imacon Precision II or Nikon 9000ED

[philipus]

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I have a Coolscan 9000. You can scan a part of the film rebate with it. Here are photos of the three medium format film holders I have.

This is the FH-869S to which I have fitted Focal Point ANR glass. As you can see it will permit scanning of parts of the film's edges, to create a sort of frame around the photo. Incidentally I could never get the ANR glass to work. I had Newton rings even with the glass. It should be noted, too, that with the glass attached (mine's fixed with a strip of duct tape) the film-glass sandwich can move so it's not the most stable, or easy to use, solution.

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This is the FH-869GR which allows scanning a bit more film edge than FH-869S. The drawback is that it's not possible to scan a whole strip in one go.

This is the Image Mechanics wet mount tray, which was not made by Nikon but by some thrifty individuals who basically built it from other film holders. Here you can scan the whole film edge. The problem is that these trays are virtually impossible to find. In the last 6-7 years I've seen two on eBay, one of which I own. It should be easy enough to 3D print such a tray though.

As for repairs, I had my 9000 repaired during the spring. The main board and power supply broke. It was done by Nikon Service here in the Netherlands. They didn't have the parts so I had to source them myself on eBay. But they happily repaired the scanner which thus far works perfectly. There's a list of Nikon Service points online which service Coolscans but lack of spare parts is a problem. Personally I wouldn't let this affect my decision because they are fantastic units that produce scans rivalling the best Flextights. And there's still a good market for second-hand spare parts. I had no problem at all to find the parts I needed.

I also have a Flextight X1 which granted a slightly different scanner than the Precision II but still similar in how it works. And I have seen info online that the film holders are the same so perhaps the below is useful.

This is the standard 120 film holder. As you can see it allows some of the film edge to be scanned. To give you an idea check in the I like film thread. Most of the 120 film photos I've posted the last several have been scanned with this film holder.

This is the 4x5 holder. I'm pretty sure it would be possible to sandwich the film between two thin sheets of transparent OH film (incidentally what I use for wet mounting on the Nikon - a lot cheaper than mylar or whatever it's called). I haven't tried this though.

My X1 was actually broken when I bought it but luckily Ffordes covered the considerable repair on the warranty and Hasselblad was able to make it as-new. Not long thereafter they stopped selling the Flextights. I suppose there are still spare parts but who knows how much.

[fatihayoglu]

I lost the Precision on eBay and Nikons are around £2000 now. I’ve a last chance with a friend who was thinking selling / giving away his Precision with computer. The only issue is, he is in Turkey and I’m in UK and not quite sure if I can carry Precision on a flight in a box

I like the Precison with 4x5 holder idea, very doable.

But more importantly, thank you very much, you went into great effort for me, much appreciated.

Edited September 7, 2020 by fatihayoglu

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16 hours ago, philipus said:

I have a Coolscan 9000. You can scan a part of the film rebate with it. Here are photos of the three medium format film holders I have.

This is the FH-869S to which I have fitted Focal Point ANR glass. As you can see it will permit scanning of parts of the film's edges, to create a sort of frame around the photo. Incidentally I could never get the ANR glass to work. I had Newton rings even with the glass. It should be noted, too, that with the glass attached (mine's fixed with a strip of duct tape) the film-glass sandwich can move so it's not the most stable, or easy to use, solution.

Welcome, dear visitor! As registered member you'd see an image here…

Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members!

This is the FH-869GR which allows scanning a bit more film edge than FH-869S. The drawback is that it's not possible to scan a whole strip in one go.

This is the Image Mechanics wet mount tray, which was not made by Nikon but by some thrifty individuals who basically built it from other film holders. Here you can scan the whole film edge. The problem is that these trays are virtually impossible to find. In the last 6-7 years I've seen two on eBay, one of which I own. It should be easy enough to 3D print such a tray though.

As for repairs, I had my 9000 repaired during the spring. The main board and power supply broke. It was done by Nikon Service here in the Netherlands. They didn't have the parts so I had to source them myself on eBay. But they happily repaired the scanner which thus far works perfectly. There's a list of Nikon Service points online which service Coolscans but lack of spare parts is a problem. Personally I wouldn't let this affect my decision because they are fantastic units that produce scans rivalling the best Flextights. And there's still a good market for second-hand spare parts. I had no problem at all to find the parts I needed.

I also have a Flextight X1 which granted a slightly different scanner than the Precision II but still similar in how it works. And I have seen info online that the film holders are the same so perhaps the below is useful.

This is the standard 120 film holder. As you can see it allows some of the film edge to be scanned. To give you an idea check in the I like film thread. Most of the 120 film photos I've posted the last several have been scanned with this film holder.

This is the 4x5 holder. I'm pretty sure it would be possible to sandwich the film between two thin sheets of transparent OH film (incidentally what I use for wet mounting on the Nikon - a lot cheaper than mylar or whatever it's called). I haven't tried this though.

My X1 was actually broken when I bought it but luckily Ffordes covered the considerable repair on the warranty and Hasselblad was able to make it as-new. Not long thereafter they stopped selling the Flextights. I suppose there are still spare parts but who knows how much.

Just a personal anecdote about film edges. I set about a project with medium format (using my 6x9 Fuji 'Texas Leica') that I was convinced needed film edges so got a Betterscanning film holder for my Epson V700. There were two things wrong in my planning, the first was I wanted to carry as little as possible, so no tripod with a spirit level, the second is that I can't stand sloping horizons in the larger formats, 35mm I feel is a bit freer. And of course every now and again I'd have a good shot and then no way to correct the horizon because of the film edge. So I cheated, I straightened and cropped the image and used Silver Efex Pro that has a tool to create an infinite number of user defined film edge effects and I got one to match, well nearly match. I was ashamed at cheating so dropped the film edges from all the shots. It's one of those 'be careful what you wish for' episodes in my photography.

 

[fatihayoglu]

Haha! I have one of those as well and tbh that's why I wanted to have film edges so desperately but your are right, it might be a problem.

[philipus]

That's too bad. I also think it would be difficult to carry such a scanner on a flight. They're really big.

The equivalent of 2000 GBP is less than what I paid for my 9000 from Leicashop in Vienna. I think it was closer to 3000 Euro. Then again it was from a shop where the scanner had been checked and came with a warranty.

Ffordes is one of the few places that sells film scanners without the ridiculous markup of eBay sellers and, in particular, Scandig.com. They currently have two CS8000 in stock but they tend to sell quite often so it's a good idea to check in with them regularly. I bought my X1 from them, warts and all, and I cannot give them high enough marks for customer service.

 

 

9 hours ago, fatihayoglu said:

I lost the Precision on eBay and Nikons are around £2000 now. I’ve a last chance with a friend who was thinking selling / giving away his Precision with computer. The only issue is, he is in Turkey and I’m in UK and not quite sure if I can carry Precision on a flight in a box

I like the Precison with 4x5 holder idea, very doable.

But more importantly, thank you very much, you went into great effort for me, much appreciated.

[plasticman]

I agree Philip!

22 hours ago, philipus said:

Ffordes is one of the few places that sells film scanners without the ridiculous markup of eBay sellers and, in particular, Scandig.com. They currently have two CS8000 in stock but they tend to sell quite often so it's a good idea to check in with them regularly. I bought my X1 from them, warts and all, and I cannot give them high enough marks for customer service.

I have both bought and sold cameras and lenses through Ffordes and found them to be totally reliable, trustworthy, friendly and helpful. They are definitely a great place to buy scanners, and I've often seen Coolscans at very reasonable prices. Buying one nowadays is possibly something of a lottery - but that's true of a lot of film equipment that's recently exploded in demand (the cost of a Coolscan is roughly what you need to pay for a Contax T3 or half the price of an XPan*).

Naturally medium-format scanners come into their own when scanning larger 120 films: the 6x9 negatives I scan at the moment are around 750MB of information iirc. I guess 6x12 would be almost a gigabyte of image data(?)

* I should've said "beaten-up XPan" because I recently saw a nice-enough condition XPan for 67,000sek - that is 6500euros. 🤯

Edited September 8, 2020 by plasticman

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Just for that irritating balance thing, I've bought two things from Ffordes. The first was a Leica IIIF that wasn't even a Leica IIIF, the serial number showed that when it arrived. They said it was a mistake. The second was a Nikon F where the shutter wouldn't fire at all, and for a Nikon that is unheard of. They said it was a mistake. I think like some other mail order retailers Ffordes hope (with their fingers crossed) the thing is right when it leaves them, and then are happy to solve any problems but at the customers inconvenience. There is no imperative to check the goods before they send them as it's a quick way to get things out of the door.

[chrism]

I have just sold my X1, and intend to continue with a Nikon 9000. There is remarkably little difference between the output of the two, but the X1 was faster, quieter, and also could handle 4x5. Given that neither are made anymore, if someone asked me now how to scan negatives, I'd probably tell them to look into using a digital camera with a film scanning adapter. I have never used one, and probably won't, so I can't say if it is as good, but at least it will not be silently discontinued by a manufacturer like the Hasselblads were.