Scanning limitations - or why not buy a drum scanner?

chipper · Post by **chipper** » Thu Feb 15, 2007 2:38 pm Etc/GMT-1+01:00

Looks like a plan could be coming together

Here is a very comprehensive scanner comparison on another LF site.
It takes a while to download. www.largeformatphotography.info/scan-comparison

BarryWilkinson · Post by **BarryWilkinson** » Thu Feb 15, 2007 2:41 pm Etc/GMT-1+01:00

I would be willing in making a contribution towards the drum scanner. This sounds like a great idea.

Barry

Quentin · Post by **Quentin** » Thu Feb 15, 2007 6:12 pm Etc/GMT-1+01:00

chipper wrote:Looks like a plan could be coming together
Here is a very comprehensive scanner comparison on another LF site.
It takes a while to download. www.largeformatphotography.info/scan-comparison

Its difficult to make much from that comparison.. Some of the scans have clearly been heavily sharpened, others less so. The only convincing test is to have film scanned on a decent drum scanner. It convinced me some years ago. You could just take my word for it of course

Quentin

BarryWilkinson · Post by **BarryWilkinson** » Mon Mar 19, 2007 12:05 pm Etc/GMT-1+01:00

Did anything come out this discussion regarding getting a drum scanner? I have seen quite a lot of professional drum scanners for sale on UK ebay at quite low prices. However they are really quite large and little too big for my available space.

Would it be worth someone getting one if they had the room, or would it be more trouble that its worth? Obviously we would have to pay a reasonable charge per scan to compensate whoever 'homed' the scanner.

Barry

alangolding · Post by **alangolding** » Wed Mar 21, 2007 2:59 pm Etc/GMT-1+01:00

Things have been a little quiet because although I have purchased a drum scanner the Apple it needs to run on is not working and I am waiting to have this fixed. My idea was that we could pass the scanner round and all share its expense. This was before I saw its size. Two people can lifit it and it will go in the back of a car but it is not as easy as I had anticipated. In fact the only place that I have for the scanner at home is in my garden workshop and it takes up the whole benceh!

Once I get the thing running and have come to grips with the special software than I am happy to let others use it and to give any instructions on its use. As soon as it has "proved itself" it can be passed round and if anyone wants to make a financial contriution I will not object. I will report again shortly.

BarryWilkinson · Post by **BarryWilkinson** » Wed Mar 21, 2007 4:28 pm Etc/GMT-1+01:00

Thanks for the update Alan. Some certainly look pretty big.

Barry

alangolding · Post by **alangolding** » Sat Apr 14, 2007 11:46 am Etc/GMT-1+01:00

This is an update on the drum scanner. The best discription of the present situation is "Frustration". The scanner appears to work ok but it needs software which requiea an apple macintosh. Up tp now I have only been a pc man. Just to let you know the scanner is a Crosfield Magnascan 200i and it is running on a Power Macintosh 9500/132. The scans need to be transfered on to my pc but at present this does not work. With difficulty I have managed to burn using Toast. The problem is that most of the time it keeps telling me there is a drive error, then it works and then it will nt verify. Whem I try to load this onto my pc it does not recognise the program and will not open. I have tried putting tiff at the end of the title but it makes no difference.

Does anyone have any ideas? I remember on our trip to Woodchester Mansions talking to one of our group in the pub who is an apple macintosh expert but I cannot remember his name. If he sees this or if someone recognises who I mean can you possibly make contact! Are there any apple macintosh experts out there who cam help?

gari · Post by **gari** » Sat Apr 14, 2007 6:22 pm Etc/GMT-1+01:00

Hi Alan, if you have "disc utility" you can format the media to MSDOS,
Click on the cd icon on the left hand menu in utility.
There will be three buttons on the top of the right hand panel;
first aid-erase-restore. choose "erase"
In the panel there will now be a drop down menu called "Volume format"
Click on "MS-DOS"
Hit the erase button and it will be formatted a'la pc compatible.

the mac will be fine reading this format too.

I have not got toast but I am guessing there will be a format menu somewhere in there, a quick look at the Roxio site may point you in the right direction. If you cant get any headway drop me a PM as I have a friend gere on the Island who is a real mac weenie and I know he has Toast, He will be sure to have the answer.

For future reference a visit to the apple site/support/ discussions page is an absolute font of info and help, friendly forum too.

Cheers

Gari

alangolding · Post by **alangolding** » Sat Apr 14, 2007 8:27 pm Etc/GMT-1+01:00

Hi Gari Thanks for the response. I will see what I can do with the DOS and let you know.

Alan

Steve Bell · Post by **Steve Bell** » Sun Apr 15, 2007 9:47 am Etc/GMT-1+01:00

alangolding wrote:With difficulty I have managed to burn using Toast. The problem is that most of the time it keeps telling me there is a drive error, then it works and then it will nt verify. Whem I try to load this onto my pc it does not recognise the program and will not open. I have tried putting tiff at the end of the title but it makes no difference.

Does anyone have any ideas? I remember on our trip to Woodchester Mansions talking to one of our group in the pub who is an apple macintosh expert but I cannot remember his name. If he sees this or if someone recognises who I mean can you possibly make contact! Are there any apple macintosh experts out there who cam help?

I was at Woodchester and my full time job is servicing Macs. From your description it sounds as if the CD writer you are using is defective. You can also get drive sense error's from incompatible media. Older SCSI writers were more fussy over media types, especially with re writables. If it is the CD writer playing up, I may have a good Lacie SCSI CD-RW stored in the shed. Toast will write CD's that are both Mac and PC compatible. Once you get the TIF file from the Mac to the PC you may have to file, then open, rather than just double clicking it to open in Photoshop. I'll PM you my phone number so we can talk.

Post by DJ » Sun May 06, 2007 10:46 am Etc/GMT-1+01:00

Well, I've taken delivery of my Howtek 4500 drum scanner, and so far, I'm delighted with it. I never thought one of these beasts would be within reach, so I gave up on the idea. Now I have one, the Epson V750 is going on Ebay, yes, it's that good.

The whole thing probably cost me £1500 or more ( when you take into account adaptors, software, the scanner itself etc ), three times that of the V750. It's slower, it's much harder to use, it's messy, the scanner is enormous and cumbersome and damned heavy ( a two man lift for sure ). A high res scan of a 5x4 would take well over an hour I'm thinking, it's not quick. Everything about it screams "WHY?!"

And it's worth every bit of trouble.

The quality speaks for itself, the amount of detail this thing pulls out of my film, and the extra shadow detail it finds over the flatbed are just breathtaking, a very noticeable difference.

http://www.joy.org.uk/stuff/.scanner/sc ... arison.jpg

I realise these things aren't for everyone, so I don't mean to preach, but I've been wanting one for a long time, and I'm now a convert. I'm with Quentin, drum scanner or bust!

alangolding · Post by **alangolding** » Mon May 07, 2007 11:26 am Etc/GMT-1+01:00

Sounds like very good news. I am having dificulties at present as the disk burner will not work so I cannot get my results on my main pc for evaluation. I hope to get an old G3 or G4 with Firewire and transfer date that way. Are you using Aurora software?

Post by DJ » Mon May 07, 2007 12:04 pm Etc/GMT-1+01:00

I'm using a Mac ( Intel ) laptop running OS-X 10.4 (Tiger), with a Firewire->SCSI converter, and Silverfast Ai Studio, a combination some on the high end scanning forum scoffed at and said would never work. Works like a charm, no problems so far. I'm transferring the scan files to my main editing PC upstairs over the wireless network, it's not too shabby, quicker than I expected anyway. I also did one or two on a USB memory stick.

Silverfast is also available for Windows, so that combination might work for you too, if you have a similar scanner and a PC that can be moved nearer to your shed

I just couldn't live with the idea of another computer kicking around, I have about 7 already and trying to get rid of those, so I was determined to make it work with a modern machine.

Only issues so far are some scratches in my drum, which I'm having to work around.

Post by DJ » Mon May 07, 2007 12:06 pm Etc/GMT-1+01:00

Alan, does the computer in the shed have network capability?

A long length of Cat5 cable isn't that expensive...

Post by **Joanna Carter** » Mon May 07, 2007 1:22 pm Etc/GMT-1+01:00

I have a spare drum of cat5 hanging around. If you need it, let me know the length and I will make up a length complete with plugs.