Nikon LS4000 ED with DigitalICE Feature Summary

The 4000 ED model has a true sensor resolution of 3,964-pixels (effective 4000 ppi), has a IEEE 1394 (FireWire) interface, built-in power supply (no wall-wart), 14-bits per color A/D converter, and comes with adapters for mounted slides, 35mm film strips, and single cut frames of 35mm film. An optional adapter is available for roll film (up to 42 frames), as is a mounted slide feeder (up to 50 slides). Unlike some scanners which use hot or cold light lamps for illumination, the Nikon 4000 uses red, green, and blue LEDs for lighting and color separation. A IEEE 1394 interface card and cable is included, as well as Nikon Scan 3.1 software for MacOS and Windows. The scan software can be used standalone, or as a plug-in to any Photoshop-compatible imaging tool. The scanner also supports over-sampling (up to 16x), providing multiple scans of the same image to reduce CCD noise.

Cool as ICE

One of the reasons I chose this scanner for my own projects, including preparing my images for a stock photo agency, was the high resolution as well as the new version of ASF's Digital ICE Suite. This software and hardware combination work together during image acquisition to clean up scratches (ICE), color (ROC), and film grain (GEM). Digital ROC helps fix problems with film fading over time, restoring original color gamma and tonality, by reading the dye signature in the film stock. Digital GEM detects and removes grain during the scanning process. The latter technology was of particular interest to me.

For my own work, I have a large number of 35mm negatives shot a decade ago on motion picture film stock. At the time, the tonality range was exceptional, but the film was highly susceptible to scratches and suffers from grain and some hot spots from light leaks in the hand-loaded carts. Rather than dispose of some images taken of which I am fond, such as the St. Louis arch, I considered the ICE3 suite to be a possible savior.

Happily, in practice, I found that the different ICE technologies greatly improved the image scans versus the other types of scanners I had tried to salvage these shots with previously. If you look at the example images here, you can see that the left scan (a close-up from one of my arch images) has small vertical scratches, and high grain, and many small emulsion defects in the image which are not from dust. In the right scan, using the ICE3 technology, the grain has been greatly reduced, and the defects and scratches completely removed. I used the extreme settings to make the differences more noticeable, but the technology worked wonders on these poor quality negatives, even at more moderate settings.

The technology takes time, however. Compare these scan times: with the overscan setting at 8x, the 3"x4", 3.4MB image took one minute and 46 seconds to scan in 8-bit RGB mode. With ICE set to fine, ROC set to 2 (medium), and GEM set to 4 (maximum), the scan took ten minutes and 45 seconds. (Tested on a Mac G4/500, OS 9.1, with 768MB RAM, and 95MB allocated to Nikon Scan.)

With good quality slides or negatives the scan quality is exceptional and the multi-sampling feature does seem to improve the scans further. Since many of us 30-something shooters also have a lot of Kodachrome slides, I was pleased to see a Kodachrome-specific setting in the Nikon Scan software. In no uncertain terms, this is the best desktop scanner I've used in the past eight years. For my purposes, it's a keeper!

Using the scanner is very straightforward once the proper drivers and software are installed. For Windows users, the well-organized printed manual includes step-by-step help for your specific version (e.g., 98, 2000, ME). A sliding cover on the front moves down and you simply slide in the appropriate film adapter which locks in place (and is so indicated in the scan software). The adapters are sturdy enough for prolonged use although I found the FH-3 strip film holder for single frames a likely candidate for breakage.

Plays Well with Others

The new version of Nikon Scan software is well designed and provides a simple interface with tool palette on the right which can be maximized, scrolled, and undocked. It's well enough thought out so that if you drag an item to its own window a second tool window is added to the menu so that if you close the second undocked palette, it remains undocked until you redock it. You can resize the preview window and update it to get clearer previews at larger sizes, and preview is reasonably fast (about a minute). A tab allows you to view either an unmodified or modified version of the preview, although not side-by-side. The software doesn't provide all the complex editing tools and multiple screens like either Microtek or Kodak's scan software, but it has everything you need in easy to get to selectors. I found the ease of use refreshing, quite frankly. In fact, the ICE3 suite did a much better job of compensating for color than most people could accomplish with curves and levels.

I was pleased that there were no conflicts in using the scanner concurrently with my external Maxtor FireWire 80GB AV drive as the "scratch drive," or with a USB hub, floppy and printer connected. No crashes, lock-ups, or lost-connections which have happened with other FireWire products I've reviewed. Although the manual makes note of possible conflicts, with my system the 4000 ED seems to "play well with others."

Considering the 4000 ED is priced about what less-featured scanners with lower resolution were selling for only a year ago, it's a comparative bargain. And the combination of Nikon optics, Digital ICE3, a 4,000 ppi CCD, flexible adapter options, and high-speed FireWire connection, make it the best film scanner under $2,000 out there as of this writing. This product is highly recommended for anyone who needs to scan 35mm format film, particularly for print reproduction.

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