Thanks, Larry, for the reply. It is reasurring to hear that you've had good success with it. Here are a couple negative things I've heard about this scanner, particularly in a Mac environment -- I'm running Mac OS 10.4.10 on an Intel iMac. (1)I was ordering one at B&H Photo and they told me to cancel the order and order an Epson V700 instead because the results were just as good and because the LS-5000 ED can't handle Kodachrome film well. Turns out I checked and don't believe I have any Kodacrome film, so this may be a mute point.
I was a little turned off by their comment for 2 reasons: I didn't like the idea of having to scan through glass that the film rests upon and also I've heard in general that you can't manually focus with flatbed scanners. Around $1000 USD is what I'm looking to spend unless there is a far superior scanner than the LS-5000 ED that costs within $500 USD more or so.
(2)Apparently the Nikon Scan s/w hasn't been updated in a while since Nikon apparently is not actively developing scanning technology since the world is changing to digital from the onset. I have downloaded NS 4.0 which has a create date of 2002. Subsequently I downloaded NS 4.0.2 (Updater) which also seems not particularly current (2003 I believe).
At 12-bits per channel, the Coolscan IV ED is a top-of-the-line device, although some scanners (such as the Super Coolscan 4000 ED) now offer 14-bit digitization. Some notes on diagnosing/troubleshooting the Nikon Coolscan LS-40, LS-4000, LS-50, and LS-5000 scanner failures These scanners are very well built. But after many years of service some things may break.
I've had a Nikon Coolscan 5000 ED for a couple of months. On the colour management issues I am now just starting to get a good overall idea of how things work. Nikon Coolscan III (LS-30.
Net is that it doesn't seem Nikon is putting much effort into maintaining its s/w for its scanners as base operating systems change. According to Nikon tech support, this may change some since Nikon knows they have to do something to have NS run on MS Vista. Whether the Mac version will be re-visited is not clear.
In the process of snooping around, I found out that LaserSoft makes a product called SilverFast which supposedly supports LS-5000 ED (and many other scanners) but at a pretty hefty price ($348 USD), so I'm not inclined to purchase it since I haven't tried NS yet. But it is reassuring to know there is some other s/w out there for the LS-5000 ED if needed. In fairness to Nikon, both NS 4.0 and NS 4.0.2 (Updater) installed w/o problem and in checking into as many things as I could w/o a scanner attached, things seemed stable and no issues were encountered. Agree with Larry, LS-5000 is a great scanner.
The Epson might also be good, but I find it easier to get good results with the Nikon. Haven't tried the V700 though, but own a Epson 4870 which is an earlier and simpler model. So while flatbed produce good scans, even of 35mm film I still get sharper results (needs less USM) from a dedicated filmscanner. Also, while the Nikon scan software is weird I find it better than the Epson software. And you don't have the glass that needs cleaning all the time. One advantage for the V700 though is that it can scan several pictures in one batch. You need the slide feeder (optional extra) to get real batch scans with LS-5000.
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