79 of 80 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Makes outstanding scans, though slide feeder is clunky, November 7, 2000
This review is from: Nikon LS-2000 Super CoolScan Film Scanner (PC/Mac) (Office Product)
I shoot a lot of slide film, and instead of getting a digital camera I decided to buy this scanner because it generates such high quality scans. Setup was fairly easy once I downloaded the latest Windows 2000 drivers from Nikon's US website (you have to dig around their convoluted site to find it). The Nikon Scan software contains all the basic controls to allow you to adjust levels to your satisfaction. The CleanImage feature is amazing! If you have any scratches, smudges, or other such blemishes on your film, the CleanImage function will get rid of them 9 times out of 10. At the highest settings (12 bit) the scans from my slides come out wonderful, and the resulting files are large (around 50MB) but great for archiving your slides digitally. The Nikon Scan software does so much that you don't have to open up Photoshop unless you really want to tinker with the photo for use on the web or with other artwork.
Now for the negatives. The documentation is not very thorough. If you want to learn the ins and outs of every function and menu of the Nikon Scan software, you'll have to consult the websites of some powerusers. The slide feeder, which I also bought, is a bit clumsy. I haven't had any huge problems with it yet, but its construction certainly doesn't inspire a lot of faith. Also, you have to sit their and use the software to advance to the next slide, so it isn't as automated as you think. You can't pop 50 slides in, adjust all the settings, and come back the next day to fifty completed scans. And finally, as others have noted, Nikon's tech support is extremely weak.
All in all, I think this is a great scanner for the serious photographer who wants to generate high quality scans without spending a fortune on drum scans. Those who just wish to get usable scans to post on web pages should go with a lower cost scanner or have their local photo shop transfer their photos to a Kodak Photo CD.
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59 of 60 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Nikon LS-2000 scanner, January 30, 2000
This review is from: Nikon LS-2000 Super CoolScan Film Scanner (PC/Mac) (Office Product)
The scanner is great. The problem is Nikon's serious lack of customer support. Once you buy from Nikon they completely forget about you! My LS-2000 has a problem with certain flash transparencies. They just fail to scan at all. I have called Nikon's tech support 4 times (on my own nickle) and they havn't made any effort to contact me at all. The equipment is great - but beware that you will be all alone once you purchase it!
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54 of 59 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Quite a shoddy scanner if you ask me, June 11, 2000
This review is from: Nikon LS-2000 Super CoolScan Film Scanner (PC/Mac) (Office Product)
We bought one of these, and the slidefeeder attachment, to do scans at work. Well, we're on our 3rd scanner right now. That after having to make numerous calls each time to tech support before they decided to replace the scanner each time. The scanner is VERY buggy, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. The slidefeeder is poorly designed and poorly manufactured, sometimes it jams, sometimes it tries to feed 2 slides at once. The most common error we get is "Stage locking screw is still in place", even though the stage locking screws have been removed. Our first scanner simply died, the 2nd one kept getting the "stage locking screw" error, and the 3rd one which we have currently is doing ok, SO FAR, I have no doubt it will fail shortly and we'll be on #4. There are better scanners to be had.
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