[Ian MacDonald Participant Posts: 2]

Computers & Displays

on: February 13, 2021 at 11:32 am

My trusty Nikon SuperCoolscan 4000 ED film scanner is in fine condition. However, it only produces output in the old Apple Firewire format – no USB. To date it has been feeding an old laptop that has a Firewire input port. That laptop could fail any day and I wonder what my options are for finding a current laptop able to interface with the scanner, or for some sort of adapter / converter (for example, to convert Firewire to USB 3.x.) I’ve done a fair bit of searching on the internet but have not found any useful information. When one searches with the word “firewire” all the responses seem to refer to USB 3.x. Has anyone found a solution or does anyone have some suggestions?

[Christopher Sanderson Gold Member Posts: 362]

Re: Laptop able to accept Firewire output from scanner

Reply #1 on: February 13, 2021 at 11:43 am

I have never had any luck with the inexpensive USB or Thunderbolt to Firewire dongles. However I have successfully used a Firewire PCI card within an outboard PCI card box for years. This (with cards) allows connection of recent computers to all my ancient eSATA and Firewire drives.

[Ian MacDonald Participant Posts: 2]

Re: Laptop able to accept Firewire output from scanner

Reply #2 on: February 13, 2021 at 3:15 pm

Thank you Chris, I must say that I was not aware of outboard PCI card box – sounds like a fine option.

[Andrew Rodney Participant Posts: 416]

Re: Laptop able to accept Firewire output from scanner

Reply #3 on: February 13, 2021 at 5:06 pm

Go onto eBay, get an old MacBook with Firewire, you will save a lot of time and grief and it will not cost that much.

Plus, consider all the old legacy software you might have that you can use, even if occasionally.

Author “Color Management for Photographers" & "Photoshop CC Color Management" (pluralsight.com)”

[Bud James Participant Posts: 94]

Re: Laptop able to accept Firewire output from scanner

Reply #4 on: February 14, 2021 at 9:11 am

Ian, you can buy a firewire 400 to 800 adapter cable and then use Apple’s firewire 800 to Thunderbolt adapter to attach to you Mac.

I own the same scanner with various film and mounted slide adapters. It’s a great device, but I have not had to use it over 10 years. If I ever do, I face the issue that you have now, but I already owned the items I mentioned to make it work.

As for software, I highly recommend VueScan. It’s inexpensive and support all kinds of scanners. It does a nice job.

Regards,

Bud James

Please check out my fine art and travel photography at http://www.budjames.photography or on Instagram at http://www.instagram.com/budjamesphoto

[Mike Nelson Pedde Participant Posts: 641]

Re: Laptop able to accept Firewire output from scanner

Reply #5 on: February 16, 2021 at 3:47 pm

Christopher Sanderson wrote:

I have never had any luck with the inexpensive USB or Thunderbolt to Firewire dongles. However I have successfully used a Firewire PCI card within an outboard PCI card box for years. This (with cards) allows connection of recent computers to all my ancient eSATA and Firewire drives.

Good to know!

Thanks, Chris.

Mike.

_____
Mike Nelson Pedde
Victoria, BC
https://www.wolfnowl.com/

[Hugh Sakols Silver Member Posts: 80]

Re: Laptop able to accept Firewire output from scanner

Reply #6 on: February 17, 2021 at 11:13 am

I am using my Minolta Multi Pro with a Firewire dongle on a 2015 MacBook pro without any issues.  Good luck.

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