Screwed, Blued, and Tattooed...

[rdenney]

Films came back from the lab, including some commercial portraits I needed to scan.

It would appear that my Nikon 8000 scanner has tossed its cookies. It got progressively worse, from not quite making the scan I wanted until it's now at the point where Vuescan can't even see it. It powers up and pulls in the film holder just fine, but the scanner hangs (at least when it recognized it) when attempting a scan, even a preview scan. I've sent a very detailed email to Ed Hamrick and I hope he has some advice, but my gut is in a knot.

I can deal with this one using the Epson to scan it--the print size requirement is not large. But if my Nikon film scanner is hosed, then I'm screwed for a way to get a decent, affordable print from roll film at more than 8x10. And I do a lot of roll-film.

Does anyone know if Nikon still services their film scanners?

Rick "who should have bought two back when they were cheap on the used market" Denney

[Sal Santamaura]

...a way to get a decent, affordable print from roll film at more than 8x10...

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produc..._Enlarger.html

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produc..._Dichroic.html

[Oren Grad]

Does anyone know if Nikon still services their film scanners?

Both the 5000 and the 9000 were discontinued only recently and even the 8000 isn't that far in the past. And I just took a peek at the Nikon on-line widget for generating packing slips for shipping items for repair, and it still includes the 8000 in the pull-down list of options. So don't despair just yet. Good luck, and here's hoping...

[rdenney]

Both the 5000 and the 9000 were discontinued only recently and even the 8000 isn't that far in the past. And I just took a peek at the Nikon on-line widget for generating packing slips for shipping items for repair, and it still includes the 8000 in the pull-down list of options. So don't despair just yet. Good luck, and here's hoping...

That's good to know. Ed Hamrick thinks it could also be the FireWire card or cable, and I'll be exploring that first. That's cheap to replace.

Sal, been there, done that. But that capability depends on far more than me mounting a color head on my D3. I can't afford to build a darkroom capable of consistent color printing--an outrageously expensive used Nikon would be cheaper and fit better with my current life. I can't afford that, either.

Rick "who'll make do with the Epson, if necessary, until another option comes along" Denney

[Jody_S]

I'm almost positive your scanner is fixable, if it were mine I would attempt the repair myself. But you may be stuck paying for scans for some months while you send it off to Nikon for repairs. Have you ever tried an internal clean? Judicious use of compressed air/vacuum has saved more than one laptop for me, as well as re-soldering things like power sockets.

[rdenney]

I'm almost positive your scanner is fixable, if it were mine I would attempt the repair myself. But you may be stuck paying for scans for some months while you send it off to Nikon for repairs. Have you ever tried an internal clean? Judicious use of compressed air/vacuum has saved more than one laptop for me, as well as re-soldering things like power sockets.

Next step is the cheap fix of replacing the firewire interface. Not as easy as I thought, though--nothing available locally. In fact, none of the local stores had any PCI-bus cards in stock at all, except for video cards. "Ya know, we stock stuff that, like, works on, ya know, laptops and stuff."

Okay, I'd be happy with a firewire interface that plugs into USB-3. No? No.

I may find something tomorrow; if not I'll mailorder it.

I just made a print of this portrait at 9x12" from a 6x7 color negative, which I scanned in the Epson. At that size, the Epson is actually good enough. But it took some serious effort--more than I'm accustomed to--to get a decent print. Now that I'm done with that task, I'm getting ready to scan a 4x5 color negative, just to see how it does. I've only ever scanned transparencies or black and white in the Epson until now. This last photo expedition was my first foray into color negative sheet film in decades. But I have lots of practice scanning color negatives in the Nikon, and it seems quite a bit easier.

But given that the scanner turns on and loads and positions holders, I'm thinking the problem is digital and not mechanical or (non-digital) electrical.

One other option is to reassemble an XP box and load Nikon's scanner software to see if it reports an error invisible to Vuescan. But that will have to wait.

Rick "who has no intention of abandoning medium-format film just because of this" Denney

[Preston]

I just checked at Puget Systems. They have a couple of Firewire 1394a (Firewire 400) and a combo 1394b (Firewire 800)/1394a PCI cards. The prices aren't too bad. They are located in Washington state. Give them a call.

Is your Firewire cable OK? You might as well get a new cable while you're at it.

--P

[rdenney]

Progress Report:

The 8000 showed up today, only two weeks after I dropped it off at the UPS store to ship it to Nikon's repair facility in New York. They replaced the high-resolution drive unit and gave it a good cleaning. Price including return shipping was $512.

I haven't tested it yet--that will be the next progress report. But I'm hopeful.

Rick "who never did order that FireWire card" Denney