Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Hey, I've got my scanner working again!

I found some negatives the other day that I wanted to scan and had some time this afternoon to revisit the thorny problem of trying to get my "orphaned" Nikon Coolscan IV ED transparency scanner to work with my 64-bit Windows 7 system.
I say orphaned, because Nikon decided not to write a driver for the 64-bit Windows 7 system. They apparently figured all of us Coolscan IV guys could go get screwed or dig deep for a newer scanner. That's not happening.
I've searched several times since I got this system last December but never could find a solution, so my scanner sat inert on my desk.
This afternoon was different.
A Google search turned up this page on Controlspace.org that provides step-by-step instructions for installing a 64-bit Windows 7 driver that updates Nikon Scan 4.0.3.
The newer version of Nikon Scan has more bells and whistles than the last version I used and it works like a charm as a free-standing program or within PhotoShop.
I can't tell you how happy it makes me to have my old scanner back in action. I say "old" because it's at least seven years old, which is ancient on the scale of technological evolution.
But what the hell? It scans negatives and slides at 2,900 dpi just fine - way better than any flatbed scanner I've seen. And it's paid for.

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