Nikon Coolscan & Nikon Scan 4.0 on Windows 7/8/10
We now live in a digital age where every smart-phone has a camera and images can be posted on-line almost immediately. The older generation of photographers can still remember a time when photography involved loading film into a camera and having it developed. It usually toke several days before the photographs were ready.
Even if one has switched to digital photography since, large archives of images on film still exist. To allow these old images on film to become usable in the digital age, you need a way to scan them. Investing in a high-end film scanner (e.g Nikon Coolscan LS-8000 ED) made sense in the early days of digital cameras with low resolution. It allowed for extended use of investments in analog camera equipment and produced better results than the digital cameras at that time. A lot has changed since then and high-end cameras now offer resolution that rivals and exceeds film.
On the downside, computer hardware and operating systems have become obsolete making it harder to use this scanning equipment. E.g. the Nikon Scan driver and software were not updated to work after Windows XP. Even parts are getting scares and it might not be very long before Nikon stops servicing Nikon Coolscans.
A while ago I found an article "Nikon Coolscan and Nikon Scan 4.0: Driver for Windows Vista 64 bit, Windows 7 64 bit and Windows 8 64 bit" online, that describes how get the Nikon Scan 4.0 driver working on Windows 7/8. After applying the steps I can now use the Nikon Coolscan and Nikon Scan 4.0 on Windows 7, giving it a new lease on live. And after upgrading to Windows 10, this still works.
Update 2021-05-09
When trying to scan after a few years (and several Windows 10 updates), I ran into an issue with the Nikon Scan 4.0.3 driver. The Nikon Scan 4.0 software showed a message "Nikon Scan was unable to find any active devices".
When I checked the device manager, the Nikon SUPER COOLSCAN 8000 ED was listed under Other Devices, while it should be under Imaging Devices (cameras and scanners). The driver is not digitally signed and was therefore not accepted by Windows any more. So my problem was related to the "the third-party INF does not contain digital signature information" issue that old drivers sometimes pose in Windows 10. To install the driver anyway I needed to temporarlily circumvent the digital signature enforcement. Found instructions online and executed the following:
1) Select the Start button in the lower left corner of your screen.
2) Select Settings -> Update & security
3) Select System Recovery
4) Below Advanced Startup Options, select Restart
5) After restart, the Choose an option screen is displayed
6) Select Troubleshoot -> Advanced options -> Startup Settings -> Restart
7) After restart, in the Startup Settings menu, select 7 (or F7). This triggers the 7) Disable driver signature enforcement option
8) Your computer will restart once more and (temporarily) disable the digital signature enforcement.
9) Start the Device Manager
10) Find the Nikon SUPER COOLSCAN 8000 ED entry below Other Devices
11) Right-click Nikon SUPER COOLSCAN 8000 ED and select Update Driver Software
12) Select Browse my computer for driver software
Note: I have an already updated Nks1394.INF file (see instructions above) in C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Nikon\Driver\Scan1394 and will use that
13) Select the correct location of your driver via the Browse button
14) Select OK
15) Back in the Update Driver Software window, select Next to install the driver
16) When all goes well, your scanner should now be listed below Imaging Devices (cameras and scanners).
17) Don't forget to restart again to re-enable the digital signature enforcement.
18) Then start the Nikon Scan software and your scanner will be recoginzed again. The normal scan options should appear and scanning can resume.
Reference material:
Nikon Coolscan and Nikon Scan 4.0: Driver for Windows Vista 64 bit, Windows 7 64 bit and Windows 8 64 bit
Unoffical Vista X64 driver of LS-8000ED/9000ED for Nikon Scan 4.03
http://imaging.nikon.com/lineup/scanner/scoolscan_8000_ed/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikon#Film_scanners
http://blog.controlspace.org/2010/05/nikon-scan-on-windows-7-and-vista-64.html
Hoe kan ik stuurprogramma's installeren die niet digitaal ondertekend zijn?
Find safe mode and other startup settings in Windows 10
https://petapixel.com/2015/04/24/12-reasons-photographers-still-choose-to-shoot-film-over-digital/
https://petapixel.com/2016/08/19/film-photography-making-stunning-comeback/