Hi!

[Nikon CoolScan V ED Film Scanner with PowerMac G5?]

I am using the Nikon CoolScan V ED with my G5 (2x2) for about five
months. The Computer is equipped with 1.5 Gb Ram, 250 Gb internal HD and
an external 500 GB 'LaCie' HD connected via FW-800.
OS on the machine right now is 'tiger' (10.4.1), however i do not see
any differences about scanning to 'panther' which i used before.

I do the scans with the 'Nikon Scan 4' SW, it came with the scanner.
I scan slides and negative film (colour and B/W).
I am doing the maximum resolution when scanning and use 'ICE' (digital
'cleaning' the scans i.e removing dust), however that does work with
colour pics only, so i have to remove dust on B/W pictures later on with
photoshop, i recently upgraded to CS2.

The Nikon SW delivers great results, i save the output to 'TIFF', quite
large (about 50 MB/pic), this was the reason to get the external, large
HD. Since i do all the post processing in PS i do not use the 'digital
image enhancer' which is part of the Nikon SW. I save the 'TIFF' files
to DVD, for casual viewing/web i convert to high quality JPG AFTER all
the post processing in PS.

You can see some results here (Sorry all comments there in German):

http://homepage.mac.com/felixdf1hx/oz/index.htm

All pictures from Kodak Slide Film, postprocessed in PS CS and processed
to web capability i.e. 'sRBG' profile and lower resolution to enhance
loading time, not everyone enjoys DSL connection like me.

The reason to buy the dedicated film scanner were the piles of slides
and negatives i have from about 35 years (ore more?) taking pictures.
I have a DSLR now, but still enjoy my good, old trusty Nikon F3 HP from
time to time.
I do not need a flatbed scanner at all and the film scanner takes much
less space on my desk.
I do not have any of the optional accessories for the scanner, i.e.
slide magazin, so cannot comment those.

I really can recommend the combination G5 / Nikon CoolScan V ED, i
switched from Linux to Mac in November 04, i never cared for M$/Windows.

Cheers, thomas