Buyer's Guide: Nikon Super Coolscan 9000 ED Film Scanner

See our review, including where to buy at a good price.

In general, the prices of film scanners have been going done while their capabilities have bee going up. So with the Nikon Super CoolScan 9000 ED Film Scanner being somewhat of a pricey option, why would this be considered a good investment for your money?

For starters, the 9000 ED handles a wide variety of film formats such as 35mm strips & slides, medium format film slides, glass slides and more. It scans with good speed, shadow speed and good color accuracy that other scanners can't really match up to. In comparison to the older 8000 ED, the newer 9000 ED is just flat-out faster and better.

Its quite a big machine, but relatively easy to set up and use. One drawback is that it doesn't connect with a USB cable, instead, it uses a FireWire cable and if you don't have a FireWire input, then you can use the PCI FireWire interface card that Nikon provides.

The Nikon Scan and View software is compatible with Windows 98SE or higher and Mac OS 9.1 or later, so compatibility is generally not an issue. The manual and quick-start guide are pretty well written to get users started.

Within the software, you can raise the shadow detail or reduce noise by 16 times, or you can enhance the color accuracy by bumping it up to 48-bit. With a variety of preset color spaces and color correction options, the sofware proves to be pretty powerful for managing colors.

In independent lab tests, the 9000 ED was able to take a 35mm color slide and turn it into a max-resolution, 48-bit, 108mb file in under 2:30, which is notably faster than the older version of this scanner. With the image correction technology, most of the minor imperfections and dust were removed in about 5 minutes, outputting an excellent image with very high color accuracy, plenty of detail, and noticeably high resolution.

In our lab tests, the 9000 ED churned out a full-res (4000 ppi), 48-bit, 108MB file scan from a color 35mm slide in just 2 min 23 sec (1 min 48 sec faster than the 8000 ED, and more than 30 sec quicker than the Scan Elite 5400). With automatic flaw-fixing Digital ICE turned to its highest setting and multisampling off, the 9000 ED removed most minor blemishes and dust, and took just 5 min 6 sec.

It would have been nice if this scanner came in an automatic slide feeder, because as of right now, you can only can five at a time. But, the quality more than makes up for the extra time it takes.

Although the Nikon Super CoolScan 9000 ED Film Scanner is a bit pricey, it has an immense potential for high quality pictures, its fast, has great sofware, and comes with Image Correction Technology thats about as good as it can get. Highly recommended for the serious user that can benefit from the cost-savings of scanning a lot of strips & slides.

>>> Buy the Nikon Super CoolScan 9000 ED at a Discount

• Multiple film formats (120/220, 35mm, etc.).
• 4000 dpi-true optical resolution.
• 16-bit A/D converter.
• Large diameter scanner Nikkor Extra-low Dispersion (ED) glass lens.
• Improved rod dispersion LED illumination technology.
• High-speed scanning (35mm slide film - 40 seconds, 6 x 9 - 185 seconds).
• Newly-developed, high-quality 3-line CCD sensor.
• New, advanced image processing algorithm for color negative film.
• Multi-sample scanning.
• Quick AF and Quick Preview.
• All NEW! Scan image enhancer.
• High-speed IEEE 1394 interface.
• Digital ICE4 AdvancedTM (Digital ICE Quad Advanced) with Digital ICE ProfessionalTM - more compatible with Kodachrome film.

-------------------------------

• Media: Negative and positives, in color and monochrome.

• 35mm film: 1-2 strips of 1-6 frames; up to 3 frames of 24 x 48mm or 24 x 65mm panorama film can be scanned with optional 120/220 film rotating holder with glass FH-869GR.
• 35mm slides: 1-5 slides with mounts, 1.0-3.2mm thick, 49-50.8mm wide.
• Medium-format film: 1-4 frames (6 x 4.5), 1-3 frames (6 x 6), 1-2 frames (6 x 7, 6 x 8 or 6 x 9).
• Medium-format slides: Slides with mounts 1.0-3.2mm thick can be scanned with optional 120/220 mounted film holder FH-869M.
• 16mm film: 1-3 strips of 1-20 frames can be scanned with optional 16mm film holder FH-816.
• Glass slides for microscopes: 1-3 prepared slides (26 x 76mm, 0.8-2mm thick) can be scanned with optional medical slide holder FH-8G1.
• Aperture/Scan range (pixels)
• FH-835S: 25.4 x 37.5mm/4,000 x 5,904 pixels.
• FH-835M: 37.5 x 25.6mm/5,905 x 4,032 pixels.
• FH-869S, FH-869G: 6 x 4.5: 56.9 x 42.5mm/8,964 x 6,696 pixels, 6 x 6: 56.9 x 56.9mm/8,964 x 8,964 pixels, 6 x 7: 56.9 x 70.0mm/8,964 x 11,016 pixels, 6 x 8: 56.9 x 77.5mm/8,964 x 12,204 pixels, 6 x 9: 56.9 x 83.7mm/8,964 x 13,176 pixels.
• FH-816: 15.0 x 21.48mm/2,362 x 3,384 pixels.
• FH-8G1: 46.02 x 24.0mm/7,248 x 3,780 pixels.
• Scanning system: Fixed optical, movable media, parallel single-pass scanning system.
• Light source: R, G, B and Infrared (IR) LEDs; light source with rod disperser and light output slot.
• Image sensor: 10,000-pixel, three-line monochrome linear CCD image sensor.
• Color separation: Performed by RGB LEDs.
• Optical resolution: Up to 4,000 pixels per inch.
• A/D conversion: 16 bits per color.
• Density range: 4.8.
• Output: Full color or gray scale at 8 or 16 bits per channel.
• Focus: Auto and manual; auto focusing point selectable.
• Interface: IEEE 1394.
• Power requirements: AC 100-240V, 50/60Hz. Operating environment: Temperature 50-95°F (10-35°C), relative humidity 20-60%.
• Dimensions: 9.8 x 19.6 x 8.0 in. (W x H x D).
• Weight: 19.8 lbs
• Scanning time (time to complete preview or scan when no options selected):
• 13 seconds
• * Scan: 40 seconds, 120/220 (with FH-869S)
• Preview: 38 seconds
• * Scan: 185 seconds