Nikon Super Coolscan 4000 ED

The Nikon Super Coolscan 4000 ED is a one of the highest quality slide/film scanners around at an affordable price. It scans at a maximum resolution of 4000 dpi (dots per inch; therefore the higher the resolution the better picture quality) and has many features, which we will look at in more detail.

I ordered my Nikon Super Coolscan 4000 ED online at WarnersImaging.co.uk. At the time of purchase, which was February 2003, it cost ...
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APPEARANCE
The Nikon Super Coolscan 4000 ED is primarily silvery grey with a black plastic sliding “door” at the front, which is where the adapters are inserted. The device is very sleek and much smaller than I was expecting it to be. Photos on the internet gave me the impression that it would be the size of a computer tower, but far from it. You can pick the device up with one hand (although I don’t recommend it in case you drop it!)
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The Nikon Super Coolscan 4000 ED is a one of the highest quality slide/film scanners around at an affordable price. It scans at a maximum resolution of 4000 dpi (dots per inch; therefore the higher the resolution the better picture quality) and has many features, which we will look at in more detail.

I ordered my Nikon Super Coolscan 4000 ED online at WarnersImaging.co.uk. At the time of purchase, which was February 2003, it cost me £958.81 inclusive of Vat. This was one of the cheapest places that I could find it. I would definitely recommend shopping around though, as some stores were selling it for as high as £1200.

THE PACKAGE
From WarnersImaging.co.uk I got the following items, but remember that different stores may provide a different package. Its worthwhile emailing them to enquire as to what exactly you get for the price!

·Nikon Super Coolscan 4000 ED
·Slide Mount Adapter – for scanning individual mounted slides
·Strip Film Adapter – for scanning a strip of negatives, or a role of film
·Nikon Scan 3.1 Driver Software
·IEEE 1394 PCI Board (This is an interface board which needs to be installed inside your computer if you do not already have one installed. Without it the scanner will not work. If you do not have a spare PCI slot in your computer then you will not be able to by this scanner. If unsure ask!)

APPEARANCE
The Nikon Super Coolscan 4000 ED is primarily silvery grey with a black plastic sliding “door” at the front, which is where the adapters are inserted. The device is very sleek and much smaller than I was expecting it to be. Photos on the internet gave me the impression that it would be the size of a computer tower, but far from it. You can pick the device up with one hand (although I don’t recommend it in case you drop it!)

The approximate dimensions are as follows:-
Width = 3.5 inches
Height = 6.5 inches
Depth = 12.25 inches

INSTALLATION
The most difficult apart about the setting up of the scanner installation is installing the Interface Card. If you are worried about going inside your computer then I would recommend you ask for assistance. I am not an expert at installing hardware (in fact this was my first), but the User’s Guide, which comes with the board, is very easy to follow. I managed to install it within 10 minutes.

However, there are minimum system requirements needed to install this card. They are as follows:-
-One free PCI slot in your computer (if unsure ask someone)
-Minimum Pentium 166Mhz Processor (Recommended is Pentium II or above)
-Minimum of 32mb RAM (Recommended 64mb or above)
-Minimum 20mb free space on Hard Drive (Recommended 200mb)

When the card is in your computer you then have to install a driver so that it works correctly. Everything is supplied with the card and again is very simple as the instructions guide you through step by step.

The next step, before you can use the scanner, is to install the Nikon Scan 3.1 Driver Software. This acts as an interface between the scanner and the computer. It is very similar to the scanning dialog boxes you get with an ordinary scanner such as a flatbed scanner.

It should be noted that all software and drivers in this package are on CD Rom.

Once this is installed the scanner can be plugged in and ready to use. All in all it took me about half an hour to get everything up and running.

FEATURES OF THE SCAN WINDOW
When you open the Nikon Scan 3.1 software you are faced with the scanning dialog box. Here is where you control all the functions of the scanner and get your desired image.

There is a lot to take in when you first use this scanner so be prepared to be patient. Although great images can be created at a push of a button, they could be improved 100% by experimenting with the different functions.

So what’s on offer?

~Control Panel~

• Settings Button – Save, Delete, Import, Export settings, Restore factory settings.
• Eject Button – for ejecting film when using the strip film adapter
• Auto Focus Button – Focus on the centre of an image. You can choose a different point of focus if needed.
• Auto Exposure Button – Should be done before scanning to adjust exposure.
• Zoom – to zoom in and out on an image.

~Information Panel~
This is a box on the left hand side which provides the following information:-

• Orientation – Shows the relationship of the image to the original. E.g. whether its been flipped or rotated.
• Dimensions & File Size – Shows the file size in megabytes and colour dimensions.
• Image Enhancement – indicates whether the image has been digitally enhanced or not.
• Preview Button – does a quick scan to give an image for you to work with.
• Scan Button – when all your settings have been altered to create the desired affect, pressing the scan button will do a complete scan and create your new image which can then be saved.

~Tool Chest~
The tool chest is a floating menu bar which can be moved around the screen or hidden if required. It is here that you do all your adjustments to your previewed image to enhance it, or create specific effects. The tools available are as follows:-

*Layout – Flip, Rotate, Zoom or create a crop selection on your image.

*Crop – Adjust the resolution of the final image (maximum is 4000 dpi). Choose whether to fix your image to a certain size in width or length, or choose to scan the image at a percentage of the original image (This helps to reduce the file size!)

*Curves – This is a colour editing tool. It is used to alter the tones within an image. i.e. shadows, mid-tones and highlights. However I have not used this aspect much so unable to comment on it.

*Colour Balance – This is another colour editing tool, this time to adjust the brightness and contrast of the image. Also, the Red, Green and Blue colours can also be adjusted.

*LCH Editor – Another colour editing tool, but have not used this to be able to comment.

*Unsharp mask – Increases sharpness by making edges more distinct. However, use this too much on a normal photograph and it will become distorted.

*Digital ICE – This is one of the best functions of the scanner. It reduces the effect of dust and scratches which maybe on the original slide. Also, it can restore colour lost through fading. I use ICE most of the time as the difference between the original scanned image and the modified image is amazing. There are few options to choose, so you can have colour restoration switched on, but dust effect off. The disadvantage of having Digital ICE switched on is that the time taken to scan a slide dramatically increased.

SPEED OF SCAN
When the image being scanned has not been modified by the Digital ICE and is on maximum resolution then the scanning speed for one slide is about 30 seconds.

When Digital ICE is switched on in one way or another a slide scan can take about 50 to 60 seconds at maximum resolution.

When scanning a lot of slides this can get quiet tiresome at a minute per scan, plus time to adjust the image.

FINAL OPINION
The Nikon Coolscan 4000 surprised me at how easy it was to get a slide scanned and saved onto my computer.
As mentioned before however, it is strongly recommended that you play around with functions within the Tool Chest, so that you get the desired result.
I have scanned over a 1000 slides now, but I always find something new to enhance the image. Don’t assume that the final image produced is going to always be correct r the best. I find that my scanner tends to add a blue tinge to the image, so I have to reduce the amount of blue slightly. Why this is I do not know. Experiment and be patient and you will get fantastic results. The images are at such a high quality (especially when done on maximum resolution of 4000dpi) that they can be printed out or used for publishing.

The Nikon Super Coolscan 4000ED is definitely worth its money and is one of the best slide scanners that I have encountered.

 

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