Nikon Coolscan 8000: things that make you go hmmmmm?

I've had this scanner for about two years now, and I noticed this weird behavior that has popped up when I have been scanning some Tmax3200 night shots:

My go-to software for scanning has been Vuescan. I like the fact that it can handle both my film scanners and my flatbed scanner, and it is pretty fast and easy to use. But I switched back to Nikon Scan 4 for scanning most of these nightime shots because it allows me a lot more flexibility to manipulate the curve on the scanner. In short, it enables me to 'cheat' the shadow contrast upwards by manipulating the curve so that it is convex upward. So far, so good.

The strange thing is that every 10th frame or so, it absolutely falls on its arse, and I then must switch to VueScan and adjust the contrast by messing around with the 'Tmax/D-76 C.I.' setting in the VueScan color control dialog box. And it works fine. What I don't understand is why the same piece of hardware can produce such different and seemingly unpredictable results depending on the driver software.

I have noticed a similar behavior with this scanner when I scan Kodachrome, but it works in the opposite direction: Vuescan basically sucks out loud at scanning Kodachrome, yet the defaults built into Nikon Scan 4 work beautifully.

I am not really looking for an answer to this question so much as letting anyone who owns this scanner or the Nikon 9000 know that it is worth experimenting with different scanner driver software when you run into a problem scan. Of course, if anyone knows exactly what is going on, I'm all ears (as anyone who has met me in person will corroborate).

Clay, interesting post. I have the LS-8000 and generally love it, and Nikon Scan (4.02) has been my default scanning software. I've not seen any ticky behavior out of it unless I've inadvertently left both my flatbed and the Nikon on at the same time (both Firewire). I scan in RGB but indicate "monochrome" for B&W. You have me curious about your malfunction.

I've had VueScan for a long time, but frankly I don't share the adulation others express for this software. I think the interface is clunky and the documentation, dismal. I'm not really that dense, but I can't get it to batch scan a four-image strip of 645 negatives--a trivially simple operation in Nikon Scan--and can't find documentation anywhere to explain how to do this. It's tough and nonintuitive for me to adjust curves, compared to the no-brainer ease of this in NS. I must be missing something obvious.

I plan/hope to upgrade my creaking Mac G4 to an intelMac screamer this year, and I'm concerned about Nikon Scan's future; Nikon hasn't said whether they'll upgrade it or port it to universal binary. That incentivizes me to finally get up to speed with VueScan, if only I could find a decent reference.

What I really want out of VueScan is the ability to preview scan a strip of negatives, adjust their curves like I do in NS, and then batch output scan them. I don't really need preconfigured profiles like VS's for this application.

If you can recommend a source for documentation I'd love to hear it, and thanks in advance.

MikeSeb said:

...Nikon hasn't said whether they'll upgrade it or port it to universal binary...

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Even if they don't port soon, NS runs in emulation on an Intel Mac, with no effective performance loss.

Alternating Btwn NS4 and VS

I've owned my 8000 for about 3 years now and find myself using Nikon Scan for some types of film scanning and ViewScan for others.
For example, this weekend I wanted to scan some frames of some 35mm color negatives, but, because I hate the 35mm strip holder (it is IMPOSSIBLE to get the film flat), I put the 35mm strip in the Nikon glass holder.
After hours of trying to get Nikon Scan to correctly interpret colors, I gave up and used ViewScan. Worked like a champ (other than it took 3 hours to scan a single 35mm frame at 16X; I'll be investigating that tonight...). But the negative was held completely flat and the colors were spot on. I was very pleased to have an alternative.
So I guess being proficient in both softwares is key. Nikon software has it's strong points as does VueScan; just depends on the situation.
BTW, if anyone knows how to use the glass holder with 35mm film and get Nikon Scan to work correctly, I'd really appreciate your thoughts.
Thanks,
Bob

rgacpa said:

***
BTW, if anyone knows how to use the glass holder with 35mm film and get Nikon Scan to work correctly, I'd really appreciate your thoughts.
Thanks,
Bob

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Bob,

Which glass holder? I use the rotating one and don't have any problems with 35 mm.

Best,
Helen

I recently purchased a Nikon Coolscan 9000. I have achieved good results with black and white using VueScan by scanning the negative with the 'Image' setting and then adjusting levels and inverting in Photoshop.

Tom.

The only gotcha of which I am aware with the glass holder is that you MUST use one of the supplied masks, which has a clever little code to tell the scanner the default scan area for the film it is being fed. I usually use the mask for the panoramic 35mm formats (24x65mm) to scan my 35mm film and then just crop it after doing the preview.

Helen Bach said:

Bob,

Which glass holder? I use the rotating one and don't have any problems with 35 mm.

Best,
Helen

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Helen Bach said:

Bob,

Which glass holder? I use the rotating one and don't have any problems with 35 mm.

Best,
Helen

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I am using the medium format holder - 6x"X". Didn't know there was another one! I'm off to the store!!
Thanks, Helen and all,
Bob
P.S. - I'm going to post a new question about c-f systems scanning software, so please have a look and chime in. Thanks...

clay said:

The only gotcha of which I am aware with the glass holder is that you MUST use one of the supplied masks, which has a clever little code to tell the scanner the default scan area for the film it is being fed. I usually use the mask for the panoramic 35mm formats (24x65mm) to scan my 35mm film and then just crop it after doing the preview.

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My glass holder did not come with any masks. Perhaps only the rotating holder comes with these? Anyone know?
Thanks,
Bob

rgacpa said:

My glass holder did not come with any masks. Perhaps only the rotating holder comes with these? Anyone know?
Thanks,
Bob

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I recently bought a 900ed and the non-rotating holder. I got masks. That said I have for scans of single 6x6 transparencies tried the mask under,and over the slide and missing it off altogether. It doesn't make a difference I can see.