Digital BW, The Print

John, I have never used a Nikon LS20/LS2000 and cannot speak to Nikon's
manufacturing specifications.  From all I've read in reviews, the
LS40/LS4000 are vast improvments over the older Nikon scanners.  I know what
I saw with the Polaroid SS4000 and what I've seen with the Nikon LS40.  Also
please note I don't know if the SS4000+ is a whole different animal in terms
of sharpness over the none-plus ss4000.   I also had a Canon 2720 and tested
a Nikon 4000 and a Canon 4000.   I'm not a scientist so I have no objective
data to offer to my observations beyond what I see and what my clients will
accept.   Much of my photography business is Black & White headshots.
Occasionally I have to scan the negatives, work the images in photoshop, and
print them out digitally so these prints have to look spot on (or at least
very, very close) to darkroom 8x10 glossies.    I am very concerned about
quality and it is a very competitive market.   I know in some cases other
photographer's digital prints have not reproduced well by Lithographers and
have even been rejected.   After much work, mine are useable for
duplication.   There is no way I could have given clients or duplicators
digital prints made with the Polaroid ss4000 I had and it was purchased
directly from Polaroid.   I'm only relaying my experiences.  If others are
getting better results then I am, I would like to see them as perhaps I did
not set the software correctly, although I used both Insight and SilverFast
and may even have tried a few scans with Vuescan, which I use exclusively on
the Nikon.

Rick
www.rickschiller.com

Rick,

Your experience is the exact opposite of mine.  The main reason I changed
from the coolscans (LS-20 and LS-2000) was the lack of sharpness.  My
problem was the depth of focus with the coolscans.  My understanding is that
the coolscans use a low intensity light source therefore requiring a wide
aperture lens.  This results in a BIG difference in edge/centre sharpness as
the film is usually curved.

The coolscan manual focus allowed me to have sharp centre or sharp edges but
not both. I tried for many months to solve the problem, but could not.  I
have read of many with a similar experience.

It was a while ago so forgive my sketchy description.

Maybe they have now solved this problem with the LS40??

js