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Editor's note: This excerpt first appeared in photographer and author Harold Davis' recent Focal Press book, Photographing Flowers: Exploring Macro Photography with Harold Davis.
The closer you...
The Nikon LS-1000 Super Coolscan is a SCSI film scanner capable of scanning
from both slides (positive images) and color negatives. Both PC and Mac software
is supplied with the scanner.
The LS-1000 is a second-generation product. Like its predecessor, the LS-10
Coolscan, the LS-1000 uses solid-state illumination: red, green, and (yes!) blue
LEDs are used to light the film. The use of solid-state illumination results in
better color stability and less heat output than other film scanners.
Image focusing and scan speed were the major headaches reported by users of
the older LS-10 film scanner. The LS-1000 includes a very capable autofocus
function, and image scan speed has been improved greatly. Assuming enough
physical memory and SCSI bandwidth is available, a full-resolution (3888x2592)
scan takes less than a minute. I'd emphasize that lots of memory is
required to achieve these speeds; I tried a full-resolution scan on a PC with 40M
of available RAM, and it spent a lot of time swapping. For images of more
reasonable size, however, the LS-1000 is really quite fast.
The scanner detects twelve bits of color data in the red, green, and blue
channels. Since every computer system that I've ever used has a video system
which maintains 24 bits of color information at most, some information must be
discarded. A set of translation curves is used to map 36-bit color onto 24-bit
color; in this way, you can choose whether to maintain shadow detail, highlight
detail, or compress the dynamic range of the image a bit in order to retain as
much as possible of both.
Also available from Nikon is the LS-4500, which can handle larger film sizes
(up to 4"x5").
Here are a couple of images scanned with the Nikon LS-1000 Super Coolscan 35mm
slide/film scanner. They aren't masterpieces by any means; I chose them because
they have characteristics that demonstrate the capabilities of the film scanner
effectively.
If you're not very familiar with color depth, monitor gamma and the effect
these factors have on Web-delivered imagery, you'll probably want to take a
moment to
read this brief introduction so you can properly
interpret the sample images.
Here's an image taken from a slide. Note that the image on
this page is a reduction of the full-sized image; select the small image to view
the large one. When viewing the enlarged version of the image, take note of the
scanner's ability to retain shadow and highlight detail. The dynamic range of the
scanner significantly exceeds that of most photographic paper.
[Kodak LPP "Lumiere" professional color reversal film, rated at ISO 100]
Here's another scan from the same image; this one was done at
full scanner resolution (1350dpi). Again, remember that the image on this page is
a reduced version; click on the thumbnail image for the full-sized version. Some
film grain is apparent in this scan, which gives you some idea of the scanner's
ability to resolve fine detail. At this magnification, it's also possible to see
some of the chromatic aberration introduced by the consumer-grade zoom lens I was
using at the time (Canon 28-80mm EF F3.5-4.5); you can see a little red color
fringing around the sweater Holly is wearing. To put all of this in proper
perspective, Holly's face spans an area less than 1.5mm wide on the actual film;
you'd never see these problems at more normal magnifications.
This is another image taken from a slide. Note the color
saturation, as well as the highlight and shadow detail visible in the full-sized
version of this thumbnail image.
[Kodak LPP "Lumiere" professional color reversal film, rated at ISO 100]
Click on the thumbnail image at right to see some detail
from this image at the scanner's full 1350dpi resolution.
Again, film grain is clearly visible, though I'm using a somewhat better lens
(Canon 28-105mm EF F3.5-4.5) which results in less-visible color fringing in
areas of high contrast.
This photo was taken on some no-name ISO 100 color
negative film. The color shift at the edges of the film is pretty typical of
short-dated no-name film; in addition to this problem, the negative strip was
pretty badly curled. (The dark spot in the upper left is not a film problem; it's
part of the aircraft's propeller. There are also a few dust spots which I could
have gotten rid of had I cleaned the negative more thoroughly before scanning
it.)
Automatic focus uses the center of the frame as its reference, but it can be
performed on a user-designated location anywhere within the frame if desired. If
automatic color balance is in use, it is set based on the area surrounding the
autofocus target, as well. The two images which follow illustrate these
features.
This is a section taken from the lower left-hand
portion of the image. The autofocus point was left on the center of the frame
(well outside the visible area here); due to the glassless negative carrier and
extreme curl of this particular negative, you can see some blurriness in the
enlarged version.
This is the same image section, but the autofocus
point was placed in the center of the area visible here. Film grain is clearly
visible in the enlarged version. Due to the color shift in this region, the
scanner has altered the default color balance to compensate. I actually think it
overcompensated a bit; fortunately, it's very easy to override focus and color
balance settings manually should the need arise.
As you can see, the glassless negative carrier can cause some problems if your
film really doesn't want to stay flat. This isn't a big problem by any means,
however; I chose the most badly-curled negative I could find to illustrate the
problem.
In short, the Nikon LS-1000 really delivers on its promise of high-quality
desktop scanning; it's a good choice for users who need more control (or faster
turnaround) than is available with Photo CD.
I have used this scanner extensively and I have found the following: The LS-1000 Super Coolscan gives particurlarly noisy output which tends to accentuate film grain and dirt. The Photoshop driver is not very good as it makes colour and contrast correction difficult. The scanner is good for low to medium work - but not suitable for high end scanning - leave to Kodak's Digital Science Scanners - even though they are more expensive.
I have now used this scanner for color slides and
balck and wite negatives and the result is quite
good. I normally scan at 2700 dpi and save this
raw files in TIF format at CD. This CD I can use
as input to Photoshop and printing e.g. at an
Epson 1520 printer in size A4 or A3. If I use the
Epson driver the color is bad but if I use the
post process tool PowerRip the print will be very
good. Unfortunately the PowerRip driver doesn't
work when using size A2 and Birmy will not correct
that fault.
A way to use the twelve bits color deep and care
your slides is to send a copy of your CD to a lab
making diaduplicate from TIF files. I have done
and the quality is very fine.
I have been using the LS1000 with the third party
driver SilverFast (from LaserSoft). It is far
better than the Nikon software, and is in fact a
bit easier to use and as capable as Photoshop 4.0
for global color and tonal correction.
My copy of this scanner is amazingly noiseless,
even in the blue channel, in contrast with another
user's comment.
My chief complaint is its slowness -- not in the
actual scanning, less than a minute for a 28MB
scan -- but in all the preparatory racking and
messing around it does before the scan proper.
The pre-scan maneuvers take about as much time as
the scan itself, or so it seems. Scanning 36
exposures takes me at least an hour and a half,
and that's using the same curves for each frame.
After 2-3 years of (not very intensive) use the scanner seems to be producing darker images that are very difficult to correct back to normal. There also seem to be an increasing number of colour casts from the default scan (i.e. not present on the slide) again that are difficult to correct.
Is this aparent drift over time to be expected and if so how do you correct it?
Incidentally just before someone says we should upgrade to the ls4000, I got hold of one of these a few weeks ago but its a total nightmare to install on both mac and windows2000PC. Why on earth did n't they get their software sorted out first.
In response to Mike Dodd's comment above...
I have had an LS-1000 for some years now, and have had a persistent problem with a magenta cast in all my scans. While I don't have the problem with increasingly dark scans that you describe, my LS-1000 seems to have trouble with dense slides.
I have just upgraded to the LS-4000, which is a far better scanner. I just set it up and have been doing some tests today. There's no comparison. I have not had the trouble with set up you describe. I installed the Nikon scan software on my G4 Powermac, then plugged in the firewire cable and it worked the first time.
does anyone have a driver for this scanner? I just purchased one, but it came with no driver and I am having a very difficult time finding one. thanks....andrew
This Nikon scanner , like all early Nikon scanners lost support from Nikon when XP came out. You will need to install the scanner drivers in a Win98 box, drivers will not work in XP,Vista or Win7
Hi All , I have 35MM FILM SCANNER Nikon LS-1000, would like to scan some family's films. but don't have a software . would you mind help me to find it for free . thanks for all
