Rangefinder Magazine
Columns - June 2001

Digital Photography: New Nikon Camera and Scanner by John Rettie

Quick Tryouts of the New Nikon Camera and Scanner:
It looks like a Nikon month, but it’s just a coincidence: I have finally got to review an all new scanner that Nikon announced back in January at the same time as I have been privileged to try a pre-production model of a new camera that goes on sale in June. It’s the vagaries of the review process that sometimes allows me to try products well before they go on sale, while at other times I have to wait until they hit the stores or even later in some cases.

Nikon Coolpix 995
The biggest news this month is Nikon’s introduction of the Coolpix 995. It seems to be an annual occurrence for Nikon to introduce an upgraded version of this increasingly popular point-and-shoot digital camera. In my travels I have found the 990 has become the most popular digital camera with professional photographers who have not yet completely switched from film but want a digital camera for taking candid shots or for capturing images that need to be used immediately. It looks as though the 995 will continue to be just as popular, thanks to its compact size and extremely useful swiveling lens.

	Nikon’s new Coolpix 995 has a pop-up flash and is slightly chunkier than the “old” 990.

Unlike the 990, which offered a significant upgrade from the 900, the 995 is more evolutionary. At first glance it looks the same as the 990 with the addition of a pop-up flash unit. On closer examination it is apparent that the whole camera has been redesigned with all the buttons and switches repositioned. It even has different strap mounting points. The 995 is slightly smaller in width but chunkier overall.

Although fans of this camera line had been hoping for increased resolution, the 995 still has the same 3.34-megapixel CCD as in the 990, which is not all bad, as it is an excellent imager. What Nikon claims to have done is listen to users of the 990 and incorporate their requested changes into the new model. This starts with the pop-up flash, which should lessen the red-eye effect by moving the flash away from the lens. Next, the 995 has a Type II Compact Flash slot capable of accepting the Microdrive for increased storage capacity. The lens is a 4X zoom, equivalent to 38–152mm, compared to 38–114mm on the 990. Finally, the camera uses a larger capacity rechargeable Li-Ion battery, which is included with the camera. Although it is a proprietary battery, it is the same size as the standard 2CR5 battery, so one can find back ups, even if they are not as commonly available as AAs.

Aside from the physical changes, Nikon claims to have improved the quality of images with different processing algorithms. A couple of added features are white balance bracketing and noise reduction at high ISO settings. A new quick review button lets the user see a small image windowed in on the screen while one is framing the next shot. The magnifying button now goes to 6X in the review mode compared to 4X before, which is a real boon when checking for sharpness in captured images.

Although the 995 is not a significant upgrade to the 990 it does offer improved features. I am not sure whether it is worthwhile for owners of the 990 to upgrade but it should persuade owners of the older Coolpix 950 to do so. If you’re still looking to get into digital photography and you cannot justify the cost of a 35mm- based digital camera body, the 995 is a good starting point, especially as the suggested retail price is $899, a $100 drop from the price of the “old” 990.

The Nikon Super Coolscan 4000 includes three different carriers for slides and filmstrip

Nikon Super Coolscan 4000
There are numerous companies producing scanners but over the years Nikon seems to have established itself as a premier maker of film scanners in the mid-price range. Drum scanners costing many thousands of dollars are still the preferred scanning solution used by high-end print house and publishers. You’ll also find film scanners priced as low as $200 on the market. But, for those looking for good scans at a reasonable price, you’ll have to pay between $900 and $3000 for a scanner.

Early this year Nikon announced three new scanners in its Coolscan range that offer different specifications to suit different needs. The low end Coolscan IV ED has a resolution of 2900 dpi for scanning 35mm slides and strips of negatives with a dynamic range of 3.6. It costs $895. The 4000 ED is the mid-range 35mm scanner that supports a 4000 dpi resolution and a dynamic range of 4.2, with a retail price of $1695. The high end 8000 ED also offers 4000 dpi, with a 4.2 dynamic range, but is a much larger unit that can scan negs and slides from 35mm or 120/220 roll film up to 6x9 in size. All models include the latest Applied Science Fiction Digital ICE software that automatically enhances scanned images.

The specifications for the Coolscan IV are similar in many ways to those of the Coolscan 2000, which has been on the market for a couple of years. Because of this I thought it would be most interesting to try out the Coolscan 4000 or the 8000 which probably has the widest appeal to Rangefinder readers. The 8000 was the last of the three models to go on sale and may only just be available by the time you read this column. I am pretty certain that the quality of scans obtained by the 4000 and 8000 models will be much the same, as they have similar specifications.

	The Digital ICE software included with Coolscan scanners is very effective in removing all traces of dust and surface blemishes .

The LS-4000, as it is also called, is connected to the computer via a FireWire cable, which is the first time this modern high-speed connection protocol has been used on a film scanner. All new Macs now include FireWire ports but a plug-in PCI card is included with the scanner to update PCs and older Macs by giving them FireWire ports. The benefits of a FireWire connection are speed and convenience. It’s much quicker for transferring data from the scanner to the computer and the scanner can be switched on and off and plugged in without having to turn the computer off.
The Nikon Scan 3.0 software, which is included, can be used as a stand-alone program or as a plug-in with Photoshop. Because it needs a lot of memory (ideally over 120MB), I found it tended to work better on its own rather than from within Photoshop. A 52MB scan of an image at full 4000 dpi resolution took 1.5 minutes using Scan 3.0 alone and 2.0 minutes using it as a plug-in. I also found that Photoshop crashed sometimes when using the plug-in. I did not have time to track down the cause of this, nor did I have time to try the scanner on a PC.

The user interface for the scanning software is the same whether as a stand-alone program or as a plug-in. It is fairly intuitive and offers cropping, color adjustments and different degrees of sharpening. The most exciting tools are the Digital ICE3 image correction tools to restore images. The most useful one is the dust and scratch remover. This enhancement tool has been included in earlier Nikon scanners but has been upgraded to work even better. It about doubles the time for scanning but it saves so much retouching time that it’s more than worthwhile. It magically removes surface blemishes without altering the underlying image. One of these years I plan to scan in many hundreds of slides I have accumulated over 30 years and I am sure this feature alone will save me hours of work.
The other two ICE components are Digital ROC (Reconstruction of Color), which helps to restore color in faded slides or negatives and Digital GEM (Grain Equalization Management), which reduces the effect of grain in high-speed film to give a smoother looking scanned image. I didn’t really have any occasion to use these two components of the Scan 3.0 software while testing the scanner.

The Nikon Scan 3.0 software has an intuitive interface with plenty of options for obtaining good scan

Overall, I was quite impressed by the Super Coolscan 4000 ED, especially when one realizes it’s equivalent to having a 24-megapixel digital camera. The 4.2 dynamic range is amazing if it is an accurate figure. Until now the best figure any scanners in this price range have managed is about 3.6 and as the scale is geometric, this is quite a large jump. It’s important to realize that in many ways dynamic range is as important as overall resolution. Naturally with these sorts of specs I am hoping to spend a lot more time using the Coolscan 4000 in the future.

Kodak EasyShare
One should not forget that Kodak is still a leading player in the digital-imaging field. Although the new products they announced this month are not aimed at professional photographers, they are nonetheless worth noting as they indicate some useful trends that could apply to future professional products.

The Kodak EasyShare system features a camera dock, which allows for automatic transfer of images from a camera to the computer via a permanently plugged in USB cable. Images can be transferred with nothing more than the touch of a button as there is no need to set up cables or remove a storage card from the camera. The camera’s battery is also recharged while in the cradle. Initially Kodak has introduced two 2-megapixel low-end cameras, the DX3500 and DX3600 Zoom, with this docking feature and it plans to incorporate the docking feature in all its future consumer cameras. Its aim of course is to make the often-confusing transfer of images to a computer transparent to the end user. In addition, the software also allows a user to instantly e-mail images or edit them on the computer as well as file them using a picture-management system.

John Rettie is a photojournalist who resides in Santa Barbara, CA. He has been using a camera as a professional for 31 years, a computer for 21 years, and has combined his knowledge of both for the past eight years. Readers can contact him by e-mail at john@johnrettie.com or by snail-mail c/o Rangefinder.