Buy Nikon Super Coolscan 8000 ED Film ScannerNikon Super Coolscan 8000 ED Film Scanner Product Description:
- Scans 35mm, 120/220, 16mm, electron microscope and prepared microscope slides
- True 4,000 dpi optical resolution, 48-bit color
- Large diameter Nikkor ED high-resolution lens
- LED technology avoids costly recalibrations and light-source replacements
- IEEE-1394 Firewire interface; PC and Mac compatible
Product Description
An external film scanner with a 4,000 dpi optical resolution / Scans 120/220 up to 6x9, 35mm, 16mm, & microscope slide / Firewire
Customer Reviews
Most helpful customer reviews
42 of 44 people found the following review helpful.
Nikon's Medium Format Film Scanner--the 8000ED
By D. A. Lindsay
If you have both 35mm and medium format transparencies and or negatives to bring into the digital age, I heartily recommend the Nikon Super Coolscan 8000ED. Firewire equipped, it is designed to work easily with the current line of graphics capable computers. Its bundled software has worked well for me (using a MAC with OSX and Firewire) and features three special capabilities. (1) Digital ICE3 will gently remove scratches and dust saving you hours of retouching (it doesn't work well with Kodachrome and black and white silver based emulsions). (2) ROC will restore colors to faded slides. It really works! (3) GEM gives you the ability to affect grain appearance. For the highest resolution imaging (4000DPI) the process takes some time. You also need to make sure that you have a fairly up to date computer. Some serious computing is going on here and with file sizes in the hundreds of Megabytes, you can't run this with your TRS-80. I run the Nikon Scan 3 software separately from PhotoShop 7 so that I can run one while working with the other. Otherwise while it's scanning, it will lock up your PS from use. It comes with a myriad of trays which work generally quite well but it cannot handle stack loaders. This is strictly a one strip at a time scanner. After all, these are some serious file sizes. While expensive, the 8000ED is approaching the quality of a drum scanner without the mess and the expense. For most work this is truly going to deliver.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful.
Best scanner for the $$--still.
By SFC
When Nikon discontinued the 9000 scanner, the price shot into the stratosphere. So what's serious film photographer supposed to do now? At less than half the price of the 9000, the 8000 does almost the same job, though a little slower. Let's face it--there is simply nothing besides the 8000 between the Epsons at around $700 and the 9000 at $4000 used or $6000 new (if you can even find one...).Yes, the 8000 is a little long in the tooth, and most units are at least 10 years old. It's a little slow, a little noisy, and has a few quirks that need to be worked around. But if you shoot MF film and want the highest possible resolution and can't afford $40 for a single drum scan, the 8000 will do it. Sharpness compared to an Epson flatbed (I own the V500) is noticeably better, and the 8000 is resolving grain that the Epson cannot. What else is better compared to an Epson? For one thing, the Nikon, supposedly due to its light source, picks up far less dust and scratches on the film. And Digital ICE is more effective. Color in general is better--sometimes it seems the Epson only guesses at what colors my negative are. If you need to print big, the Epsons simply aren't suitable. And there's no point in using fine lenses (I have a Mamiya 6 system) unless you can get a good scan. I had no idea my lenses were so sharp until I started using the 8000. Surface detail on objects suddenly appears, and other fine details invisible to the Epson.The 8000 does have its quirks, however, and they are well-known and discussed on the internet. The first is that while the holders are generally excellent and heavy-duty (they put the Epson film holders to shame), the standard MF may not get the best sharpness from 120 film due to the difficulty of holding the film flat. Many users opt for the glass holder, which holds the film flat between two sheets of glass, but at over $250 (used), it's not a cheap option. There's a cheaper one: the glass from my betterscanning.com film holder fits perfectly, and can be had for only $29.99. My scans are now consistently grain-sharp. The second quirk of the Nikon is its tendency to create banding patterns. This only happens in fast mode, and can be eliminated by always opting for "fine" mode. I've only seen it so far in 120, but not in the last set of 35mm scans I did. It's not a big deal, but does slow down the scans considerably.Software may be an issue for some users, depending on the computer/operating system used. Some report success with Nikon Scan software (free from Nikons' website), and some don't. I worked great for a while on my Mac running 10.5.8, but then it refused. Fortunately, Vuescan has come to the rescue with it's ridiculously cheap ($39.99) scanning software. It does just about everything the Nikon software does, including batch scanning (many have claimed it won't batch scan on the 8000, but that's nonsense--you just have to configure it correctly. One advantage of Vuescan is that it'll run any other scanner you have. The same can't be said of Silverfast, which is scanner-specific. Although Silverfast is probably better, it's also over $400.In summary, the NIkon 8000 ED does have its shortcomings, but there is currently nothing that gets close to its native resolution for what it costs (I never have to sharpen scans). If you're committed to film and can't afford the 9000, then get an 8000--it's the next best thing. The price will no doubt drift upwards with that of the 9000 (all the other recent Nikon scanners are now multiples of their original price), so if you can find one, buy it.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful.Medium Format Film Scanning Bang For Your Buck Best
By E. Klatt
.This review was written for Ebay in 2008. With it's successor going for twice as much on the used market (when it can be found) and Nikon's shipping schedule as inconsistent as it can be just when your looking for the newer LS-9000, the 8000ED becomes a real alternative, especially when, with a little research, you begin to realize that even though the 9000 solved the few problems the 8000 has, those problems are minor and always ready for a simple work around that can result in scans to be proud of, even if the process might become somewhat lengthened. In the end it's about image quality; color, contrast and resolution along with a basis for beautiful output. At today's used price, the Coolscan LS-8000ED is more than hard to beat. The gratification your film should engender as it moves to be seen in the digital world will come well within reach with the 8000ED.
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