Silverfast Nikon Coolscan 9000
Crisoforo Schuhmacher
I have finally managed to get the new Mac Mini M1 OSX 11.4 in good working order, things change during a period of 14 years I can see now. The old "steam computer" served me well especially the applications that just running excerpt for the last years.
I can't speak for Mac, but with Windows systems there is a problem that Nikon's own Nikon Scan software is not supported on recent versions of Windows ("recent" being about 10 years!). Nikon no longer support the scanners or the software so there will be no solution from them. There is a work-round which is specific to Windows so won't be any use to Mac users, but there may be something similar available if you dig deep enough on the web.
I would never argue Silverfast is better than Vuescan, Silverfast is a a carbuncle on scanning software. But equally scanning has moved on and the better option is to bite the bullet and admit regular film scanners are unable to match a good digital camera 'scan'. Use the 100 or 350 Euro you save and put it towards a digital body and a macro lens, copy stand, and light source. Hey, you get another camera and new lens at the same time!
I am intrigued by your second observation to use a digi cam and macro lens + copystand and light source. Seems that would exceed the cost of the software and maybe susceptible to mis-alignment. I think I can cobble together all the above from my 'junkpile'. Must give it a go some time but rather prefer my scanning with either Nikon 5000 for 35mm or Nikon 8000 foe 6x6cm. However, prepared to learn something new always.
Hi @erl. The scanner definitely wouldn't be faster than a camera. As I recall a full resolution 6x6 scan my Plustek 120 would take four or five minutes (not including the preview time). A 6x6 scan with my Nikon Z7 takes 1/15th second at f/16. The 47mp sensor is obviously rectangular and the image square, but the full RAW file it produces is 53mb, which when inverted into a positive, cropped to square, and saved as a TIFF gives a 6x6 image of 173mb of genuine un-interpolated information. So using a suitable negative holder a strip of three 6x6 can be scanned with the camera in around fifteen seconds if you account for blowing any dust off and positioning the image square under the lens. You also don't create files with digital noise as happens with dedicated film scanners, especially with multi-scans. The camera, well a modern-ish one, will also have a far greater dynamic range than even the best dedicated film scanner. The camera also see's through the negative in the same way an enlarger lens does, the grain in the negative is layered but scanners tend to have very, very narrow DoF scanning only the emulsion surface. But in the darkroom or scanning with a camera the DoF is much greater, so the whole depth of grain is projected onto the paper or recorded as a file, even to the point that DoF can be used to tame a curly negative.
The last point about DoF taming a curly negative also partially covers your question about any slight mis-alignment, but this is fully solved with an iPhone laid flat on the LCD using a free bubble level app, this will confirm when everything is square. I don't think you would need to go as far as 47mp to see an improvement over a dedicated film scanner. A friend of mine recently decided to go the camera route after years with a Nikon 9000 and put together a system for less money than a new Epson V850 using a secondhand Nikon D810 (32mp) plus a macro lens, stand, light source, a couple of neg carriers etc. He's very happy indeed.
Hi @erl. The scanner definitely wouldn't be faster than a camera. As I recall a full resolution 6x6 scan my Plustek 120 would take four or five minutes (not including the preview time). A 6x6 scan with my Nikon Z7 takes 1/15th second at f/16. The 47mp sensor is obviously rectangular and the image square, but the full RAW file it produces is 53mb, which when inverted into a positive, cropped to square, and saved as a TIFF gives a 6x6 image of 173mb of genuine un-interpolated information. So using a suitable negative holder a strip of three 6x6 can be scanned with the camera in around fifteen seconds if you account for blowing any dust off and positioning the image square under the lens. You also don't create files with digital noise as happens with dedicated film scanners, especially with multi-scans. The camera, well a modern-ish one, will also have a far greater dynamic range than even the best dedicated film scanner. The camera also see's through the negative in the same way an enlarger lens does, the grain in the negative is layered but scanners tend to have very, very narrow DoF scanning only the emulsion surface. But in the darkroom or scanning with a camera the DoF is much greater, so the whole depth of grain is projected onto the paper or recorded as a file, even to the point that DoF can be used to tame a curly negative.
As you might know from the "I Like Film" thread, I have spent today exploring this. It is trivially quick to mount the EL-2 film holder on the front of a lens on the Nikon D850. A few seconds each to slide through the five frames in the film holder, autofocus and snap the picture. Getting them into the computer is just as quick as transferring them as scans over my network from the scanning iMac to my MBA. At that point B&W photos are pretty much just as fast to process; they might need some cropping now rather than in VueScan, then inverting and then standard post-processing. It's colour negatives that have given me pause, until I figured out what to use to make a TIF from the raw file, and one that the ColorPerfect plug-in (in PhotoLine as I am done with Adobe) will happily ingest and spit out again nicely inverted. Then the standard post-processing. So it's not as quick and simple as 'focus, snap. next!' but it is still quicker than using a scanner at high resolution. I'm not ready to sell the Nikon 9000 yet, as most of the time I can leave it to do its thing while I go off and do something else. But I can see that this is a reasonable way of going about it, especially if one already has an appropriate camera and lens. Half the reports on Plustek scanners aren't complimentary, Nikon scanners are getting rare and expensive, and I shan't be buying a third Flextight at any time in the future.
There is another way to create valid drivers for the antique Nikonscan software, even on an up-to-date Windows-10-64bit-system:
Instead of selecting the drivers that come with Vuescan, you can get the (modified) drivers for your
Nikon coolscan (5000 or 9000) from colorperfect.com and select them, when completing the installation of the Nikonscan software.
I belive that 250swb and chrism might be right, saying that using a modern digital camera with a macro lens is the better way to scan film.
But in case you already have a Nikon coolscan (5000 or 9000), than you might like to use it
- maybe just for the reason that you can use it with a 24 inch monitor instead of a camera finder.
This is the way, I installed Nikonscan (version 4.0.3) on a Windows-10-64bit-system (the same procedure works on a Windows-7-64bit-system):
There is no need for a virtual machine.
- I installed the Nikonscan software (version 4.0.3)
- I replaced the content of the files "Nks1394.inf" and "NksUSB.inf" (the files are the drivers) as described here:
-for-64-Bit-Windows/Coolscan/Nikon-Scan/
- than I connected the Nikon scanner to my Windows-10-system and changed to the 'windows device manager' ; in the 'windows device manager' I updated the missing drivers from the just copied files "Nks1394.inf" and "NksUSB.inf" (via 'windows device manager' you can select the folder on your system from where to update the drivers).
- Before installing the modified drivers it is necessary to allow the installation of drivers without valid signature (duckduckgo.com and mama google know how to do that..)
- And then I tested if the antique Nikonscan software runs on my Windows-10-system. And YES Coolscan + Nikonscan + Windows-10 work very well together.
Running the Nikonscan software on a windows 10 64bit system is possible, because of the modified drivers that I found on colorperfect.com .
If you use the search term 'Photo.net Steel Chn Nikon coolscan driver' on duckduckgo.com or google
you will find some more information about the modified drivers for the Nikon 5000- and 9000-scanners.