[hjoseph7]

it's official the Pacific Image Primefilm XE scanner beats the Nikon Coolscan 5000 when it comes to resolution.


Reflecta ProScan 10T review: Image quality, resolution, scan speed, handling

[LesDMess]

Hooray!



Regarding Reflecta ProScan 10T review: Image quality, resolution, scan speed, handling :

• Resolution - Reflecta ProScan 10T = 4100ppi vs Coolscan V, 5000 & 9000 = 3900ppi
• Scan speed - Reflecta ProScan 10T scan with ICE = 2:31 minutes vs Coolscan V = 3:07 minutes, 5000 = 1:05 minutes & 9000 = between V & 5000. My own scan times are faster.
• Handling - Reflecta ProScan 10T manual advance vs Coolscans all motorized, Coolscan 5000 has slide and whole roll feeder
• Focus (Reflecta ProScan 10T manual focus vs Coolscans are all autofocus)
• ICE (Dust and scratch removal) - Reflecta ProScan 10T ICE not for Kodachrome vs Coolscan V & 5000 are OK while 9000 is perfect.
• Image quality in terms of color, contrast is not covered sufficiently which in my opinion is the most important but hard to do. I have personally scanned over 20,000 frames of a great variety of films (b&w, C41 & E6) with the Coolscan+Nikonscan as well as thousand more using all others and the Coolscan+Nikonscan is best. Of course this is clearly subjective.

Given my own experience with the Coolscan 5000+Nikonscan scan results of over 15,000 frames across a great variety of films compared to all the others I have used (flatbeds, film scanners, Imacon, Noritsu, Fuji and Agfa minilabs, DSLR), there is nothing that matches it except for a Durst unit I encountered at a PMA years ago. However, I appreciate that there might be a potential replacement for my Coolscan if they ever fail.


As I understand it, a new Reflecta ProScan 10T may be priced below that of a used Coolscan 5000.

[stevebrot]

However, I appreciate that there might be a potential replacement for my Coolscan if they ever fail.

My thoughts as well. It is good that other makers are (finally) stepping into fill the void.

FWIW, the 10T is fixed focus. Price is current $279 at B&H which makes it a great value and substantially less than a used 5000 ED.


Steve

[Giklab]

Lol. Only took, what, 10 years?

[fs999]

It's a commercial site. They sell what they test...
If you look at the density, the Coolscan 5000 ED has 4.8 DMax and only 3.8 for the Reflecta...

[LesDMess]

It's a commercial site. They sell what they test...

I can attest to the technical accuracy of their results for the models I have tested like the Coolscans, Epson and Microtel. Their testing methodology - particularly for resolution, can be independently verified.

---------- Post added 07-21-15 at 01:04 PM ----------

it's official the Pacific Image Primefilm XE scanner beats the Nikon Coolscan 5000 when it comes to resolution.

BTW, do you own/use one? If so, how many frames have you scanned with it and how is the experience with it?


Anyone else own/use one?

[fs999]

I can attest to the technical accuracy of their results for the models I have tested like the Coolscans, Epson and Microtel. Their testing methodology - particularly for resolution, can be independently verified.

Resolution is not all. If you hide some important results like DMax, speed, scanned images, it's not accurate for me...

[hjoseph7]

The bottom line is that the Nikon Coolscan 5000 is discontinued and the Nikon Coolscan 9000 cost $2500 ! I agree though the Dmax could be better, but the XE has multiple-exposure which might help.

[wombat2go]

Some trivia notes I made from searches to get an approximate understanding of the Dmax figure of merit in relation to the film and monitor:

It appears that the "D" density range of a film negative was related to the bel.
The bel was originally introduced as a measure of telephone line loss.
Attenuation B = log10 Pin/Pout

These days the decibel is more commonly used

The base line for D is D=0 for a case where no negative is in the enlarger
As negative density increases, then D increases as the log10 inverse of the light transmitted by the section of a negative
With a very dark section of negative transmitting only 0.0001 (1/10000) times the incident light, the D value is log10 (1/.0001) = 4

Density Range, Maximum Density, Image Quality Criterion Scanner Explanation, Signification Object Contrast Aperture Stop


Here is a photo (posted before) taken early morning with Ektar 100 and scanned to a 16 bit tiff
(The download is blocked so only viewable as 8 bit jpg probably)

https://app.box.com/s/mbi6jx0kykx6ga1h6as30l1xibslqy2n
The range measured by Cinepaint was 0035Hex to F784Hex so the "D" range is about 3 bel.

That is 1/1207 and somewhere between 10 and 11 fstops of range

The Density curves of the C41 films I use (Ektar 100 and Fuji 160NS) show a usable Density "D" range of roughly 0.5 to 2.8

The dynamic range of the 10 bit truecolor monitor is (just based on quantization noise at the lsb )
2^10 *sqrt(12) = 1/3567 or a bit less than 12 fstops

An 8 bit monitor on same basis is 1/886 or about 9+ fstops

[LesDMess]

The bottom line is that the Nikon Coolscan 5000 is discontinued and the Nikon Coolscan 9000 cost $2500 ! I agree though the Dmax could be better, but the XE has multiple-exposure which might help.

All Coolscans - V, 5000 & 9000 have been discontinued and Nikoncan has not been updated to work on latest versions of Windows although I understand that there are workarounds or you can use other scan software. Myself I continue to use a Windows Vista PC for scanning on a network and use my more current for editing.


What do you mean by multi-exposure? Do you mean multi-pass scanning or actually adjusting exposure on each scan?


For multi-pass scanning, time to scan goes up for the Coolscan but considerably more for all others. Also, the Coolscan+Nikonscan will do it in a way that guarantees perfect registration of the frame.


For multiexposure, I have used this for making HDR scans of a single frame. This is very useful since a frame of film captures quite a dynamic range.

[hjoseph7]

All Coolscans - V, 5000 & 9000 have been discontinued and Nikoncan has not been updated to work on latest versions of Windows although I understand that there are workarounds or you can use other scan software. Myself I continue to use a Windows Vista PC for scanning on a network and use my more current for editing.


What do you mean by multi-exposure? Do you mean multi-pass scanning or actually adjusting exposure on each scan?


For multi-pass scanning, time to scan goes up for the Coolscan but considerably more for all others. Also, the Coolscan+Nikonscan will do it in a way that guarantees perfect registration of the frame.


For multiexposure, I have used this for making HDR scans of a single frame. This is very useful since a frame of film captures quite a dynamic range.

I'm not sure how it works ? After I installed the Silverfast 8 "SE" software that came with the scanner, I was having problems, so I called the company. They apologized for all the problems I was having and told me to download a free version of Silverfast 8 "SE PLUS" which has the Multiple Exposure feature. I'm guessing that it uses some type of multi-scanning or else how are you going to do it ? So far I have not had to use it. Scanning at 5000 dpi will yield incredible detail to the point where some of my pictures have the 3D look. I'll probably have to learn to use it when I start scanning slides though.


SilverFast SE Plus :: LaserSoft Imaging

[stevebrot]

...I understand that there are workaround...

Yep. I am currently using Nikon Scan 4.0.3* on Windows 7 (64 bit) with my Coolscan 5000 ED. The key is to use the 64-bit driver so graciously provided by Axel Rietschin. The pertinent blog post is:

Axel Rietschin: Nikon LS-40 / LS-50 / LS-5000 Scanners on Windows 8.1, Windows 8, Windows 7 and Windows Vista 64-bit!

and the actual driver download URL is:

http://www.fastpictureviewer.com/bin/NikonUsbScanners64.zip


Steve

* Downloaded from Nikon

[LesDMess]

Scanning at 5000 dpi will yield incredible detail to the point where some of my pictures have the 3D look.

Isn't it great to be able to capture the quality that you captured on film!

---------- Post added 07-23-15 at 03:58 PM ----------

Yep. I am currently using Nikon Scan 4.0.3* on Windows 7 (64 bit) with my Coolscan 5000 ED. The key is to use the 64-bit driver so graciously provided by Axel Rietschin. The pertinent blog post is:

Axel Rietschin: Nikon LS-40 / LS-50 / LS-5000 Scanners on Windows 8.1, Windows 8, Windows 7 and Windows Vista 64-bit!

and the actual driver download URL is:

http://www.fastpictureviewer.com/bin/NikonUsbScanners64.zip


Steve

* Downloaded from Nikon

Definitely the community of Coolscan users are thankful for this. Unfortunately - as I understand it, the driver only works for the USB Coolscans and not for the 8000/9000 that uses firewire. Fortunately, I have not experienced any problems keeping a Windows Vista PC around just for scanning purposes since I scan to a network drive - knock on wood.