Good scanner, poor software

I and a group of friends just completed a trip around South West USA (I am from the UK) and between the four of us we took over 1500 pictures.
As many of the photos came out well I thought it would be a good idea to put all the photos on the Web.

I initially considered paying a lab to make photo CDs but I quickly found out that it would be way too expensive for the number of photos we had.
I was then going to look at flatbed scanners when my friend told me about this film scanner his friend had bought. It turned out to be the Nikon Coolscan LS-30. I did some Web research and got some good feedback on it so I bought it.

It came with a SCSI card which was good as I didn't have one (I use a PC).
I installed the card and connected everything up then switched everything on.

My first problem was that Windows 98 recognised the hardware but claimed there was a conflict with the SCSI card. It didn't spell out what the conflict was, so much reading of Web sites and manuals etc ensued.

I finally managed to fix this problem after a few hours by reserving an IRQ in the BIOS. There was nothing in the manuals or on the Nikon Web site to help with this although it may have just been something purely at my end.

After getting the hardware all set up, I installed the software that came on CD with the scanner. I found the interface a little strange, with many unrecognisable icons and no menus to help you learn quicker.

I did a few scans at the basic settings and was pleased with the results - very clean images and far better than you get with a flatbed scanner. The image correction enhancement (ICE - one of the Nikon's main selling points) cleans up dust spots very effectively without degrading the image.
All in all, the images were on a par with what you get from a Photo CD.

I scanned away happily for the next few days, learning how to adjust light levels for badly exposed pictures then problem number two raised it's head.
The little preview window no longer appeared when I inserted a film. This made the scanner un-usable.
Back to the Nikon Web site again, looked in the FAQ, found the problem, the resolution was to run a program from the install CD that would "clean my Registry", then re-install (losing all my settings). I was not impressed by this at all. However, having no choice, I did it and it fixed the problem.

It happened again the next day and the day after that so I decided to try a different solution to the problem. I set all my settings correctly, then exported that section of the Registry to a file. Then, the next time the program broke again, I deleted that key manually, then re-imported my settings. Still a pain but at least I kept my settings.

Other problems I have had are films occasionally getting stuck in the scanner - the only way to retrieve it is to pull the film out by hand - this is not very reassuring but doesn't happen often.

Despite some of the problems I have had I don't regret buying it; as I said earlier, the quality is excellent, and once you get into a rhythm you can scan a roll of film in about 20 minutes. Do bear in mind though that I now scan in one go, then rotate and adjust light levels later in Photoshop - I find this to be more efficient as I don't need to preview.

Final comment - if you can live with the software and want excellent scans from your 35-mm films, go for it.