[sane-devel] Nikon LS 5000]

[Ariel Garcia]

Hi Spiro,

> I am glad you are working on this scanner as I see more people needing
> your assistance.
>
> As for me, I am now very happy because the project I have to work on is
> very big; it involved about 15000 pictures (35mm) and the sponsor, for
> charity, trusts my work. So, on my behalf, I then trust and rely on your
> assistance. So, I will purchase the NIKON LS-5000 (feeling more relaxed
> and peaceful) and as soon as you are completed with the driver I will
> start my project. I would only ask you one favor, if possible: Please
> let me-us know when you believe to be close to completing the
> development and also, if you need me to do some testing let me know. I
> work on amd64 64bit.
> I hope to hear something soon or some updates.

hey, thanks for your enthusiasm, but please note that there are not 
warranties that i will be able to get it working... zero, nada, niente... 
or it could simply take much longer, so don't base your purchase only on 
the linux driver availability!  I didn't even get the specs yet, so didn't 
even start looking at the issues.

Of course it is a great scanner so it is worth purchasing it anyway, but 
remember that if you intend to do batch scanning relying on the sane 
driver might not be the best option because it would lack the whole set of 
automated functions the original driver provides (ICE, gem, roc,... your 
mileage may vary but depending on how good/bad your slides are these 
functions might save you a lot of time). ICE is the only feature which 
needs hardware support, the other ones are plain software algorithms in 
the driver.
ICE works great for non kodachrome films, and sane will provide your with 
the 4th (infrared) channel, but i am not sure how to use that info in an 
automated way (substraction layer in gimp??)
If windoze is not an option, there is also vuescan which i think it also 
performs several of the color correction features, but i have no 
experience with it.

Cheers, Ariel