Nikon’s Super Coolscan 4000

Article by Helen Longest–Saccone & Marty Saccone

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While we have been more than satisfied with Nikon’s LS 2000 scanner, we felt we would get even better scans when we heard that Nikon was coming out with their Super Coolscan 4000 ED. The description stated that it would be ideal for professional photographers, designers, web masters and producers, graphic artists, publishers and other imaging specialists who require the best possible digital replication.

We have found this scanner’s hardware to be exceptional, enabling us—in some instances—to do beautiful scans of difficult images. The slides scanned have been rendered in beautiful detail using the 4000.

A perfect example of a scan that had previously been unsatisfactory is an image of midnight sun on a lake in the Northwest Territories of Canada. The detail in the highlights had been virtually lost when scanned on other scanners. The Nikon Super Coolscan 4000 ED maintained detail in all areas.

An impressive result when working with the 4000 has been the amount of detail rendered in darker areas. As an example, nuances has been preserved in the darker portion of images. For us, this ability to capture detail in dark and shadowed areas is valuable. We do not want to have a scan block up.

Sharpness, of course, is critical. While we have been satisfied with the results of the LS 2000 we feel there is additional crispness in images scanned using the Nikon Super Coolscan 4000 ED.

As photographers it is important to replicate our photographs. As editors, we want to render on the printed page what you have captured in your images—nothing more, but certainly nothing less either. We want to maintain all highlight or shadow detail.

In our test, the 4000 scanner required less sharpening in the final step thereby reducing the chance of pixelation. The one exception where a fair amount of sharpening is required is when scanning images with close tonal values, such as autumn color scenes. In our test, we found it difficult with both the 2000 and 4000 scanners to get the detail in some fall scene scans that we saw in the slides. So in these cases we scanned the images on the 4000 using SilverFast HDR at 100 percent size at 4000 dpi and then did the color correction in HDR on the 2000 which has the full complement of SilverFast software.

While we tested the scanner with Nikon’s built-in software, we chose to work with LaserSoft’s familiar SilverFast Ai 5 software. This is the software we have become accustomed to while scanning thousands of images over the past two years with our Nikon LS 2000. We are comfortable with the SilverFast software and feel it is a wonderful addition to any scanner making prescan adjustments simple.

We had surmised that the Nikon Super Coolscan 4000 ED would produce higher quality scans, and we were certainly pleased with the results. The scanner takes advantage of Nikon’s scanner Nikkor ED lens technology, featuring extra–low dispersion glass for superior image sharpness and color correction with minimal chromatic aberration. The scanner’s sophisticated imaging system integrates a scanner Nikkor lens with Nikon ED optics and proprietary LED technology. The scanner features an optical density of 0 to 4.2 and 4000 dpi for the widest dynamic range and highest resolution than any desktop film scanner on the market today.

A custom CCD complements the lens to boost overall image quality. In addition, Nikon’s proprietary LED technology accurately controls color and permits the CCD to run at a much lower sensitivity resulting in less noise and truer scans. The LEDs, which precisely control the individual color channels of red, green and blue, enhance the capability of the Digital ICE3 imaging technology to harness the true color.

This scanner has Nikon Scan 3.0 software and Digital ICE3(TM) technology. Details about the scanner software can be found at Nikon's Web site: www.nikonusa.com.

In addition to the Nikon Super Coolscan 4000 ED, there is also the Coolscan IV ED and Super Coolscan 8000 ED. Nikon has taken film scanning to a new level by offering sharp Scanner Nikkor ED optics, a highly accurate LED light source, and the versatile Nikon Scan 3.0 software. Nikon now enables you to produce perfectly scanned images from a wide variety of film formats.

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