Sorry about the $600!
I had a similar situation, except that I didn't spend the $600 to try to fix
my SS4000. The SS4000 had developed bad pixels in the CCD sensor - Polaroid
wanted $400 just to look at it, and more $$$ to fix, so I just junked it
after 3 years, figuring that I had gotten plenty
I scan mostly slides, but if I had to scan strips of film, the SS4000
(and the Artixscan version) film strip carrier would drive me nuts.
I remember on the old Leben scanner list that Nikon has some pricey
repairs on their scanners, so Polaroid isn't alone.
Unless the repair is minor, you are
the only thing I'd caution re: using compressed air is to be careful that the
compressed air doesn't come out at such a speed as to cause cooling and
condensate of the area being blown.
Been there, done that with a neg and took a while to get rid of the little
water droplet spots afterwards.
I own a Nikon Coolscan V, which is quite close to 5000 in terms of the
optics. I am very pleased with the results of the scans. I know that
is a very subjective comment, so what info would you like to hear from
me? I can perhaps send some raw scans for you to look at?
-Navjot
On 6/2/05, Mary
Hardly any detail loss with the minimum setting, and, yes, you can turn it
off. There are four levels of IR correction, as I recall - off, light,
medium, and heavy. With medium and heavy, you will notice some detail loss.
And I agree about turning it off for some films / images. I shot several
