From: Eric Neilsen (e.neilsen@worldnet.att.net)
Date: 10/03/03-11:09:08 PM Z
Catherine, Have you done a set up with a separate scratch disk for the
scanner? In my working with a Flextight II for close to three years, I was
quite unimpressed with the over all performance of the software side of the
Imacon. There may be a problem with the column needing to be lubricated.
You may have a disk problem or processing speed issue. I saw this Flextight
II contribute significantly to the death of an old G3 beige unit. Have you
defragged lately? Often? Also check the size of memory allocation needs. I
think all imaging software needs great care in disk space usage and
procedures to last long and allow you to prosper.
The folks up in Seattle were quite help ( some of the time). It is after all
computer related stuff, just pray or shoot it.
Eric Neilsen Photography
4101 Commerce Street
Suite 9
Dallas, TX 75226
http://ericneilsenphotography.com
-----Original Message-----
From: Catherine Rogers [mailto:crogers@mpx.com.au]
Sent: Saturday, October 04, 2003 1:31 PM
To: alt-photo-process-l@sask.usask.ca
Subject: Re: help with Imacon scanner needed please
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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