Re: filmscanners: Fast, decent, low res scans
On Wed, 06 Jun 2001 18:33:43 -0400 Lynn Allen ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) wrote: Ouch! I don't think that I, for one, realized that Phil's G4 wouldn't use a standard SCISI card. Aparently, Acer didn't, either. Acer used a SCSI card which didn't require a terminator, so almost certainly was not-quite-standard at all. Regards Tony Sleep http://www.halftone.co.uk - Online portfolio exhibit; + film scanner info comparisons
Re: filmscanners: Fast, decent, low res scans
On 07 Jun 2001 12:15:41 EDT Richard Starr ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) wrote: The sin is that Mac has abandoned scsi, not to mention serial. It makes upgrading while using your old peripherals a pain. My old Mac will drive an Acer and I hope I can find the cash to buy one soon. I'd not be too quick to blame the Mac entirely - the Acer card is weird in not requiring termination at the scanner (and Acer don't provide any), which suggests it's not true SCSI spec. Regards Tony Sleep http://www.halftone.co.uk - Online portfolio exhibit; + film scanner info comparisons
Re: filmscanners: Fast, decent, low res scans
On Thu, 07 Jun 2001 12:41:28 -0400 Phil ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) wrote: If I can get the 2740S to WORK with Vuescan then I WON'T have to return the scanner and I can hopefully regain some measure of credibility over here at work- people have seem me blow all my circuits here these past two days! It's humorous and sad too. Oh dear. Welcome to the cutting-edge world of digital imaging :) Don't take it personally, and it's not just a Mac thing, a SCSI thing, or even an Acer thing - it goes with the territory. Hands up anyone who has invariably installed something and had it work first time. Even 'eventually' is ahead of the curve and a step closer to Buddhahood. You think this is bad, just wait until you buy a printer - there's a whole industry and cast of thousands involved in getting them to perform properly. Regards Tony Sleep http://www.halftone.co.uk - Online portfolio exhibit; + film scanner info comparisons
RE: filmscanners: Fast, decent, low res scans
On Thu, 07 Jun 2001 05:34:03 -0700 Shough, Dean ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) wrote: Try the Adaptec 2906 for under $50. Works great for me with my Minolta Scan Dual on both my old PowerBase 180 and on my newer G4/500. I don't know about Mac, but the cheapo Adaptec 2904CD SCSI card (sold for interfacing CDR's for ~29GBP, so probably $30US) works absolutely fine with filmscanners on a PC. The 'CD' bit is marketing nonsense, to try and persuade you to spend more. It's a bog standard PCI PnP SCSI2 card with no boot ROM. No prosumer filmscanner needs anything faster, nor will they scan any quicker. Regards Tony Sleep http://www.halftone.co.uk - Online portfolio exhibit; + film scanner info comparisons
Re: filmscanners: Fast, decent, low res scans
On Wed, 06 Jun 2001 18:33:43 -0400 Lynn Allen ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) wrote: Ouch! I don't think that I, for one, realized that Phil's G4 wouldn't use a standard SCISI card. Aparently, Acer didn't, either. Acer used a SCSI card which didn't require a terminator, so almost certainly was not-quite-standard at all. Note necessarily. Many scanners have auto termination built into their twin connectors (inside the box). Which allows you to simply connect the cable and leave the other SCSI connector open. I think most devices have built in termination so that the hap hazard users won't blow their SCSI cards, or motherboards (in the case of Apple). Either this, or they gave you a terminator, which was a small 50 pin plug-in device that had two L.E.D.s on it. In any event, you don't want to leave a SCSI bus unterminated. Ever. Regards Tony Sleep http://www.halftone.co.uk - Online portfolio exhibit; + film scanner info comparisons
Re: filmscanners: Fast, decent, low res scans
I worked for nearly a year with an unterminated SCSI bus (card-to-Acer, nothing out) with no problems that I could recognize. After I started having unexplainable (and unreproducible) problems, I bought and installed a terminator for about $30 US. I would not swear so in court, but the terminator *might* have helped. Or it might not have--I'm not sure how one tells the difference. For my apps, it was very slight. Best regards--LRA Best regards--LRA -- On Mon, 11 Jun 2001 16:40:09 Richard N. Moyer wrote: On Wed, 06 Jun 2001 18:33:43 -0400 Lynn Allen ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) wrote: Ouch! I don't think that I, for one, realized that Phil's G4 wouldn't use a standard SCISI card. Aparently, Acer didn't, either. Acer used a SCSI card which didn't require a terminator, so almost certainly was not-quite-standard at all. Note necessarily. Many scanners have auto termination built into their twin connectors (inside the box). Which allows you to simply connect the cable and leave the other SCSI connector open. I think most devices have built in termination so that the hap hazard users won't blow their SCSI cards, or motherboards (in the case of Apple). Either this, or they gave you a terminator, which was a small 50 pin plug-in device that had two L.E.D.s on it. In any event, you don't want to leave a SCSI bus unterminated. Ever. Regards Tony Sleep http://www.halftone.co.uk - Online portfolio exhibit; + film scanner info comparisons Get 250 color business cards for FREE! http://businesscards.lycos.com/vp/fastpath/
Re: filmscanners: Fast, decent, low res scans
Richard N. Moyer wrote: One of the things to remember is this: Not all so-called PCI (SCSI) cards are really SCSI cards. What I mean is that many companies include SCSI cards which are/were not conformant with the standards. This is very important (conformance with the Standard), and goes back to the discussion about Open and Control. The IEEE standards are long and complex, and technical, including the various ramifications of the SCSI Standard. Companies have often offered abbreviated SCSI (really shouldn't even use the term SCSI) cards which leave out portions of the standard, to cheapen the cost of the card - meaning fewer components. They didn't tell you this. This was particularly a problem for PC users, who, more often than Mac users, needed SCSI attachment capability. Most of these stunted cards would connect only the scanner included in the package, and would never connect more than one device on a chain in accordance with the SCSI standard. I can name names of companies who did this, some might surprise you. They did what they thought they could get away with; cost foremost in mind. Only to find out that a penny saved - - - -. The same thing has happened with software. Yes there are Standards at play here to, one of which you are using now - MIME used in e-mail. And the biggest abuser was - - guess who? Could it be Satan? (Many know him as Bill?) The above situation is what I suspected might be the case, but, I'll give an example of the other side. My UMAX scanner came with a DTC card, which Umax indicated would only work with their scanner. UMAX North America's web site claimed the same thing. However, on researching further the UMAX UK site was kind enough to mention that with a different driver, the card would work with most SCSI products and support up to 6 other devices, also. It took some work to configure, since it required some jumpers be moved (I was luck that my card had the jumpers, apparently many versions didn't and one would have to cut or solder wires). It does work, and I'm running my Zip drive on it, and my UMAX scanner. Art
Re: filmscanners: Fast, decent, low res scans
You are confusing Acer with Microtek, who is the manufacturer of the Polaroid SS 4000 scanner. I'm fairly sure not even the Microtek and Polaroid versions can use interchangeable software, due to some built in code that is checked for. Art Richard N. Moyer wrote: I could be wrong, but doesn't Acer make the Polaroid scanner, and if so, would not the drivers from this machine work on Acer. Might ask Polaroid - - List, I thank you all very much for your information and advice. My last two days have been painful and difficult, and I think I really understand now what Art meant when he wrote that configuring them [SCSI devices] took years off my life I'm never getting back! I pray for USB and Firewire now. I would like to obtain a divorce from SCSI forever. huge snip ---
Re: filmscanners: Fast, decent, low res scans
In light of some of the recent comments in regard to Acer scanners, and being that Honda Lo, the Acer rep who was at one point monitoring this list expressed interest a few months back in getting feedback about the products, I thought it might be a good idea to repeat his email address. People who wish to communicate directly with Acer about quality, software, service or other issues should write to Honda Lo at Acer. His email address is: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Art Todd Radel wrote: Art wrote: This is just plain silly. I always thought a PCI card was a PCI card, and a Mac with PCI bus should follow the protocol, one would think. SCSI cards are an exception. I'm not sure about other types of PCI devices. As others have pointed out, it's partly because the cards contain an EPROM that allows booting off SCSI drives (and a BIOS as well in the case of a SCSI card designed for a PC), and such a boot ROM would need to be written for a specific platform. But it's not only that, as even cards which do not have any booting capability at all can still be incompatible across platforms. The DEC Alpha platform uses PCI but is not compatible with most PCI SCSI cards, boot ROM or not. Related question: many of the Mac- and Alpha-compatible PCI SCSI cards have the same chipsets on them that PC-compatible SCSI cards do (e.g. Adaptec 2940, Symbios 895). On cards without a boot ROM, I wonder what the difference could be? What makes a card incompatible with a Mac if there's no EPROM or BIOS? I am most emphatically not a Mac person, so I don't know. I'm actually surprised to here this. I thought the Acer was Mac compatible as it comes out of the box, and that would make me assume the SCSI card would also work. The 2740 packaging is misleading in many ways. The box also claims that the scanner is compatible with Win2K, and there is a Win2K driver for the SCSI card on the CD-ROM, but if you call Acer you'll find out that they will not support the use of their own scanner, their own SCSI card, and their own driver on Win2K. Why provide a driver at all then? Of course, these are the same support reps who didn't know what a SCSI terminator was, and suggested that I change the scanner device ID to 7, so I wouldn't look to them for any kind of SCSI support anyway. :( Personally, I tossed Acer's SCSI card into the closet and hooked the 2740 up to an Initio 9100UW card. I have four SCSI adapters in 2 different computers, and as much as I like what they do (and when they work, they work well) configuring them took years off my life I'm never getting back! Don't get me started. I could tell many war stories about the SCSI problems I've seen on everything from midrange HP and Sun boxes to workstations to PC's and Mac's. As you can probably imagine, I'm really pulling for FireWire to become popular. Quickly. :-) -- Todd Radel - [EMAIL PROTECTED] SCHWAG.ORG - Where Freaks and Geeks Come Together http://www.schwag.org/ PGP key available at http://www.schwag.org/~thr/pgpkey.txt
Re: filmscanners: Fast, decent, low res scans
Not being a Mac person, I'm a bit out of my league, but Acer indicates the SCSI card they provide is proprietary, and will not work with other devices. I don't know if this is just a software driver matter, or if they really have some unique SCSI protocols. Maybe Ed Hamrick can shed some light, since I think he's analyzed the SCSI command set with the Acer products. Art Shough, Dean wrote: There is no need to buy an expensive UltraSCSI PCI card for use with a scanner. Try the Adaptec 2906 for under $50. Works great for me with my Minolta Scan Dual on both my old PowerBase 180 and on my newer G4/500. Scanners use the original narrow and slow SCSI protocols. The only reason to buy the fast, wide, LVD SCSI cards is if you want to set up a RAID array of SCSI disks - but then you don't want to put the scanner or any other narrow, slow devices on the same card.
Re: filmscanners: Fast, decent, low res scans
This is just plain silly. I always thought a PCI card was a PCI card, and a Mac with PCI bus should follow the protocol, one would think. WHich Mac are you using? The PCI bus only specifies the bus pinout, and signalling protocol and other lower-level functions. How the card is recognized by and communicates with the host computer is not really part of the PCI standard. From my understanding, Mac PCI cards require certain things in the card firmware to facilitate recognition of the card, and integrate into the Mac hardware and OS. For example, some PC SCSI cards work on the Mac, but cannot be booted from. Flashing the firmware to Mac firmware enables booting. Many PC SCSI cards do not need firmware at all, but don't work in the Mac. For example, I've seen instructions for soldering on a flash device onto a PC SCSI card and flashing with Mac firmware to make a generic card Mac compatible. OK, the first question is: Is anyone on this list using an Acer 2720 or 2740 with a Mac? And if so, what are they doing about interfacing. I already posted that I've used a Acer 2720 with my PowerMac G3 with Initio BlueNote SCSI card. This card is PC and Mac compatible. On the Mac, it requires no software installation-- just plug the card in and it it just works in the system without any drivers, plug and play recognition, or anything. I currently use this card in a PowerMac G4 with a Canon FS2710. I'm actually surprised to here this. I thought the Acer was Mac compatible as it comes out of the box, and that would make me assume the SCSI card would also work. My belief is that the Acer scanners will probably work with any Mac with a working SCSI card. Whether Acer's included card will work is another matter. To draw from recent postings on this list, I wouldn't ascribe this situation to malice on Acer's part. For a long period of time, starting with the 1986 Mac Plus to the 1998 iMac, all Macs included a built-in SCSI port. Most PC's didn't. Thus the standard situation for SCSI scanners was that they were bundled with cheapo SCSI cards that Mac users promptly threw into the closet before they hooked the scanners directly into their Macs. Now, originally the Acer 2720 was PC-compatible only, because it provided no Mac scanner drivers. It also included a SCSI card that probably didn't work on Macs, but it didn't need to, cause there were no Mac drivers. However, given a Mac with a working SCSI port (via card or built-in), and VueScan software, you could use the 2720 just fine. Then, around the time of the 2740's release, Acer upgraded their Miraphoto software (which I've never heard of anybody actually using in favor of VueScan) to include a Mac version. At that point, somebody at Acer probably thought, Hey, we're Mac compatible because up until the iMac introduced Apple's new architecture that eliminated legacy ports like SCSI, Macs could always be assumed to have built-in SCSI ports and it wasn't necessary to include a Mac-compatible SCSI card. So it probably wasn't malice, just a oversight based on changing market and technical assumptions. Do you know just what the problem is? Do other PCI cards usually work in Multi-platform situations? Why are Mac SCSI cards so expensive (at least ones which work with the Acer) Mac SCSI cards aren't that expensive. I don't know why the original poster citied $300. The only SCSI cards that expensive now for either platform are exotic Ultra160 cards intended for RAID arrays and the like. For film scanners, generally a $50-80 SCSI I or II card is adequate. To the original poster: I understand you are upset, but the situation is very easily rectified. Go to: http://eshop.macsales.com/Catalog_Page.cfm?Parent=96Title=SCSI%20%26%20IDE%20ControllersTemplate= Buy one of the inexpensive SCSI cards for $50-80. I have used this vendor several times and they are cheap, quick, reliable, and will help you. Throw the Acer SCSI card away or give it to a PC user. Likely, you would have bought the Acer scanner anyway if it didn't claim to include a Mac SCSI card, since it is the lowest-cost scanner with ICE. Get VueScan and forget about the Acer Miraphoto, too. Scan. Be happy. -Collin Ong
RE: filmscanners: Fast, decent, low res scans
There is no need to buy an expensive UltraSCSI PCI card for use with a scanner. Try the Adaptec 2906 for under $50. Works great for me with my Minolta Scan Dual on both my old PowerBase 180 and on my newer G4/500. Scanners use the original narrow and slow SCSI protocols. The only reason to buy the fast, wide, LVD SCSI cards is if you want to set up a RAID array of SCSI disks - but then you don't want to put the scanner or any other narrow, slow devices on the same card.
Re: filmscanners: Fast, decent, low res scans
One of the things to remember is this: Not all so-called PCI (SCSI) cards are really SCSI cards. What I mean is that many companies include SCSI cards which are/were not conformant with the standards. This is very important (conformance with the Standard), and goes back to the discussion about Open and Control. The IEEE standards are long and complex, and technical, including the various ramifications of the SCSI Standard. Companies have often offered abbreviated SCSI (really shouldn't even use the term SCSI) cards which leave out portions of the standard, to cheapen the cost of the card - meaning fewer components. They didn't tell you this. This was particularly a problem for PC users, who, more often than Mac users, needed SCSI attachment capability. Most of these stunted cards would connect only the scanner included in the package, and would never connect more than one device on a chain in accordance with the SCSI standard. I can name names of companies who did this, some might surprise you. They did what they thought they could get away with; cost foremost in mind. Only to find out that a penny saved - - - -. The same thing has happened with software. Yes there are Standards at play here to, one of which you are using now - MIME used in e-mail. And the biggest abuser was - - guess who? Phil wrote: Hello All, Two weeks ago I e-mailed the list to ask you all about making fast, decent low res scans. I went ahead and purchased the Acer Scanwit 2740S. I spent the first half of this day struggling with SCSI drivers and Acer scanning software. I could not get the scanner to work. Finally, I called Acer. It turns out that the SCSI PCI card they include with the scanner only works on PCs I can't use this scanner on my Mac G4 without paying almost $300 additional for a new Mac compatible SCSI card. This is just plain silly. I always thought a PCI card was a PCI card, and a Mac with PCI bus should follow the protocol, one would think. WHich Mac are you using? Cut - - - - - -
Re: filmscanners: Fast, decent, low res scans
--- You wrote: I'm actually surprised to here this. I thought the Acer was Mac compatible as it comes out of the box, and that would make me assume the SCSI card would also work. --- end of quoted material --- The sin is that Mac has abandoned scsi, not to mention serial. It makes upgrading while using your old peripherals a pain. My old Mac will drive an Acer and I hope I can find the cash to buy one soon. Meanwhile, has anyone noticed whether Acer has come up with the 2740 Mac driver yet? Rich
Re: filmscanners: Fast, decent, low res scans
List, I thank you all very much for your information and advice. My last two days have been painful and difficult, and I think I really understand now what Art meant when he wrote that configuring them [SCSI devices] took years off my life I'm never getting back! I pray for USB and Firewire now. I would like to obtain a divorce from SCSI forever. But at the moment I have an Acer Scanwit 2740S which is SCSI, and I want to do my best to make this situation work. So, first of all: **I've confirmed with Acer technical support that the included SCSI card DOES NOT work in a Mac.** I am not accusing Acer of malice, but I do strongly believe that if Acer and the retailers are marketing the 2740S as cross platform and touting the included SCSI card as part of the deal, then information should be available somewhere, even if somewhere buried very deep down, that this SCSI card won't work in a Mac. Mac users may be a minority of their target market, but I'm certain I'm not the only Mac user out there interested in this particular Acer scanner! I wasted many hours struggling with that Acer SCSI card, and malice or not, that was a lot of frustration and high blood pressure! I don't want to hold a grudge though- just communicate to us, Acer! That's only fair, please communicate. There is no need to buy an expensive UltraSCSI PCI card for use with a scanner. Try the Adaptec 2906 for under $50. Works great for me with my Minolta Scan Dual on both my old PowerBase 180 and on my newer G4/500. Thank you Dean Shough, Pat Perez, Collin Ong and others for you advice on SCSI cards. I've obtained a cheaper Adaptec 2906 SCSI card and installed it in my Mac. Then I went back to the drawing board and tried installing the Acer drivers and firing this scanner up to make some fast, decent, low res scans!!! I struggled and struggled and struggled for hours. I reinstalled the SCSI card drivers. I moved the SCSI card to another machine, re-installed the Acer software, still I couldn't make a scan and got nothing but scary error messages on my screen. I called back Acer technical support. THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT, PLEASE READ THIS! **ACER TOLD ME THAT THE ACER DRIVERS FOR THE 2740S ARE DEFECTIVE AND DO NOT WORK, CANNOT BE MADE TO WORK, AND THAT ACER DOES NOT CURRENTLY HAVE A FIX, PATCH OR REPLACEMENT DRIVER.** I'm serious about this! Note: the Acer 2720, which is PC only, is known to work and has great reviews! (The 2740S is supposed to be the Acer 2720 + ICE + cross platform). So the question is: does anyone on this list have an Acer 2740S WORKING on either a Mac or a PC? According to the technical support person at Acer, the 2740S cannot be used with the included Acer drivers, which are DEFECTIVE. Our engineers are working on it is what the Acer man told me when I asked him when a working Acer driver would be released. He suggested using Vuescan, but when I asked him if he would help me install Vuescan and get it working with the Acer scanner, he said he cannot, as he is not familiar with Vuescan. Now: I KNOW it's not malice or disrespect on the part of Acer, AND I don't want to be angry or upset- I just want this scanner to work!!! BUT I think that Acer really needs to get its act together. The admission on the part of Acer technical team that the Acer 2740S cannot work with its own faulty Acer drivers was such a clear cut case of defective product that the retailer I purchased the scanner from actually gave me an RMA (a code that authorizes the scanner to be returned to them, I get a refund) with just a short argument over the phone. Neither Acer nor the retailers have a leg to stand on here. The Acer drivers are defective, and so the scanner cannot be made to work on either platform with these defective Acer drivers. I don't want to blast Acer, that's not the point of this e-mail, but please please please, if you are someone considering the 2740S for purchase, you may be in for a wild ride, regardless of what platform you're on. It's not even a question of the PC-only SCSI card, but of the Acer drivers, which are faulty and defective (they told me themselves). It seems that Vuescan is the only game in town right now, for the Acer. So: Can anyone offer me some help on getting this scanner to work with Vuescan? I've got gray hairs and ulcers now but I've kept my sense of humor, especially with Arthur Entlich's Z.E.N. philosophies. I'll offer you warm thanks and I'll praise you on the list and I'll praise you in this office here and I'll praise your name all over the streets of New York City (I can leave out that last bit if you like). If I can get the 2740S to WORK with Vuescan then I WON'T have to return the scanner and I can hopefully regain some measure of credibility over here at work- people have seem me blow all my circuits here these past two days! It's humorous and sad too. Phil [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: filmscanners: Fast, decent, low res scans
Art wrote: This is just plain silly. I always thought a PCI card was a PCI card, and a Mac with PCI bus should follow the protocol, one would think. SCSI cards are an exception. I'm not sure about other types of PCI devices. As others have pointed out, it's partly because the cards contain an EPROM that allows booting off SCSI drives (and a BIOS as well in the case of a SCSI card designed for a PC), and such a boot ROM would need to be written for a specific platform. But it's not only that, as even cards which do not have any booting capability at all can still be incompatible across platforms. The DEC Alpha platform uses PCI but is not compatible with most PCI SCSI cards, boot ROM or not. Related question: many of the Mac- and Alpha-compatible PCI SCSI cards have the same chipsets on them that PC-compatible SCSI cards do (e.g. Adaptec 2940, Symbios 895). On cards without a boot ROM, I wonder what the difference could be? What makes a card incompatible with a Mac if there's no EPROM or BIOS? I am most emphatically not a Mac person, so I don't know. I'm actually surprised to here this. I thought the Acer was Mac compatible as it comes out of the box, and that would make me assume the SCSI card would also work. The 2740 packaging is misleading in many ways. The box also claims that the scanner is compatible with Win2K, and there is a Win2K driver for the SCSI card on the CD-ROM, but if you call Acer you'll find out that they will not support the use of their own scanner, their own SCSI card, and their own driver on Win2K. Why provide a driver at all then? Of course, these are the same support reps who didn't know what a SCSI terminator was, and suggested that I change the scanner device ID to 7, so I wouldn't look to them for any kind of SCSI support anyway. :( Personally, I tossed Acer's SCSI card into the closet and hooked the 2740 up to an Initio 9100UW card. I have four SCSI adapters in 2 different computers, and as much as I like what they do (and when they work, they work well) configuring them took years off my life I'm never getting back! Don't get me started. I could tell many war stories about the SCSI problems I've seen on everything from midrange HP and Sun boxes to workstations to PC's and Mac's. As you can probably imagine, I'm really pulling for FireWire to become popular. Quickly. :-) -- Todd Radel - [EMAIL PROTECTED] SCHWAG.ORG - Where Freaks and Geeks Come Together http://www.schwag.org/ PGP key available at http://www.schwag.org/~thr/pgpkey.txt
RE: filmscanners: Fast, decent, low res scans
Microtek manufacturers the Polaroid scanners -Original Message- From: Richard N. Moyer [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Thursday, June 07, 2001 4:04 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: filmscanners: Fast, decent, low res scans I could be wrong, but doesn't Acer make the Polaroid scanner, and if so, would not the drivers from this machine work on Acer. Might ask Polaroid - - List, I thank you all very much for your information and advice. My last two days have been painful and difficult, and I think I really understand now what Art meant when he wrote that configuring them [SCSI devices] took years off my life I'm never getting back! I pray for USB and Firewire now. I would like to obtain a divorce from SCSI forever. huge snip ---
Re: filmscanners: Fast, decent, low res scans
Phil-- I almost forgot (and *did* forget to add it to my last post), another very useful site for Scanwit operation is: www.photoscientia.co.uk Best regards--LRA Get 250 color business cards for FREE! http://businesscards.lycos.com/vp/fastpath/
Re: filmscanners: Fast, decent, low res scans
Phil wrote: Can anyone offer me some help on getting this scanner to work with Vuescan? Well, since I bear some responsibility for getting you into this, I'll certainly take some in trying to help you out. :-) Vuescan is downloadable from: www.hamrick.com You can download a trial version to assure yourself that it will work with your G4 setup, before actually buying it. Licensing for both Vuescan and Vueprint is $40, and most here will agree that it's money well-spent. I'll offer you warm thanks and I'll praise you on the list and I'll praise you in this office here and I'll praise your name all over the streets of New York City (I can leave out that last bit if you like). That won't be necessary--in fact, I'd just as soon New York doesn't even know about me! ;-) Best regards and good luck--LRA Get 250 color business cards for FREE! http://businesscards.lycos.com/vp/fastpath/
Re: filmscanners: Fast, decent, low res scans
I could be wrong, but doesn't Acer make the Polaroid scanner, and if so, would not the drivers from this machine work on Acer. Might ask Polaroid - - List, I thank you all very much for your information and advice. My last two days have been painful and difficult, and I think I really understand now what Art meant when he wrote that configuring them [SCSI devices] took years off my life I'm never getting back! I pray for USB and Firewire now. I would like to obtain a divorce from SCSI forever. huge snip ---
filmscanners: Re: filmscanners: Fast, decent, low res scans
Richard wrote: I could be wrong, but doesn't Acer make the Polaroid scanner, and if so, would not the drivers from this machine work on Acer. Microtek assemble (OEM) the SS4000 for Polaroid. Not Acer. The drivers for the Artix 4000 will not work on the SS4000. The hardware is the same but the BIOS is different. Anyway, there's no relationship I'm aware of with Acer. Rob Rob Geraghty [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://wordweb.com
Re: filmscanners: Fast, decent, low res scans
Phil, earlier you wrote that you were having problems with your new Acer scanner. I mentioned your problem on another group I'm on and this was the answer. Tell Phil (with the Acer scanner) to buy a Nac SCSI card for about Australian $90 from any Mac dealer - they are not as expensive as he thinks. I have one which I bought with the G$ and run my Zip and 1640su on it and it works a treat! Hope this helps. Kevin.
Re: filmscanners: Fast, decent, low res scans
Translated into English that message should have read, Tell Phil (with the Acer scanner) to buy a Mac SCSI card for about Aus$90 from any Mac dealer - they are not as expensive as he thinks. I have one which I bought with the G4 and run my Zip and 1640su on it and it works a treat! - Original Message - From: Kevin Power [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Friday, June 08, 2001 11:22 AM Subject: Re: filmscanners: Fast, decent, low res scans Phil, earlier you wrote that you were having problems with your new Acer scanner. I mentioned your problem on another group I'm on and this was the answer. Tell Phil (with the Acer scanner) to buy a Nac SCSI card for about Australian $90 from any Mac dealer - they are not as expensive as he thinks. I have one which I bought with the G$ and run my Zip and 1640su on it and it works a treat! Hope this helps. Kevin.
Re: filmscanners: Fast, decent, low res scans
Hello All, Two weeks ago I e-mailed the list to ask you all about making fast, decent low res scans. I went ahead and purchased the Acer Scanwit 2740S. I spent the first half of this day struggling with SCSI drivers and Acer scanning software. I could not get the scanner to work. Finally, I called Acer. It turns out that the SCSI PCI card they include with the scanner only works on PCs I can't use this scanner on my Mac G4 without paying almost $300 additional for a new Mac compatible SCSI card. I'm really really upset now. I'm struggling with Acer Customer Service on the telephone. I believe that Acer should indicate somewhere- on their website, in the scanner's instruction manuals, anywhere at all, that their PCI SCSI card is useless in a Mac. The Customer Service woman herself is telling me now that it should work! This is because even at Acer itself, there is no indication anywhere, on literature or electronically, that although the 2740S is Mac compatible, it can't use the Acer SCSI card included with the scanner. The retailers don't know this either- but since retail sales people often don't know much about technical specs anyway, they rely on the information given to them by the manufacturer- i.e. Acer. I am very upset, and sorry to share this negative feeling with other human beings. If someone has some Zen philosophy to share with me, I would appreciate it. Phil [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: filmscanners: Fast, decent, low res scans
On Wed, 6 Jun 2001, Phil wrote: It turns out that the SCSI PCI card they include with the scanner only works on PCs I can't use this scanner on my Mac G4 without paying almost $300 additional for a new Mac compatible SCSI card. Sorry for your struggles. However, you can get SCSI cards for your Mac for much less that $300. Check out: http://eshop.macsales.com/Catalog_Page.cfm?Parent=96Title=SCSI%20%26%20IDE%20ControllersTemplate= for several options under $100, as low as $50. I personally use the Initio BlueNote PCI ($80 on this site) on my PowerMac G4 450DP (originally on my G3/300) and it works fine with my Canon FS2710 film scanner, UMAX 1200S flatbed, and an old SCSI CD-R drive. No drivers or extensions needed. It also worked with the Acer ScanWit 2720 and VueScan back on the G3, though I have not tried that combo on my G4 (I borrowed the ScanWit). -Collin
Re: filmscanners: Fast, decent, low res scans
Phil wrote: I can't use this scanner on my Mac G4 without paying almost $300 additional for a new Mac compatible SCSI card. Ouch! I don't think that I, for one, realized that Phil's G4 wouldn't use a standard SCISI card. Aparently, Acer didn't, either. Phil, if I can apologize, I certainly do. Fortunately (I hope), you can return the Acer and replace it with a USB scanner. G**d**n*d electronics! Get your sabots to the ready, you Fellow Ludites! Best regards, and good luck--LRA -- On Wed, 06 Jun 2001 15:18:28 Phil wrote: Hello All, Two weeks ago I e-mailed the list to ask you all about making fast, decent low res scans. I went ahead and purchased the Acer Scanwit 2740S. I spent the first half of this day struggling with SCSI drivers and Acer scanning software. I could not get the scanner to work. Finally, I called Acer. It turns out that the SCSI PCI card they include with the scanner only works on PCs I can't use this scanner on my Mac G4 without paying almost $300 additional for a new Mac compatible SCSI card. I'm really really upset now. I'm struggling with Acer Customer Service on the telephone. I believe that Acer should indicate somewhere- on their website, in the scanner's instruction manuals, anywhere at all, that their PCI SCSI card is useless in a Mac. The Customer Service woman herself is telling me now that it should work! This is because even at Acer itself, there is no indication anywhere, on literature or electronically, that although the 2740S is Mac compatible, it can't use the Acer SCSI card included with the scanner. The retailers don't know this either- but since retail sales people often don't know much about technical specs anyway, they rely on the information given to them by the manufacturer- i.e. Acer. I am very upset, and sorry to share this negative feeling with other human beings. If someone has some Zen philosophy to share with me, I would appreciate it. Phil [EMAIL PROTECTED] Get 250 color business cards for FREE! http://businesscards.lycos.com/vp/fastpath/
Re: filmscanners: Fast, decent, low res scans
It turns out that the SCSI PCI card they include with the scanner only works on PCs I can't use this scanner on my Mac G4 without paying almost $300 additional for a new Mac compatible SCSI card. I can't use this scanner on my Mac G4 without paying almost $300 additional for a new Mac compatible SCSI card. Ouch! I don't think that I, for one, realized that Phil's G4 wouldn't use a standard SCISI card. Aparently, Acer didn't, either. I didn't even know that the G4 had a PCI bus. Stan === Photography by Stan McQueen: http://www.smcqueen.com
Re: filmscanners: Fast, decent, low res scans
Phil wrote: Hello All, Two weeks ago I e-mailed the list to ask you all about making fast, decent low res scans. I went ahead and purchased the Acer Scanwit 2740S. I spent the first half of this day struggling with SCSI drivers and Acer scanning software. I could not get the scanner to work. Finally, I called Acer. It turns out that the SCSI PCI card they include with the scanner only works on PCs I can't use this scanner on my Mac G4 without paying almost $300 additional for a new Mac compatible SCSI card. This is just plain silly. I always thought a PCI card was a PCI card, and a Mac with PCI bus should follow the protocol, one would think. WHich Mac are you using? OK, the first question is: Is anyone on this list using an Acer 2720 or 2740 with a Mac? And if so, what are they doing about interfacing. Do you know just what the problem is? Do other PCI cards usually work in Multi-platform situations? Why are Mac SCSI cards so expensive (at least ones which work with the Acer) I'm really really upset now. I'm struggling with Acer Customer Service on the telephone. Well, at least they answer the phone which is more than I can say for some companies... I believe that Acer should indicate somewhere- on their website, in the scanner's instruction manuals, anywhere at all, that their PCI SCSI card is useless in a Mac. The Customer Service woman herself is telling me now that it should work! This is because even at Acer itself, there is no indication anywhere, on literature or electronically, that although the 2740S is Mac compatible, it can't use the Acer SCSI card included with the scanner. The retailers don't know this either- but since retail sales people often don't know much about technical specs anyway, they rely on the information given to them by the manufacturer- i.e. Acer. I'm actually surprised to here this. I thought the Acer was Mac compatible as it comes out of the box, and that would make me assume the SCSI card would also work. I am very upset, and sorry to share this negative feeling with other human beings. If someone has some Zen philosophy to share with me, I would appreciate it. Well, that depends... if you like the Nepalese style of Zen, I suppose you could murder the royal family to get yourself into power and then claim it was an accident... (sorry, I'm sure it isn't very funny for the people of Nepal, but it is certainly an odd situation occurring there). My form of Zen (which I studied, BTW, which just goes to prove it isn't always successful) ;-) : Z= Zonk someone (or your dog) either verbally or physically E= Eat comfort food until you are sick to your stomach N= Never give up Lick your wounds, repeat as needed. I usually wear down my opponent until they are either babbling incoherently or they hand me a blank check (or both) ;-) These techniques are particularly effective if you don't mind looking twice your age, and dying at 45 years of age. Lastly, I will remind anyone who has been on this (or was it the scan@leben?) group for a year or more, that I had a long drawn out debate with Austin Franklin about the problematic nature of SCSI implementation, due to a mixture of the many versions, the dozens of cables and adapters, the different protocols, and the general lack of industry standards. I have four SCSI adapters in 2 different computers, and as much as I like what they do (and when they work, they work well) configuring them took years off my life I'm never getting back! And, Oh yes, Try smiling! Art Phil [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: filmscanners: Fast, decent, low res scans
Art wrote: This seems to be becoming a standard operating procedure in the industry, returning the unit unrepaired. Since shipping isn't cheap (you usually have to pay at least one way) and you are without your unit (no smug comments!) for weeks at a time, you eventually just give up and live with the defect. Maybe it's cheaper than actually hiring staff to fix these things? Seems to me that the problem falls into the common-complaint of My Plumber won't make house-calls! ;-) While Art and I might attempt levity on the subject of inadequate service (sometimes you have to laugh to keep from crying), the problem remains serious, IMHO. I've *never* found shipping a product of any sort to a repair center satisfactory (and I've done it); sometimes, not even drop-off centers--where you look the fella straight in the eye and tell him the problem. I once drove 55 miles to Cleveland and left my Amiga3000 at an authorized service center. When I brought it home 3 weeks later (total mileage: 220 miles for 2 trips--about the cost of shipping if you don't include time-spent), the problem was still there. When I popped off the cover I found dust--they hadn't even opened it! I don't think I'd get argument from anyone that a good repair-person is a blessing and a rarity. How many cities smaller than London, New York, LA, Hong Kong, or Tokyo have a choice of reliable camera-repair shops? St.Louis (pop. @ 3,000,000), had ONE in 1990. Good for Nikon and Leica only--give them a PennFT and they were befuddled! Rochester, NY? Yeah, likely! Question is, who's training the new people to do these very complicated repairs? Anybody? Is the Leica M-3 going to be the *next* throw-away product? Sheese! Thanks for letting me blow off steam. I apologize in advance. :-) Best regards--LRA --- FREE! The World's Best Email Address @email.com Reserve your name now at http://www.email.com
RE: filmscanners: Fast, decent, low res scans
-Original Message- From: Phil [SMTP:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Wednesday, May 23, 2001 7:00 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: filmscanners: Fast, decent, low res scans Thank you for the replies on the how do I make fast, decent low res scans question I posted yesterday! [Oostrom, Jerry] [] Jerry, is the 675 ppi scan on the Acer Scanwit 2740S REALLY done in under 10 seconds? [Oostrom, Jerry] I don't know, I don't have one (I have a 2720S). If you have the dust-removal enabled it will perhaps take somewhat more(!) than double the time of a normal scan at 675dpi (5 seconds was mentioned?). Anyway, the suggestion I made and later Alan made on having two slideholders and filmholders available is especially useful with vuescan, since you can change its settings to automatically start scanning upon insertion of a slideholder and after scanning it will spit it out for you, so there is not even need to touch the mouse or keyboard or even a scanner button for the speed-freaks on a tight budget. Good luck on your quest, Jerry Oostrom BTW. Lately I had sent in my scanner for service, and when I received it back (problem not solved, at best only marginal improvements!) I received an extra filmholder and slideholder!
Re: filmscanners: Fast, decent, low res scans
Phil, The scanwit 2720 and 2740 have both received good reviews as good value products. The speed is something I was not fully aware of and is an extra bonus. They are fairly ruggedly built, and considering their market niche, that is an extra. In terms of purchases, you might consider looking a ebay, Just key in film scanner under search, and they will show up. There are a few source selling them (new) regularly. It seems a major way they are being sold in the US. Art
Re: filmscanners: Fast, decent, low res scans
On Wed, 23 May 2001 13:00:23 -0400 Phil ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) wrote: For making fast, decent low res scans, the Kodak 3570 Plus seems like a dream. From QA on the Kodak site: This is nice. The problem is that the best price I've found so far in the US is $8200 http://www.kalbphotosupply.com/rfs3570.html. I guess this is what Tony Sleep meant when he said these scanners cost as much as a reasonable car. In addition to the fact that the Kodak machine is very expensive, the maximum resolution is disappointing, given how much it costs and taking into account the other less expensive scanners on the market. It seems difficult for me to understand why so much money doesn't buy you at least the same resolution you can get with the Polaroid Sprintscan 4000 or the Nikon LS-4000. The RFS3570 handles medium format too. There is a 35mm-only model, the RFS2035, but it's hardly cheaper. Both use a strobe lightsource and matrix CCD (like a digicam) which is why they are expensive and fast. Scan quality is not as good as current prosumer units on most parameters, but they are designed for use in places like newspaper offices. However, bulk scanning requires aftermarket feeders which AFAIK are not made by Kodak. There's a review of an RFS3570 at my site. However I had in mind the sort of kit used by minilabs, proper scanning stations. These start around $10k. The problem with all prosumer units is not so much the scanning time, but the lack of a mechanism for feeding the film. If you use uncut film, the Kodak RFS3600 is well worth looking at (unrelated to the 3570, and far cheaper) as it can handle an uncut 36ex.length. If you scan mounted slides, you might think about the Nikon LS2000+add-on SF200 hopper, despite its rep for misfeeds. Regards Tony Sleep http://www.halftone.co.uk - Online portfolio exhibit; + film scanner info comparisons
re: filmscanners: Fast, decent, low res scans
Phil: If you go this route, buying a second or third film holder would speed things up for you also. Using MiraPhoto you will have to save each file individually in the twain running program, e.g. photoshop. If you used VueScan the files would already by written to disk sequentially numbered. VueScan also was an excellent autolevels. I use it almost exclusively on my Scanwit 2720. There will also be the time for the scanner to focus, although 675 dpi may make this a moot point. alan The best price I've seen so far for the Acer Scanwit 2740S in the US is $485 http://www.ecost.com/ecost/shop/detail.asp?DPNo=956027, and less for the 2720 (about $330, but the 2720 doesn't have ICE; also, I believe that the 2720 cannot be used with a Mac). Jerry, is the 675 ppi scan on the Acer Scanwit 2740S REALLY done in under 10 seconds? Are there any additional thoughts or leads for me to investigate on other scanners out there that can make low res scans quickly? I am obsessed with making fast low res scans. Philippe [EMAIL PROTECTED] Nonstock Photography
Re: filmscanners: Fast, decent, low res scans
Thank you for the replies on the how do I make fast, decent low res scans question I posted yesterday! Based on the replies, I've done some more research, and have accumulated the following information. I would like share it; I hope it will be useful to one or more of you. For making fast, decent low res scans, the Kodak 3570 Plus seems like a dream. From QA on the Kodak site: What are typical scan times for scanning an image? For 1,000 dpi (50% resolution), less than 10 seconds. For 2,000 dpi (full resolution), less than 30 seconds. http://www.kodak.com/global/en/professional/products/scanners/3570Plus/3570 PlusQandA.jhtml This is nice. The problem is that the best price I've found so far in the US is $8200 http://www.kalbphotosupply.com/rfs3570.html. I guess this is what Tony Sleep meant when he said these scanners cost as much as a reasonable car. In addition to the fact that the Kodak machine is very expensive, the maximum resolution is disappointing, given how much it costs and taking into account the other less expensive scanners on the market. It seems difficult for me to understand why so much money doesn't buy you at least the same resolution you can get with the Polaroid Sprintscan 4000 or the Nikon LS-4000. In any case, in terms of scanners that are lower in price, I was very excited by Jerry Oostrom's post on the Acer Scanwit 2740S. Jerry wrote that: if you ever start thinking about filmscanners and don't want to spend too much money initially, you should know that although 'Auto-levels' was said to be a Photoshop thing, the Acer Scanwit software called Miraphoto also has such a setting (called Auto-density). The Acer scans quite fast using lower dpi settings (e.g. 675dpi)... The very high speed of the lower res scans is something I saw mention of again from a review of the Acer 2740S at cnet.com: ...I scan mostly for web and the proposed 675 ppi, well below the maximum power available, is more than anyone will ever need for digital/web purposes. Scans are blazing fast at this resolution, something like 5 seconds. Then I read a review of the Acer Scanwit 2720 (the lower priced version of the 2740S) that was quite positive- the review is at: http://www.photoscientia.co.uk/Review.htm The best price I've seen so far for the Acer Scanwit 2740S in the US is $485 http://www.ecost.com/ecost/shop/detail.asp?DPNo=956027, and less for the 2720 (about $330, but the 2720 doesn't have ICE; also, I believe that the 2720 cannot be used with a Mac). Jerry, is the 675 ppi scan on the Acer Scanwit 2740S REALLY done in under 10 seconds? Are there any additional thoughts or leads for me to investigate on other scanners out there that can make low res scans quickly? I am obsessed with making fast low res scans. Philippe [EMAIL PROTECTED] Nonstock Photography
Re: filmscanners: Fast, decent, low res scans
On Tue, 22 May 2001 13:13:46 -0400 Phil ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) wrote: What's the best way, in your opinion, to make lots of low res scans quickly? Buy a scanning station from the likes of Sony, Pakon, Konica or Kodak. These take a few seconds per scan, instead of the minute(s) of desktop prosumer units. They also cost as much as a reasonable car, however. Regards Tony Sleep http://www.halftone.co.uk - Online portfolio exhibit; + film scanner info comparisons
RE: filmscanners: Fast, decent, low res scans
Phillippe wrote: Say you have a portfolio of 35mm slides. On short notice you are asked to scan two hundred of them and burn them onto CD, low res. What would be a good scanner and workflow for creating the actual low res JPEGs? What are good ways to make FAST, DECENT, LOW RES SCANS of 35mm slides? Short Notice may be the key, here, Phillippe, and Decent is the other criterion. If you're talking about a $150 budget (and I think you were), you're not likely to get decent results from anything you could *buy* for that price. Rent is a possibility, and Hire is another. If you can hire someone to scan these slides for you, either as Raw scans or as corrected scans--and *which* would depend on how adept you are at working imaging programs--you should be able to come in at or under budget. Renting a scanner would be another option, which would depend *a lot* on how fast you can get up to speed on scanning and retouching. It could be cheaper, or not. It would definitely be a lot more work. I think you should go to Work for Hire, at least for the Short Term. The Low Res requirement has nothing to do with the eficacy of your scans, only the final quality of what is seen. You may or may not be talking about Down and Dirty, but a Low Res scan takes almost the same time to do as a Hi Res scan--the Time difference is measured in seconds. The Quality difference is measured by how much you expect to *do* with the scans, and what their final purpose is. It's much harder to retouch a Low Res scan than a higher-res scan, and your results are much better with the latter. You can *always* resample down, but resampling *up* is usually a disappointment. As for JPEG quality, I've found that it's not difficult to get decent quality at about 120-100kb per picture, at a size at or below 900 pixels maximum dimension. If the final destination is the Internet, 500ppi is fine. Not all pictures cooperate, of course. Check out Larry Berman's Compression Comparisson page on the Net. It's a Must. Per your other questions: *** Does the scanner you recommend come bundled with software that would allow me to crop and set Auto Levels without entering Photoshop? No. Auto Levels, AFAIK, are a Photoshop thing. Setting Levels, OTOH, is something that most imaging programs do, one way or another. Ditto cropping and basic color-correction. Some scanners bundle PS-LE (Acer, for one). *** The cheaper, the better. No, the cheaper the worser. ;-) That's an unfortunate Law of Physics and Economics, and it can't be overturned AFAICT; not often, anyway. If it's in the area of $150, we may be able to get 2 or 3 of them, so if one scanner is being used, a second will be available. If you can get 3 scanners at $150, then you can get one Acer or one Minolta--so do it. If it doesn't last for at least 200 frames, you'll be allowed to shoot the salesman, and no jury selected from this List would ever convict you. :-) Best regards--LRA --- FREE! The World's Best Email Address @email.com Reserve your name now at http://www.email.com
RE: filmscanners: Fast, decent, low res scans
Phillippe wrote: Say you have a portfolio of 35mm slides. On short notice you are asked to scan two hundred of them and burn them onto CD, low res. What would be a good scanner and workflow for creating the actual low res JPEGs? What are good ways to make FAST, DECENT, LOW RES SCANS of 35mm slides? Short Notice may be the key, here, Phillippe, and Decent is the other criterion. If you're talking about a $150 budget (and I think you were), you're not likely to get decent results from anything you could *buy* for that price. Rent is a possibility, and Hire is another. If you can hire someone to scan these slides for you, either as Raw scans or as corrected scans--and *which* would depend on how adept you are at working imaging programs--you should be able to come in at or under budget. Renting a scanner would be another option, which would depend *a lot* on how fast you can get up to speed on scanning and retouching. It could be cheaper, or not. It would definitely be a lot more work. I think you should go to Work for Hire, at least for the Short Term. The Low Res requirement has nothing to do with the eficacy of your scans, only the final quality of what is seen. You may or may not be talking about Down and Dirty, but a Low Res scan takes almost the same time to do as a Hi Res scan--the Time difference is measured in seconds. The Quality difference is measured by how much you expect to *do* with the scans, and what their final purpose is. It's much harder to retouch a Low Res scan than a higher-res scan, and your results are much better with the latter. You can *always* resample down, but resampling *up* is usually a disappointment. As for JPEG quality, I've found that it's not difficult to get decent quality at about 120-100kb per picture, at a size at or below 900 pixels maximum dimension. If the final destination is the Internet, 500ppi is fine. Not all pictures cooperate, of course. Check out Larry Berman's Compression Comparisson page on the Net. It's a Must. Per your other questions: *** Does the scanner you recommend come bundled with software that would allow me to crop and set Auto Levels without entering Photoshop? No. Auto Levels, AFAIK, are a Photoshop thing. Setting Levels, OTOH, is something that most imaging programs do, one way or another. Ditto cropping and basic color-correction. Some scanners bundle PS-LE (Acer, for one). *** The cheaper, the better. No, the cheaper the worser. ;-) That's an unfortunate Law of Physics and Economics, and it can't be overturned AFAICT; not often, anyway. If it's in the area of $150, we may be able to get 2 or 3 of them, so if one scanner is being used, a second will be available. If you can get 3 scanners at $150, then you can get one Acer or one Minolta--so do it. If it doesn't last for at least 200 frames, you'll be allowed to shoot the salesman, and no jury selected from this List would ever convict you. :-) Best regards--LRA --- FREE! The World's Best Email Address @email.com Reserve your name now at http://www.email.com
Re: filmscanners: Fast, decent, low res scans
Hi Phillip, If the process you are asking about is a one time deal, Larry may well be correct that letting the experts do it with a PCD might be the best answer. However, if you are going to be doing this on a regular basis, the costs of using PCD gets up there, and having an in house scanner is a better option. When people ask about low res images, one has to ask a few questions. How low res are we speaking of? For screen viewing only, or for printing as well? Do you want the image to look as good as it can (even in the low res version), or do you intentionally wish it to be soft so no one can use it without permission? OK, let's look at each element... Film scanning is not typically a beginners luck kind of thing. Even assuming the scanner works well out of box, the software has no conflicts with your system, and you have the correct cables and/or interface cards, learning to use the software, drivers, and adjustment tools takes time and patience. Now, don't get me wrong, it's a great pursuit, but it is often fraught with challenges along the way. You don't usually want to do this under the gun, so Larry is right, if you don't want to fight with your equipment or have a time line that's tight, and if you have a good PCD company, go that route the first time, and then think about what you want to do next time. The PCD will come with a bunch of different resolutions on them, so you will want to load into you system the appropriate res for your needs and then convert it into a JPEG file, and then cut a CDR from all those files at the end. If you want the best quality achievable in a low res scan, you will need a film scanner, and you probably should capture the images as a fairly high resolution (at least 1200 dpi) and then downsample using a program like Photoshop, to 70-100 dpi at whatever size you wish, for screen use. Although there are film scanners approaching that $200 US price level (The Prime 1800, a 1800 dpi scanner) you will not be able to use that scanner for real quality work later on. You can also find flatbed scanners that go up to 2400 dpi, (but not currently at $150 either). Flatbeds in that range are 600 to 1200 dpi. Flatbed scanners of that price range will not give you as good a result as a filmscanner for the same price, but some might allow you to batch scan a strip or more of film at a time, which might help with workflow. Tricky images like high or low contrast, over and underexposed, etc, will be more difficult to scan with a flatbed. They are designed to best deal with very well exposed images. Negatives are trickier to get correct when first starting out just due to the color conversions you need to get correct, and no A-B comparison. If you want to invest in a scanner that will give you good service and yet good value, and can scan at much higher res than you need right now, consider the Minolta Dimage Dual II or the Canon 2710. These both scan at over 2700 dpi, are good with shadow detail, and overall work well. The Canon FS2710 is faster than the Minolta per scan, and it uses SCSI II interfacing versus USB on the Minolta. If you are using Macs, there might be some issues with software or interfacing with SCSI. From reading your posting the impression time is money seems to nner. The results will not be as good. Some scanners come with basic drivers which will do a quick and direct auto levels, but since I personally wouldn't use that, I don't know which. Vuescan works will pretty much all the popular scanners on the market, so that is always an option. If you have dust or scratch problems consider one of the dICE scanners. They include, Nikons, Acer 2740, Minolta Elite. dICE slows the scanning process, slightly softens the scan, and adds to the price of the scanner. Art Phil wrote: Hello, My name is Philippe. I am writing with what may be an unusual question, and I am hoping you can help me out. Say you have a portfolio of 35mm slides. On short notice you are asked to scan two hundred of them and burn them onto CD, low res. What would be a good scanner and workflow for creating the actual low res JPEGs? What are good ways to make FAST, DECENT, LOW RES SCANS of 35mm slides? I've been to three stores and the salespeople I spoke with could only spit back specifications written on the side of the box; most of the scan times they gave me related to the time to create a high res scan using the scanner's maximum optical resolution- but using maximum optical resolution and then resampling down may not be the fastest way for me to achieve low res scanning! What I'm looking for now is feedback from people who really use scanners. What's the best way, in your opinion, to make lots of low res scans quickly? *** Does the scanner you recommend come bundled with software that would allow me to crop and set Auto Levels without entering Photoshop? The scan doesn't have to look
