Customer Reviews

Nikon Super CoolScan 9000 ED Film Scanner

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I purchased the Nikon 9000ED scanner mostly because I could not find anything else that would scann my 2.75 x 2.75 slides. There may be other products out there but the recommendations I got was to go with the Nikon. Basically I inherited a case of these slides which feature my family from roughly 1960 to 1979. Most of the slides are badly faded, underexposed or otherwise not usable. So I figured in order to save the memories I need to spend the money to do it right.

I am not disappointed. Initially I kept getting a mysterious error in the post-processing cycle. After many emails back in forth with 3rd level support staff at Nikon (nice to be able to get support) we figured out that I was setting something called digital GEM on when that wasn't necessary. The process works on badly grained film which I didn't have. Once I changed the default scan settings by not asking for GEM corrections, all has gone beautiful for me.

The red-brown slides magically come back to me with their original colors via the digital ROC process. I'm not too technical on all the things that happen within the hardware-software process but the results an amateur like me can get are simply awsome. I scan the slides at a full 4000 bpi and store the results as huge TIFF files. I figure that disk space is cheap but at least I have the original in a best possible digitized format. The slides will continue to deteriorate but not the digiatl data.

Fred Rump

If I could update my rating it would be 4 stars (instead of 5). 1/9/06

Original review: This was incredibly easy to set up and overall the scans are sharp and the color is nice. The Digital Ice 4 included with this scanner does a tremendous job with removing scratches, dust speckles, etc. It's too bad Digital Ice isn't offered with more scanners--it's really a key selling point for this brand. One problem I am having is with a horizontal shadow at the top of each frame. This seems consistent no matter which negative I am scanning. I am currently investigating and trying to contact Nikon about this. If this very faint shadow were not there---this would have been a perfect scanner. I will update when this issue is resolved one way or another. 5/25/05

Update 1/9/06: the shadowing effect described above seems to happen primarily with high contrast images shot on negative film. Most images shot on transparency do not have the shadow problem

Update: 1/9/06: I learned through usage and contacting Nikin support that you must turn Digital ICE off when scanning black and white negatives (meaning you'll have to manually clean up those images yourself). Too bad, because the ICE does a tremendous job in removing dust speckles.

Update 1/9/06: my scanner had a problem where it wouldn't eject the 35mm tray, it had become stuck in the unit. I had to take it back to a Nikon support office about 45 min from where I live. They seem to have fixed the problem as it has been working fine since then (that was about 2 months ago). Fortunately, this happened while the unit was still within warranty. Nikon support did not give me any hassles when I took the scanner in for repair.

For the most part this works very well. I have had some problems (the shadowing, the tray becoming stuck) which I don't expect for an (approx) 2K piece of equipment. In lieu of something better from another manufacturer, this seems like the best piece of equipment if you need to scan in film negatives or transparancies to get high quality scans.

I was astonished at what this scanner could do, in terms of preserving the gentle tones of my black and white negatives. My only regret is that there is no equivalent to Digital ICE for black and white. That problem is not unique to this scanner, of course.

The quality of the images I get from this scanner, with 6cm x 6cm negatives from a 1970-vintage twin lens camera, trounces the images I get with a Canon 5D SLR. I also have used it with 35MM negatives and Kodachrome slides, which work beautifully, and with both 4.5cm x 4.5cm negatives and 110 negatives, which require that I jury-rig a special mask for the glass-covered medium format carriage (FH-869GR, not included).

The 9000ED comes with a 35MM carriage, 35MM slide carriage, and basic MF carriage. For the price, I would have preferred if they had included the glass-covered, rotating 120 unit as well.

[2009 note: there is a bug in the NikonScan software that drives this scanner such that with recent versions of Mac OSX -- starting with 10.5.6 I believe -- the software won't recognize the scanner if there are other firewire devices attached at the time the software is launched. The other devices can be plugged back in after the software is running, but they have to be unplugged when it starts. Vuescan, a popular third party software package that works with this scanner, does not have the same problem. I prefer NikonScan despite this quirk, but opinions vary.]

I bought one of these units primarily to digitally archive hundreds of old photos shot and mounted as 6x6 and 35mm slides, as well as lots of B&W 35mm negatives. The 6x6 color slides are as much as 50 years old, with some mounted in glass -- which was a bad idea, as those slides have had exceptionally severe color shifts and many have been partially eaten by fungus trapped behind the glass. The scanner's digital ICE and ROC were downright magical (GEM less so, and DEE was sometimes great but touchy to adjust for some slides). With just a few exceptions, even gross over and under exposed slides still yielded usable images. Infected slides that I could barely see through came out perfect except for little pink splotches where the fungus was particularly nasty. The only other defect observed was that interference rings were highly visible on 3 out of about 50 glass-mounted slides... which I suspect was due to the slides having been overheated years ago when they were viewed by projection. Some non-glass mounted slides had significant heat warp damage, but I didn't see serious problems in their scans. BTW, scanning 6x6 slides requires an optional adapter... it's a pitty that the adapter doesn't hold at least three 6x6 slides at once and it does take a little time to put a new slide in, but that time was hidden by the processing time using my 1.6GHz Turion laptop.
The 35mm slides are better exposed, newer, and in better condition; the worst of them was handled very well by this scanner. I haven't yet tried scanning the B&W negatives.

The quality of this scanner is amazing. The detail that it picks up from slides and negatives is incredible. The only drawbacks are that you have to scan bw negatives without Digital Ice (so you'll have a lot of manual cleanup to do) and the fact that there are no trays to scan 110 and 126 negative film (you could conceivably rig the existing trays to accomplish this). Still, it definitely gives you professional results. Sometimes the tray does go off track, but it's sporadic and so far nothing that can't be fixed with a reboot. A true value for your money - paying to have your negs and slides scanned would cost much more than buying this unit.

I finally received my Coolscan 9000 last week. I first tried to get one almost a year ago, then cancelled, re-ordered, cancelled, then re-ordered again last Sept 2004... Amazon shipped it and it arrived in perfect confition (with U.S. warrenty).

Aside from the very long wait, it seems that the scanner lives up to the hype. I'm still experimenting with it but so far its results are excellant. It's software is solid and very straightforward (thank God, for it's usually the opposite!).

It also scans a lot faster than what I expected. I think that some of the scan times that I've read about were probably done using computers with slower processors: I can scan a 35mm slide at 2400 dpi in about 15 secs or less. If you enable ICE, it takes about twice that, and they have several other settings that I'm still experimenting with - but so far, the results are outstanding and the scan times are well within reason. (If anything, the preview is a little slow.)

Concerning digital ICE: I'm still in learning mode with it but I did scan one slide normally and noticed several dust marks. Since I didn't dust it off first this was expected, so I turned on ICE and - magically - the dust is 100 percent gone (!) It works perfect as far as I can tell. Correction and enhancement is normally a little fishy, and I haven't done a before and after comparison yet (to see if it changed the image in some negative way, or in any way..), but so far the results cannot be questioned.

My only complaint so far is that the 120 film hold doesn't hold the film flat. I guess I'll have to consider buying the overpriced glass film holder.

In all, the wait sucked, but the product seems top-notch. Good luck getting one - for those who have the patience.

This item will not work with 64-bit Vista. I had bought a new PC specifically for scanning and enhancing a large number of transparencies and was a very unhappy camper when I found out that I had to keep my old machine just to use with this scanner. If Nikon is not willing to keep the drivers up to date, the product should be considered to be abandoned.

Incidentally the old 32-bit drivers aren't that hot either. Firewire is supposed to be plug and play, but Nikon warns that this scanner isn't, and may conflict if you have another Firewire device installed. I found another issue - if I turn off the scanner before I shut down Windows, Windows hangs on shut-down.

One final bug - if I use the hardware eject button on the front of the machine rather than ejecting through software it reports that I have an unrecognized carrier type when I re-insert it. It's a pity that decent hardware is ruined by sloppy software/firmware.

My product is actually the Coolscan 8000, the predecessor to the 9000. They are almost identical.

I would like to provide solutions for some of the people who have commented negatively about this scanner. First don't even consider using the Nikon software. Simply download VueScan from Hamrick software instead. When considering the cost of this scanner the less than $100 price of VueScan is a pittance to pay for a perfect software that not only masters this scanner but also includes drivers for 1200 other scanners. VueScan is superior to all of the software that comes boxed with scanners. Only one software to learn to become the master of 1200 scanners.

What is more VueScan is available for ALL versions of Windows, MAC-OSX, and Redhat and Ubuntu Linux. I am presently using my scanner with an older Toshiba laptop running Linux. The installation was truly plug and play. Install VueScan, plug in the scanner and begin scanning.

The scanner does run slowly and does make a bit of noise during operation. However, one need only load a batch of film and then walk away until it is finished. I don't find the work flow to be a problem. I can understand that if one has tens of thousands of films and wants them completed immediately that speed is an issue.

My guess is that Nikon are not developing this product any further because the market for film scanners must now be minuscule since digital photography has become a mainstay. If you have a reasonable number of frames to scan over time then this is the scanner to buy, almost regardless of your operating system. Just plan to buy Vuescan for under $100 as well and you will be happy.

Nikon does offer complete servicing for this product but it must be sent to their East Coast facility. They are cordial, communicative, and the repairs are competent.

I ordered my Nikon Coolscan 9000 back on June 18th. It arrived on July 13th just as the updated Amazon shipping estimate email promised. I admit I was a little skeptical when I placed the order that I would ever see it, especialy at the price Amazon had at the time - $1804.99 I checked with my contacts at B&H in New York (I order alot from them and have come to know a few of the salespeople) - they said "no way" could the price be for a legitimate USA model. In addition to being lower than B&H's cost, Amazon was giving a shipping date way ahead of when anybody else could promise. It turned out that Amazon was about a week late on their "original" shipping date, but they kept me updated and it came exactly when they said it would.
As for the scanner, it seems to me to be just about perfect. The scans are beyond belief. Nikon Scan software is a little confusing...I might give Vuescan a try. The scanner does make a bit of noise from the stepper motor during the scan process, but this appears normal. Overall, I could not be happier with my purchase. Amazon has never given me a bad experience so far and with the new Amazon credit card, I have intrest free financing for 10 months to pay for this beauty. I'm completely satisfied with my Amazon transaction!

The hardware is well designed and provides very good quality scans. I have used it with both Windows XP and MacOS 10.5 (Leopard). This product requires a fairly powerful processor to work well.

WIndows XP is not good for memory intensive tasks such as scanning. MacOS is much better for image editing and manipulation in general.

The problem is that Nikon has been very slow to release updated versions of the Nikon Scan software for the MacOS 10.5 and 10.6. The product description in the sales materials say that it is compatible with Mac OS 10.5 and 10.6. However, if you look at the technical support site, it is listed as incompatible with MacOS 10.5 and 10.6. I have called Nikon a number of times and been unable to get an estimated release date for updated Nikon Scan software. If Nikon were to release updated software for MacOS 10.6 I would probably give this product either 4 or 5 stars (assuming it worked).

So my overall recommendation is to wait until Nikon releases updated software for MacOS 10.6 before purchasing this scanner.