Hi, I bought a new one for about 280 US$ during Christmas time. The price here in Germany had fallen since summer from about 450 US$ to that low level. I like it for the price and would recommend it. The colours are fine and also the contrast ratio is OK for me.
But you have to be aware, that there is no user or auto focus control! It's fix focussed. If one demands not strongly in big enlargements it's OK. But I wasn't pleased with it and therefore analysed the system. There are three ways the light gets to the scanners eye: - one for the prints. It has it's own lens and some mirrors for that. - another for the slides. This one is mostly combined with - the one for films. They use one lens and some mirrors together. As there's only one lens for both, it seems they did a compromise regarding the focus for prints and films. I decided for slides and moved ( about 2 mm ) the lens into the optimum for that application. The lens is mounted in a barrel and is laying in a canal. So it can be moved only in axial direction. The sharpness difference is huge. I now almost reach the sharpness of the slides. Before, the sharpness loss regarding the original was obvious and not acceptable for me. The disadvantage is now an additional loss of sharpness during scanning films. If one decides to scan only films, it would be possible to optimize also for that application. It would be even possible to fix the lens not completely tied. So one could move it to the before analysed and marked optimums depending on the task. The lenses are even accessable at an assembled scanner. There is a black tape in the middle of the top of the lower part of the scanner. If it is removed, the lenses are accessable easyly. To move the lens, it's necessary to loose before two screws inside the scanner. regards Bernd H. Jerome Daryl Coombs-Reyes wrote: > Okay... so I've been paging through the PDML archives for about a week > now, and I think I've read just about every posting I deemed helpful > concerning which scanner to buy (and theres a LOT of them!... > thanks for > you past contributions). For the capability and price range, I've > decided on the Photosmart S20... Atleast for now. > > From reading your opinions over time, the pros for this system and the > praise that it has received (even when you omit all of Pauls > advertisements... I mean... postings... concernings this unit) have > significantly outweighed any cons. snip - This message is from the Pentax-Discuss Mail List. To unsubscribe, go to http://www.pdml.net and follow the directions. Don't forget to visit the Pentax Users' Gallery at http://pug.komkon.org .
