Nikon 8000 users help needed

[cikaziva]

Hello folks,
I just found my way back to this forum after couple years. Thanks for existing!
I would need some advice and if you would be kind enough to help me i would really appreciate.*

For last 15 years i was Imacon user. First Precision, 343 and then i jumped to 969 that i totally loved and used for 7 years. Finally i*sold my 969 due to financial mayhem and the divorce two years ago and am scennerless last year and a half. Again due to budget issues i cant go back to x1 ore even used 868, so i was thinking of going with V750 for 4x5 and to get a Nikon for roll film.

I just borrowed nikon coolscan 8000ed from a friend, who was kind enough to lend me his machine ( that he never uses) so i can scan some material and make my mind if Am going to go to Nikon waters and get me self a 9000ed after or not.

Scanner is in a good shape and it has 869G and 869GR holders plus all standard holders. My first impression is that its really hard to mount film and a lot of trouble compared to fextight but am sure am nor doing things proper either.*

Can you please give me some tips in regards of the holders in question?

Also is anyone using a wet mount with this holders ( if wet mounting is an option at all)

Also what up to date, aftermarket, software do *you use to nikons? I was told that i should buy Vuescan *as less pricy version of Silverfast. Am not familiar with any of them as i am Hasselblad user all this years but at the first glimpse Vuescan looks really basic to me like old flexcolor from years back. Is there any other software option? I am working on Intel Mac, Lion.

Thanks i really appreciate your input *

Luka

www.lukasanader.com

[drew.saunders]

I have the CS9000 and the 869G glass holder.

It can be a bit of a challenge to get the film to line up well in the 869G. Do you have the "film raising" strips of plastic for your film sizes? Those help get the film aligned, but you may have to pull the holder and re-align every now and then. With practice, you get better at it. I've never used an Imacon, so I don't know how easy those are to mount. You could probably use some scanner tape at the edges to help keep alignment.

There are wet mount kits for the 8000/9000, but with the glass holder, I have never gotten Newton rings, and I don't see any lack of sharpness, so I don't think all the mess and fuss would be worth the bother for me.

I've used Vuescan with it and hated it every time. The last time I tried, it still thought there were 3 frames of 6x4.5 per strip, not 4, even though I've emailed the developer to ask him to fix that. Plus, I can never get Vuescan to not clip the highlights and shadows. I paid for Silverfast, which was expensive, but so far I'm happy with that software.

The Nikon software has not been updated in a long time, but the last time I used it, it worked well enough. You may have to use an older computer with an older OS to get the Nikon software to work.

[Oren Grad]

I have a 9000 and use the 869GR for most of my scanning.

My first impression is that its really hard to mount film and a lot of trouble compared to fextight but am sure am nor doing things proper either.

I'd say that aligning 120 negatives with the format masks is a bit fiddly, and a bit more so for aligning 35mm negatives with the 35 panorama format masks. OTOH, I've never used a Flextight so I can't compare with that. Is there anything specific that's causing you trouble?

I haven't bothered with wet mount. If I wanted to go to that much fuss I'd probably be looking for a drum scanner, so at least I'd get a large return for the hassle.

VueScan isn't a "less pricy version of Silverfast", it's radically different. I much prefer SilverFast myself (FWIW, I'm using version 6, not the latest version 8), but if you search here you'll find plenty of other users who prefer VueScan. It's hard for anyone else to know which user interface and feature set will suit you best, or whether the extra cost of SilverFast would be "worth it" for you.

[cikaziva]

Thanks for the tips! I will start scanning soon and i will see how it go's. I will need time to adapt for sure to develop my routine. Yea i have all the mask for rotating holder and some more masks home made buy *first owner of the scanner

Imacon is easiest scanner to use. Mount in a flextight holder is half a minute process no glass, no mask, taping or anything and its always perfectly *in focus. That was what i liked the most about imacon.

I used to do a lot of wet mounting back in the days and i think it would be easier to wet mount then to screw around with shins, masks, cardboard bits; thats why i asked if wet is an option with existing glass holders. I was think to use GR holder for a wet mount to remove a top glass and just use bottom together with strip of clear optical mylar and some scanner tape to seal the potential leaks.*

Still looks like less trouble to me then a paper masks.

Thanks

**

[Vord]

Why not get a older Imacon Precision II/III is that's what you're comfortable with?
If you could afford a Nikon 9000 you can afford one of those secondhand and in scan quality they're very close.

[cikaziva]

9000 has a good image quality and i remember 5 or six years ago we tried to se how close it was to 868 and it was same if not better in some situations when it came down to scan it self. Problem was more in film holders, lack of batch scanning possibility and it was limited format vise...

PII is far inferior scanner to new Imakon's or that 9000 in question. One more problem with PII is Scasi and old platform as lot of good old scanners have. Advantage of using new Hasslblad flexcolor software is that you can scann and create raw digital negative in 3F format and after you can use all the Hassleblad softwares. That would be hard to do with PII. Last time i used PII it was running in G3 and 9.2 classic OS ( i used to work in a studio in 90's that had PII and a drum)

I really think that 9000/8000 is a good machine just needs some new aftermarket magic to be up to date*

Thanks

[polyglot]

I have an 8000 and use it with Vuescan, it works perfectly (modulo some annoying user-interface quirks) once you learn it. If you've got clipped highlights or shadows, you've set the exposure or film-base wrong. You have to pay attention to the raw histogram.

The default holder sucks. I don't have the official glass holder, but I cut a piece of AN glass that's exactly the width of a 120 roll. I tape (at each end) a strip of negs (emulsion-out) to the AN glass and then place the glass into the default holder, negs down. The default film curl-to-emulsion in conjunction with the film holder having a support strip down each side holds the film quite flat with its back against the AN glass. To reduce flare (the AN glass makes it worse I think), I tape a plastic business-card over the end of each neg after the glass is placed into the holder. Works pretty well and pretty much all the photos in the links in my signature are scanned that way.

[Keith S. Walklet]

I've had my 8000 for over a decade now, and have been wet mounting for nearly half that time. The original holder was worthless for keeping the film flat, or as polygot noted, sucks. I borrowed an ANG holder, and compared it with wet mounting and noted a boost in sharpness and contrast with wet mounting. I'd been running the scanner with a g4, but bumped it up to a g5 last month when the G5 was no longer useful for image editing. The Nikon Scan software is very sophisticated, but the machine doesn't like any other firewire devices to be hooked up at the same time.

My wet mount supplies came from Scanscience.com. It is is a piece of optical glass that sits inside the standard film holder (remove the hinged film holder door). Film is mounted with Lumina fluid and optical mylar, inverted into the holder and taped down. I did note that the LUMINA interacted with the rubber gasket on the holder (no going back) so that has been removed permanently. I wouldn't consider a dry mount anyway.

This past month, I scanned 50+ 67 frames this way, with 8x sampling in superfine scan mode, almost all with gamma set to 2.0. Each takes about 45 minutes to an hour with the 8000. I find it easier to darken the image in LR4 and PS6 than going the other way.

[cikaziva]

First i would like to thank you all for your input, i really appreciate this.
i started using 8000 and after complicated start we are getting along now. as i suspected film holders and mounting will be a problem for me. glass holders are pain in a neck to clean and de dust and i would prefer to mount wet for sure. i have to say that i prefer rotating, single glass holder to that batch one. still i think its a lot of hustling for and lot of money for the dry mounting just to keep film flat. some guys have problem with wet mount but i dont and if i buy 8000/9000 i will for sure go that way; not spending a cent on this AN glass thing unless they come with a scanner.

as like 15 years ago when i first tried nikons big scanner, i like a output. i got decent scans without doing a bunch of passes. my main problem with this setup now is a software. i got Vuescan and i have to say i dont like it a bit. it looks like lobotomized version of professional software and i dont know if its me, my computer setup or a scanner but i couldn't see any difference between a scan with a MultiExpo and Fine on a one side and clot scan without the options on the other side. i tried this test on 3 different neg's and had a same result in the output. also i cant figure how he makes a multipass? i also have problem with a controls no curves or histogram or am just stupid to find them? so far i encountered two bugs: 1 sometimes lets say one in 6, for God knows what reason it skips to save the scan and 2 if i input the file name it wont record it that way but it will use old naming for a scan, however if i quit the program and launch VS again, then its ok it will remember a new name... as for a testing VS is ok but if i buy 8000/9000 i will have to try Silverfast because i don't know if i would be able to really learn how to like VS. again it can be that root of my problem with VS is me! i didn't find any normal advanced tutorial how to set up VS with a 8000 or similar scanner all i did find are youtube and similar tutorials for people who never scanned anything.

conclusion. for a 2k$ scanner (that is how much my friend paid for the 8000 with holders) and 80$ software this combo is awesome and with V750 aside for all my 4x5 work and for just doing digital contact's of roll films i could be happy camper. i dont do high volume film scanning no more, no more commercial work on film, so i can really take my time and scan 40-70 scans a month with this setup no problem. wet mount and speed are not factor any more. When i had Imacon i was still doing a fashion shoots on a hasselblad 553 with 220 backs and sometimes smoking up to 16 rolls per a shoot. nikon wasn't option for me back then but now it really looks like i could be happy with this setup.

thanks

[David Higgs]

I use Nikon 8000 for MF up to 6x17 and epson for 4x5

the Nikon is great, I cannot get Nik Scan to work with Lion so use Vuescan, which is terrible but works. I've found the best option is to have superfine on, no multipass and then to set all the curves to zero. You get a flat scan, which I then sort in PS, not ideal, but consistent. The detail is incredible compared with the Epson.

I found the normal holders junk, and scan anything worth scanning with the rotating glass holder.