up a message on startup saying the scanner has reported a fault and to restart it but otherwise seems to work fine; I don't know if this glitch is down to scanner being iffy or whether something in the USB connection going through the VirtualBox connection.

I have a shared folder which can be accessed both by my main OS (Linux Mint) and the Windows XP in the virtual machine so that once I have finished scanning and shut down the scanner and the virtual Windows XP machine I can easily access the scanned images for further processing using whatever image processing software is available on the main OS (GIMP in my case).

 

[brbo]

Another option may be to use a virtual machine.

It's not an option.

You can't connect a FW scanner (OP's scanner doesn't have USB) to a virtual machine.