Re: [Leica] Nikon LS-2000 scanner

[Joe Berenbaum <joe-b@dircon.co.uk>]

At 11:25 PM 3/16/99 +0100, you wrote:
>Friends,
>Seeing some slide scans which Pascal did for me, I have concluded that I
>*nned* the Nikon LS-2000 scanner. I can buy it in Amsterdam at a good
>price, and I have a choice of getting it with or without the Silverfast
>software. The price difference is about 700 NLG, or about $350. My
>question to LUGgers who have this scanner: is the software worth the
>additional cost? If I opt to buy the scanner without the software, what
>am I missing out on?
>Nathan

I've had an LS2000 for three months. Before that I had no scanning
knowledge, so please consider my comments with that in mind! It is the most
amazing machine. I was initially pleased to find that my scanner had
Silverfast bundled with it, and that software looks good on the screen- it
looks like you're getting something. In practice I found that I couldn't
use it to do what I wanted- if I wanted to take advantage of the greater
bit depth of this scanner to make 12-bit bit depth scans, which is what
makes it so good, and why it costs so much, then I needed to scan at the
greatest bit depth, choosing the 12-bit option before scanning. Silverfast
won't let you do this and also adjust the curve of the image at the same
time. For difficult black and white images I have found this ajustment at
the scanning stage essential. You can try to manipulate the image curve
afterwards in Photoshop, but it isn't the same. By that time you have
already lost data that cannot be put back by fiddling around afterwards,
and you cannot get the ajustment "after the fact"- it sometimes really does
need to be done at the scanning stage, or you just don't get a useable
result. I find this particularly with high contrast and night shots. I find
that the Nikonscan software that comes with the LS2000 does allow both
image curve ajustment and scanning at the highest bit depth simultaneously,
so that is what I use. To get a version of Silverfast that allows this, you
have to spend thousands. Unless I'm missing something fundemental I must
conclude that there is no reason for me to use Silverfast as available for
the LS2000- unless I want to do 8-bit scans, and then I might as well be
using a cheaper 8-bit scanner. 

Joe Berenbaum