Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/12/11
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]I bought the Polaroid 4000 when it first came out and was very impressed. I was able to enlarge portions of negatives and get truly wonderful results. I had no experience with any other scanners until then. My thoughts were to buy the most recent technology, which Polaroid was. At 4000dpi vs the 2700dpi of the Nikon LS2000, the choice seemed clear. About 6 months after purchasing the Polaroid scanner, I began to get dark horizontal lines across one section of each negative/positive I scanned. Also, the software was becoming more of a nusance as it did not adjust well to different types of emulsions. My understanding is that the Polariod scanner uses some kind of lighting device to scan with, whereas the Nikon uses three LEDs (red, green and blue). The LEDs tend to have less variance in the light emitted than the Polaroid light. At any rate, I returned the Polaroid (still under warranty) to Keeble & Shuchatt and showed them the output. They very kindly said I could have another Polaroid or an LS2000. I went with the Nikon, and haven't regretted it for a second. The detail I can obtain is every bit as good as the Polaroid, and the software is great. It has no problem recognizing various emulsions. For some images scanned and posted, visit my Leica (to keep this on topic) at: http://members2.clubphoto.com/bob194561/ All of these photos were scanned with the LS2000 @ 2700dpi using 16X sampling. They were then converted from 16 to 8bits in Photoshop 5, resized to 640x480 (or thereabouts) and saved and uploaded as a medium format (5) JPEG file. If you click on any picture, you can see it enlarged. I'm no pro. I just love being able to do this in the comfort of my home without shutting myself off from my family for hours whilst printing. It has truly increased the joy I get from my Leicas. The Nikon is a quality machine that has provided me with beautiful color and B&W 8x10s that are plastered all over my home, my office and some on the above WEB pages. Hope this help the original poster make a decision. Bob Adler