Nikon Coolscan V ED and iMac Core Duo

I have been trying to use Nikon Scan V4 and 4+ with a
Nikon 4000ED on my Macbook Pro 17", using 10.4.6

The main issue is the eject command of all things. It
hangs the Nikon Scan software and the scanner keeps
trying to eject endlessly.
The only work around I have found is to keep
restarting all the parts till it lets go.

I've used both a 4000ED (Firewire) and a 5000ED (USB 2.0) with an Intel Core Duo Mac Mini. Overall, it's working only slightly worse than you'd expect on a PPC Mac. Problems range from having to restart the program to occasional lags due to Rosetta.

I've not seen any trouble at all with the eject function on any of my adapters.

1. Does this occur with all your film adapters? APS, Bulk Slides, Negative Rolls, etc.

2. Can you try it on a PPC Mac just to make sure it's not something with your Nikon hardware?

3. Have you complained to Nikon yet for being so slow to officially support the Intel Macs?

Good luck.

It would be nice if you could come back here and answer the questions of the people trying to help. I can only suspect that you found a bad scanning adapter.

I tried a similar setup using a 13" MacBook (1.83 Ghz Duo Core w/ 512 MB RAM) with NikonScan 4.0 and a USB Nikon CoolScan 5000 ED. (OS 10.4.7)

All works fine there too including my eject button.

I have been trying to use a LS-5000 with a Mac Book Pro (intel). It can work, but it also crashes, randomly, an awful lot. I use the slide feeder so I notice the crashing much more than I would if I were doing single scans. I can get between 2 and 20 scans through before a crash. I do have some tips for making it more stable if you decide to pursue. Cheers James

I have been trying to use a LS-5000 with a Mac Book
Pro (intel). It can work, but it also crashes,
randomly, an awful lot. I use the slide feeder so I
notice the crashing much more than I would if I were
doing single scans. I can get between 2 and 20 scans
through before a crash. I do have some tips for
making it more stable if you decide to pursue. Cheers
James

I'm using three LS 5000 scanners with SA-30 Roll Adapters. This adapter is the largest memory hog of all the Nikon accessories.

These scanners are connected to two Duo Core Mac Minis and a 13" MacBook. All three are stock with only 512 MB Ram.

I've found that it's best to reboot the LS5000 and quit/restart NikonScan software between every roll of film. I've seen almost no problem with this method other than the slowness of using Rosetta.

BTW- I've also used this setup with a SF-200 slide feeder and was able to put through 50 slides at a time without crashing.

What are your tips & methods?

EDIT: For me these same issues are just as prevalent when using NikonScan on a G4 while using a LS 4000 scanner. The main benefit was not having the Rosetta lag/speed issues.

I do have some tips for making it more stable
if you decide to pursue. Cheers
James

Gotta love these "drive-by" thread posts.

Please, why not just share your tips?

I used to be an old and faithful customer of Nikon cameras, lenses, etc. since 1970..., and I used to be a strong supporter of Nikon quality, including product support. This seems to be over.

Some years ago, I added a Coolscan 4000 ED, with NikonScan 3.1.4, to my digital picture processing chain. A nice amount of money for a good product.

Too bad... I am afraid that this now be useless investment : not compatible with my Intel MacBookPro. Needless to add that I am deeply disappointed by Nikon, and by some of its statements listed under this topic. I can understand some delay for adjusting to a new platform, not that sort of behaviour.

I am expecting commitments from Nikon to deliver updated software very soon. Not weak promises. Or...

I used to be an old and faithful customer of Nikon
cameras, lenses, etc. since 1970..., and I used to be
a strong supporter of Nikon quality, including
product support. This seems to be over.

Some years ago, I added a Coolscan 4000 ED, with
NikonScan 3.1.4, to my digital picture processing
chain. A nice amount of money for a good product.

Too bad... I am afraid that this now be useless
investment : not compatible with my Intel MacBookPro.
Needless to add that I am deeply disappointed by
Nikon, and by some of its statements listed under
this topic. I can understand some delay for adjusting
to a new platform, not that sort of behaviour.

I am expecting commitments from Nikon to deliver
updated software very soon. Not weak promises. Or...

I too am upset by their slow response to updating their software to work better with Intel Macs. However, their software works just as poorly with my PPC Macs. It's just that I can't call and complain to them about the Intel performance.

That said, I think you should be able to use the 4000ED with NikonScan 4.1 and NOT 3.1.4. NikonScan 4.1 is a free download from Nikon.

If both a 4000ED and a 5000ED work on my Mac Minis and MacBook, I don't see why it wouldn't work on your MacBook Pro.

My tips.

1. Quit NikonScan after every roll of film.
2. Cycle power on scanner after quitting NikonScan

This seems to make for a good stable working environment. If you try to avoid those two steps, things start crashing and the post-processing of images seems to suffer greatly.

I've processed over 40,000 images on Intel Macs following those two rules.

Well, I started trying it... but NikonScan 4.1 even refuses to install...

Well, I started trying it... but NikonScan 4.1 even
refuses to install...

Wha?? I've installed it on four Intel Macs... 3 Minis and 1 MacBook without any problems.

You do have to install version 4.0 before running the 4.1 installer though.

Nikon has never put much effort into support for Mac OS X with their scanners. You would not believe how bad it was in the early days with buggy software and crashes. Since then Nikon has improved, but basically they do not know what they are doing and they do not seem to care. Maybe OS X support isn't in their budget. Who knows?

The lack of support was one reason why I chose not to buy yet another of their scanners. Realistically, for the best results you are better off going completely digital and putting your effort into becoming a Photoshop expert. Not only will you be able to do a lot more than you would with slides, you will save money on film and processing.

Mac OS X (10.4.8)

Mac OS X (10.4.8)

> Nikon has never put much effort into support for Mac

OS X with their scanners. You would not believe how
bad it was in the early days with buggy software and
crashes. Since then Nikon has improved, but basically
they do not know what they are doing and they do not
seem to care. Maybe OS X support isn't in their
budget. Who knows?

They do support OS X ... just not OS X on Intel Macs.

Nikon support is just bad in general. In my many years of dealing with them, very few of my issues were Mac issues but all of my issues were poorly handled.

I prefer Nikon scanners, period. Over the last seven years I've tried others' film scanners. If you think Nikon software is bad, you haven't used a Polaroid film scanner and software.

I prefer to use Macs for my four Nikon scanners. If Nikon decides to abandon the Mac platform, I'll have to just get four PCs. I doubt they will considering that professionals using high end scanners to a greater extent are Mac users.

> Realistically, for

the best results you are better off going completely
digital and putting your effort into becoming a
Photoshop expert. Not only will you be able to do a
lot more than you would with slides, you will save
money on film and processing.

I really think you missed the point here. And you also make three very gross assumptions.

One, that pictures from digital cameras are better than high resolution digital scans from film. Perhaps, but that's clearly not always the case and still debatable.

Two, that users of digital scanners somehow lack Photoshop skills because their digital files don't come from digital cameras. Being good at Photoshop has nothing to do with where the digital files originate.

The third is that people are only shooting new pictures on film just to immediately convert to digital. Most people are spending $2000 on a film scanner plus accessories because they have a real need to digitally archive film and slides sometimes going back many years.

(2) Mini 1.66 Ghz Duo Core • MacBook 1.83 Ghz Duo Core Mac OS X (10.4.8) (2) B & W G3/500 • Gigabit G4/1.6 Ghz Dual

I heard there was a 30% improvement in Rosetta performance after the 10.4.8 update.

I can verify the following as per my three Intel Macs and three Nikon LS5000 scanners with NikonScan 4.0-

For a 36 exposure roll of film using my presets.

10.4.7 - 79 minutes
10.4.8 - 69 minutes

Looks like a 12% gain in speed.

I am rather surprised to read many of the comments on this thread. I have the Nikon Coolscan LS 5000 ED.

Firstly, as far as I can find on Nikons web site (and Version Tracker, and Google search) the latest versions of Nikon Scan 4 for both Windows and Mac OS X is 4.0.2. Why are people referring to Nikon Scan 4.1?

Secondly, Nikon themselves currently state on their web site that Nikon Scan 4 does not currently work on Intel Macs. I thought I tried installing it on my MacBook a few months ago, and was unsuccessful (am I thinking of something else, perhaps?).

Thirdly, I would like to point out that Nikon Scan 4.0.2 is extremely unstable software. I have tried it with an iMac G5 and a PowerMac G5, both running reliably in every other respect. With Nikon Scan 4.0.2 it crashes frequently (typically after every 4 or 5 images) and hangs at the end of the scan before saving roughly once or twice every film strip.

It is very confusing considering variable responses on forums from 'no problems here' to 'not worth trying, use Vuescan'. The outcome from numerous communications with Nikon even led to them recommening that I return the scanner because it must be a hardware fault.

Finally, yesterday I decided to install Nikon Scan 4.0.2 under Windows XP Professional on my MacBook. I have now scanned two sets of negatives without any hangs or crashes at all.

From this I must conclude that

1) The hardware is not faulty
2) The Mac OS X version of Nikon Scan 4.0.2 is not worth using (I have tried it with 2 different Macs, and without other peripherals attached).

My suspicions are:
a) It may be that recent versions of OS X have caused these problems - perhaps those using it successfully are using versions older than 10.4.7 or 10.4.8?
b) Perhaps it is certain settings that contribute to the problems. eg. when I was scanning slides it crashed regularly but never hung, I also wonder whether having ICE turned on or using Multisampling contributes to the problems.

I have tried Vuescan's demo but cannot get results that look as good as with Nikon Scan. Out of sheer frustration at Nikon Scans instability I have even gone back to Vuescan and tried again for hours altering settings etc to get equivalent results, but again without achieving as nice results as Nikon Scan.

In conclusion, I have decided that from now on I am going to use Nikon Scan with Windows XP. If Nikon ever bring out a newer Mac version (presumably to be Intel compatible) then I will try it again. Perhaps a new Universal Binary version might both allow it to work on Intel Macs AND fix the problems running it on PPC Macs.

If anyone disagrees with what I have written, then please provide details of where you got Nikon Scan 4.1 from (a link would be useful), what Mac you are using, what version of OS X you are using, and what model of Coolscan you are using. I am utterly convinced that it is the Mac version of Nikon Scan that is at fault here.

> Firstly, as far as I can find on Nikons web site (and

Version Tracker, and Google search) the latest
versions of Nikon Scan 4 for both Windows and Mac OS
X is 4.0.2. Why are people referring to Nikon Scan
4.1?

True. If it was me, then I mistyped 4.1 instead of 4.02. I was referring to the latest NikonScan version which is still only 4.02.

> Secondly, Nikon themselves currently state on their

web site that Nikon Scan 4 does not currently work on
Intel Macs. I thought I tried installing it on my
MacBook a few months ago, and was unsuccessful (am I
thinking of something else, perhaps?).

They don't say "it doesn't work". They say they do not support it yet. Big difference. Over the last couple months, I put more than 36,000 negatives through three LS 5000 USB scanners with three lower end Intel Macs. Two Minis and a MacBook. All 1.66 or 1.83 Ghz duo-core with 512 MB RAM.

> Thirdly, I would like to point out that Nikon Scan

4.0.2 is extremely unstable software. I have tried
it with an iMac G5 and a PowerMac G5, both running
reliably in every other respect. With Nikon Scan
4.0.2 it crashes frequently (typically after every 4
or 5 images) and hangs at the end of the scan before
saving roughly once or twice every film strip.

Yes, NikonScan 4.02 on PPC Macs is just as unstable as on the Intel Macs. It's also a huge memory hog. I see some small problems but so far nothing unique to the Intel Mac platform.

> It is very confusing considering variable responses

on forums from 'no problems here' to 'not worth
trying, use Vuescan'. The outcome from numerous
communications with Nikon even led to them
recommening that I return the scanner because it must
be a hardware fault.

I'd never trust much of what Nikon Tech support recommends. If they don't have your problem in their "book", "send it in to us in New-York" is a typical response. Many weeks wasted myself for other issues with their SCSI LS 2000 scanner.

> Finally, yesterday I decided to install Nikon Scan

4.0.2 under Windows XP Professional on my MacBook. I
have now scanned two sets of negatives without any
hangs or crashes at all.

From this I must conclude that

1) The hardware is not faulty
2) The Mac OS X version of Nikon Scan 4.0.2 is not
worth using (I have tried it with 2 different Macs,
and without other peripherals attached).

My suspicions are:
a) It may be that recent versions of OS X have caused
these problems - perhaps those using it successfully
are using versions older than 10.4.7 or 10.4.8?

Nope. Running 10.4.8 here and noticed a 12% speed increase in scanning over 10.4.7 with Rosetta improvements. Also scanning files to EXTERNAL USB hard drives. No problems with that either. The Nikon FireWire LS 4000 scanners used to only be able to scan to internal drives. The USB 2.0 interface on the LS 5000 is quite an improvement for Nikon.

> b) Perhaps it is certain settings that contribute to

the problems. eg. when I was scanning slides it
crashed regularly but never hung, I also wonder
whether having ICE turned on or using Multisampling
contributes to the problems.

There are some things to keep in mind.

1. The various bulk film adapters require different amounts of additional RAM. If you see crashing on one adapter and not another, then try more RAM.

2. ICE and multi-sampling increase scan time and also use more RAM. I use ICE but not multi-sampling.

> I have tried Vuescan's demo but cannot get results

that look as good as with Nikon Scan. Out of sheer
frustration at Nikon Scans instability I have even
gone back to Vuescan and tried again for hours
altering settings etc to get equivalent results, but
again without achieving as nice results as Nikon
Scan.

Vuescan is excellent. But I don't think it has the clean interface stability and ease of use required.

> In conclusion, I have decided that from now on I am

going to use Nikon Scan with Windows XP. If Nikon
ever bring out a newer Mac version (presumably to be
Intel compatible) then I will try it again. Perhaps
a new Universal Binary version might both allow it to
work on Intel Macs AND fix the problems running it on
PPC Macs.

If anyone disagrees with what I have written, then
please provide details of where you got Nikon Scan
4.1 from (a link would be useful), what Mac you are
using, what version of OS X you are using, and what
model of Coolscan you are using. I am utterly
convinced that it is the Mac version of Nikon Scan
that is at fault here.

Yes, the Mac version of NikonScan has always been unstable and it's not designed or supported under Rosetta. 3.14 is OS 9 only and 4.02 is the latest for OS X - (officially) PPC only.

Here's how I've put through over 1000 rolls of film using LS-5000 scanners and Intel Macs under 10.4.8...

1. Run no other software.
2. After completing/ejecting each roll of film, quit NikonScan.
3. Turn OFF and then ON the LS-5000 itself.
4. After scanner reboots, restart NikonScan software.

The quality of scans has remained consistent and crashing only happens once every few days instead of "all the time". Remember, I'm running three set-ups full time 12 hours per day, so that's only ONE crash total for all three... not each.

Under 10.4.8 vs. 10.4.7, scan time for a full roll is 69 down from 79 minutes. That's with a 30 MB file size and my very specific ICE settings.

I think you should try the scanner with fewer ICE settings and less sampling just to see if that helps. If it does, more memory may be the big cure for you.

BTW- I also had similar good results with a FireWire LS 4000 Nikon scanner on these same Intel Macs.

Good luck.

Thanks for the reply. I've spent most of today scanning negatives using the Windows version of 4.0.2 with no crashes at all. Oddly some film types seem to cause it to hang at the end of the scanning process before saving (clicking Stop recovers it) just as it did in OS X. Cropping to a slightly smaller area seems to solve this problem - strangely!

They don't say "it doesn't work". They say they do
not support it yet. Big difference. Over the last
couple months, I put more than 36,000 negatives
through three LS 5000 USB scanners with three lower
end Intel Macs. Two Minis and a MacBook. All 1.66
or 1.83 Ghz duo-core with 512 MB RAM.

OK, good point. I honestly can't remember if I tried installing the Mac version on my MacBook - but if it's not more stable than on a PPC then it's no advantage to me. It would be good if an Intel supported version also made it more stable generally though.

1. The various bulk film adapters require different
amounts of additional RAM. If you see crashing on
one adapter and not another, then try more RAM.

What do you mean by more RAM? Presumably I can't add RAM to the scanner itself, and in OS X I cannot allocate more memory to the applications. Do you mean add more RAM to my Mac? I have 2.5GB in my PowerMac G5 which is the main computer I've been using with the scanner. I have 1GB in my MacBook which is fine under Windows (haven't tried the MacBook under OS X).

2. ICE and multi-sampling increase scan time and
also use more RAM. I use ICE but not
multi-sampling.

Again, surely 2.5GB RAM with nothing else running should be more than enough?

Here's how I've put through over 1000 rolls of film
using LS-5000 scanners and Intel Macs under
10.4.8...

1. Run no other software.
2. After completing/ejecting each roll of film, quit
NikonScan.
3. Turn OFF and then ON the LS-5000 itself.
4. After scanner reboots, restart NikonScan
software.

To me the hassle of crashes and hangs is that I have to go through the time consuming process of switching off the scanner, restarting it, launching the software again etc.

While doing all this between each film might save having to repeat previews and cropping, I cannot see that it's much less hassle than putting up with the crashes? Really this is seriously poor software, and having to use workarounds like this is crazy. If there was a good alternative to the hardware I would strongly advise others against buying Coolscans due to the poor support and software. It has certainly put me off buying any of their other products such as digital cameras.

I think you should try the scanner with fewer ICE
settings and less sampling just to see if that helps.
If it does, more memory may be the big cure for
you.

Worth trying IF a successful result indicated more ram would definitely help, but again I cannot believe that 2.5GB isn't enough?