Coolscan 5000 officially discontinued

jonmanjiro · 05-12-2009

There was speculation about this a month or so back, but now its official.

The Coolscan 5000 was listed on Nikon's website here until recently, but now its on the discontinued digital products list here. The only Nikon scanner left is the Coolscan 9000. But for how long ...

Solinar · 05-13-2009

I'm not surprised, with this year being a recession year that the 5000 and 9000 would become casualties. The handwriting has been on the wall so to speak since Nikon dropped the more affordable Coolscan V.

My own 8000 is going on 8 years old - which is a Geologic Era in this electronic age.

Gaspar · 05-13-2009

I am just praying and treating my coolscan 4000 as royalty.

Ken Shipman · 05-13-2009

With Leica's ongoing film camera production I'm surprised they hadn't previously marketed (rebadged) their own flavor of film scanner. Probably too late now. Or maybe the right time to step in and fill the gap. Would be pricey though.

mw_uio · 05-13-2009

I wish I had a coolscan.

Right now B&H shows that the 9000 is out of stock and the 5000 in stock.
Maybe Fujifilm would build one.

Mark
UIO

[I have a Nikon F4s in transit coming soon!]

maddoc · 05-13-2009

Luckily, I got a nice LS4000ED (complete with box etc.) three weeks ago for ~ $650. On Yahoo auction a brand new Coolscan 5000 ED is now offered for a starting bid of ~ $1800 and BIN ~ $2500

Faintandfuzzy · 05-13-2009

If Fuji knows what's good for them, they will spend a bit on R&D and release something for 35mm and MF. Even if it's a loss leader, at least it would help support their films sales.....especially if they're the only game in town.

I think it's a lost cause though....unfortunately.

sanmich · 05-13-2009

Quote:

Originally Posted by maddoc

Luckily, I got a nice LS4000ED (complete with box etc.) three weeks ago for ~ $650. On Yahoo auction a brand new Coolscan 5000 ED is now offered for a starting bid of ~ $1800 and BIN ~ $2500

Amazon has 5000 in stock for 1100$
...or not ?

noimmunity · 05-13-2009

One of our resident musicians should compose a tune: "The Discontinuation Blues"

sojournerphoto · 05-13-2009

Sad, but it's no surprise. Film is a very small niche these days and so scanner manufacture must be smaller. Whilst it would be nice if Fuji (Cosina?) built a scanner I think it would be a significnat investment for small production runs. The only hopes are that Japan's love affair with film and Fuji's ongoing production of the mf folder will be sufficient motivation to keep scanners available.

Without scanners film will shrink much more.

Mike

Tuolumne · 05-13-2009

I believe all of the film manufacturers are counting on flat bed scanners to support hybrid work flow. They're actually much better than most people would have you believe, but obviously not optimal for film.

/T

Spoks · 05-13-2009

Has Nikon come up with software for their 9000 ED that can be used with Vista? That would be a signal to the market that they see a future for their 9000 ED.

JRG · 05-13-2009

"Whilst it would be nice if Fuji (Cosina?) built a scanner I think it would be a significnat investment for small production runs."

True, unfortunately. On the other hand, if Nikon decides they are through with making scanners, maybe it would make sense for them to license their stuff to, say, Fuji. That would eliminate (most of) the R&D expense for Fuji, and squeeze a little more out the R&D money that Nikon has already spent.

MartinP · 05-13-2009

Someone mentioned software for Vista. remember that product only has a life of a couple of years and was introduced as a stopgap before the next real version of windows (think Windows Millenium). The version that will be the real one is theoretically going to be out next year . . .

Personally I am using XP and Ubuntu with no complaints so don't care about Vista. The problem might only arise for people who have bought their first PC, which would probably have Vista installed unless they have a 'downgrade' licence via some commercial sales deal (many/most companies don't want anything to do with vista on their business machines).

sojournerphoto · 05-13-2009

Quote:

Originally Posted by JRG

"Whilst it would be nice if Fuji (Cosina?) built a scanner I think it would be a significnat investment for small production runs."

True, unfortunately. On the other hand, if Nikon decides they are through with making scanners, maybe it would make sense for them to license their stuff to, say, Fuji. That would eliminate (most of) the R&D expense for Fuji, and squeeze a little more out the R&D money that Nikon has already spent.

That would help of course.

I'm not sure that the flatbeds are really there for film yet- certainly not for 35mm and really you need to scan MF at a similar level to 35mm to get the best from it. That and the price ofthe LS9000 is why I don't shoot MF at the moment...

FrozenInTime · 05-13-2009

I've got a 4000ED, but it's painfully slow and does not cover medium format or minox.
A 9000ED is unimaginably expensive these days ( and may be the last of it's kind ).

After reading bmattock's post in the "How long does film have" thread showing how Kodak are scanning the Capa negatives, I decided to cobble something together out of all my panoramic plates and brackets:

I've still to add an anti-newton glass top plate and extraneous light masking for stray light, but it seems to be working quite well and certainly more than good enough for web use as it stands.

Next, even though the camera is only 10Mpixels, I'm hoping PhotoAcute can increase the effective resolution and bit-depth/SNR. There's also the possibility of stitching partial frames to increase resolution.
For those using a newer 20Mpixel cameras with good a macro lens, and/or multi-resolution techniques, I wonder if the nikon line scanners would really still win.

Borghesia · 05-13-2009

I have the Minolta Multi Pro which I try to release from 35mm work by buying one of the last Nikon 5000.
The Multi Pro is great but doesn't have eternal life. I hope that Nikon will continue with the 9000, or at least give an early warning if it will be discontinued. Second hope is that another firm will take up where Nikon and Minolta ended.
If that's not the case, I am thinking to go back in time, and shoot B&W only and build a darkroom.

KM-25 · 05-13-2009

I guess I just don't get it...people will spend tens of thousands on cameras and lenses but not $2,000 on a incredible scanner like the 9000 ED?

The 9000ED is a better scanner than the 5000ED even for 35mm due to the fact that it deals with dust easier, does not show it as much as the smaller format scanner.

I would say that if you are even thinking about getting a 9000ED then you had better pull the trigger now as it might be on the chopping block too.

I'm sure the 5000ED is a great scanner, but for a few extra bucks, the 9000ED is as good as it gets until you go either Imacon or a drum scanner.

Spoks · 05-13-2009

Quote:

Originally Posted by MartinP

Someone mentioned software for Vista. remember that product only has a life of a couple of years and was introduced as a stopgap before the next real version of windows (think Windows Millenium).....

That does it for me. By the next major Windows up date, I will change to Mac.

MaxElmar · 05-13-2009

Still using my Coolscan III! And keeping one machine running XP just for that purpose. It's OK - but my best frames have more data than that scanner can pull out of them. For large or medium format my V750 pro does fine. But I get drum scans for critical work...

Is anyone using any of the other scanners out there? Plustek or Pacific Film anyone? I've seen excellent 35mm "scans" from a "full frame" SLR/macro set up. Perhaps that's the future? Since an LS9000 is $2k another $700 gets you a D700...

mackigator · 05-13-2009

Very sad. Here's hoping flatbeds get a lot better and quickly.

msheppler · 05-16-2009

It seems that every couple months there's a post about Nikon dropping their film scanners and most of the time it hasn't been true.

So is this scanner being discontinued? I still see it on Amazon.

jonmanjiro · 05-16-2009

Quote:

Originally Posted by msheppler

It seems that every couple months there's a post about Nikon dropping their film scanners and most of the time it hasn't been true.

So is this scanner being discontinued? I still see it on Amazon.

It's on Nikon Japan's list of discontinued digital products (linked in the first post). Here's the link again below in full. Any more verification needed?

http://www.nikon-image.com/jpn/produ...ital/index.htm

msheppler · 05-16-2009

Thanks for reposting. I do already have one and it's a great scanner. I use Silverfast to drive it. I guess I didn't want to believe they were dropping it.

slumry · 05-16-2009

The limitation of the current offerings of Nikon scanners comes from the fact that the drivers and software that they use are dependent on the OS of the host computer. The 9000 uses its own firewire adapter when it can't use the on-board version and will be harder to support on future versions of the OS. The 5000 uses a standard USB 2.0 port and should be supported for a longer time. Even though there is officially only support for XP, the soon to be released version of Windows, version 7, will support a XP virtual machine. In addition, the virtual machine technology in 7 does a much better job of supporting USB ports. I would be very surprised if the Nikon 5000 does not work with Windows 7.