In search of advice on pros & cons of Nikon LS2000 vs LS30 for scanning black & white negatives for reproduction in weekly newspapers. How will the main difference between the 2 scanners (30 bits vs 36 bits) affect b&w scans? will the LS200 provide significantly better b&w scans. in short, is the 2000 worth the extra $$ when scanning strictly b&w. thanks in advance.

-- Mike Fowler (danger@frontiernet.net), January 05, 2000

Answers

The best thing about the LS-30 and LS-2000 is the ICE technology. I use an LS-30 at a small daily newspaper with mostly color film. I've never used the LS-2000. With the LS-30 I've never been able to get ICE to work with B&W. Maybe it's just me or I missed the part in the manual about ICE not working with B&W. I'm not sure.

If you can deal with not having ICE, try the older LS-1000. The shadow detail looks a lot better than with the LS-30. We use it in our newsroom for all of our B&W, reserving the LS-30 for color images. Refurbished LS-1000s are available for decent prices right now too. I'd guess the 36 bit scans with the LS-2000 would give results as good as or better than the LS-1000.

I hope this helps.

-Nate Billings

-- Nate Billings (nbillin@okstate.edu), February 04, 2000.

ICE does not work with 'normal' B&W films because the infrared scan interprets the clumps of silver as dust. On colour films the silver is replaced by dye clouds. In theory ICE should work with C41 B&W films like XP2 as they have the same makeup as colour films. I have a roll of Kodak C41 B&W film in my camera at the moment and will be putting this to the test.

-- Nick Garrod (nick.garrod@talk21.com), February 16, 2000.