From: Catherine Rogers (crogers@mpx.com.au)
Date: 10/04/03-12:30:46 PM Z
John,
It sounds like your machine is an even better model than mine. I couldn't find a tabby box to uncheck. It must be a default. You didn't happen to also find a box to uncheck to prevent hair standing on end? (It seems like this machine is really big on hair.)
Actually I was making what I thought was an educated guess regarding the effects of static electricity. As the sparks few between me and the neg holder, and between the holder and the machine, the image suddenly scrambled into lines of grey garbage (at least it was a b/w neg) and that was it for the machine then.
Re-installing the software as you suggested did change things but not for the better really and not for long, it became slower and then the old problems returned.
Your suggestion of using it as decoration certainly has some merit, but for the money, it doesn't really look that good and I only feel bad when I look at it. In fact it causes me real distress (see above hair problems).
I guess the only thing left to me then is to re- read Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance as you suggested and leave home. I won't be taking that scanner - but then maybe it might just work heading west at 120kms/hour, strapped upside down on the back of a motorcycle.
Thanks for your note!
Catherine
Catherine,
I have the very same model, the Flextight Photo, and have experienced many of the same problems, including tabby hair (Go to Preferences/Imacon/Peculiarities/Dermatological/Hair, and make sure that Tabby is NOT checked to fix this one).
I had no idea that the grey lines of garbage were caused by static electricity--thank you for that explanation.
I have found (on a Windows device, mind you--I've never even hooked it up to any of our Macs) that a re-install of the software has favorable results on getting it to even turn on and be recognized by the computer (which is, as I understand it, important to scanning). Every time I want to start it up, I re-install the software.
I have also found that reading the 25th Anniversary Edition of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Persig (sp?) helped me stare at the menu choices until I could grok the settings for each individual scan while attempting to square and load the negatives into the magnetic carrier with no help at all from the built in light table (which is never quite convenient while loading negatives in to the aforementioned magnetic carrier. . . right?).
I then close out all other programs (this being, as I mentioned, a Windows device) and scan at the highest resolution gleaned from the groking mentioned in the previous paragraph. Then I turn out all the lights, fire up some incense, and fall onto my prayer blanket chanting " Imacon, Imacon, Imacon. . . " (just that way, including the italics).
Several hours later I have occasionally managed to get a full set of decent medium format scans. In the meantime I have usually batch-scanned several dozen rolls of 120 film at higher resolutions through my MicroTek 9800XL, and have edited those babies out for printing.
Mostly what I like about the Imacon is the way it sits on the counter in our production space, not plugged in or hooked up to a computer at all--the way it just sits there looking important in its Imacon-ness! God, that's beautiful.
If it were more than two of us, I would suggest a class action.
I hope this helps, but I know better
--John
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