Re: help with Imacon scanner needed please

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From: PhotoGecko Austin (gecko@photogecko.com)
Date: 10/04/03-06:10:29 PM Z


Oh!

You are in Aus-TRAL-ia!

(Forgive me, please, for not having noted that before.)

The solution in Australia is simple: just turn the device upside-down
and re-install the software backwards. ( With lights off, of course.)
Then scan your images from the bottom up!

That should do it.

Seriously, it was my utter frustration with the Imacon (from the
standpoint of time invested in each image) that lead me to buy the
MicroTek (and, no, I am not employed by them). And I absolutely agree
with you that, for the money (Good Gawd!), the Imacon should deliver a
more satisfactory AND predictable result (meaning several things)
without so many mind/body/spirit gyrations.

  But. . .

I also note that there are those among us who find delight along the
Imacon Way ( even to the point of making offers to purchase my
paperweight Flextight Photo--and those who have replied to you in all
earnestness regarding the configuration of your particular system,
hoping to help you make it work--Kind souls, they are.).

So, I'm now thinking that the problem lies not in the Imacon or its
native software but in individual peculiarities--meaning that different
people get different results, depending on a whole host of
psycho-social, genetic, neurological, and theological configurations.
And that's only the beginning.
Perhaps some of us are destined to be Imacon worthy. . . the rest of
us, sadly not.

I dunno.

All I know is: I want it to work for me. And I've spent too much time
trying to wrestle it to the ground.

So it sits there on the counter. Looking mighty good.

No, I haven't solved the Imacon problem. But I'm not quite ready to
give it up, either. I want it to deliver on its promises.

The winds are blowing cooler here in Texas. Six weeks ago we were over
one hundred degrees (F) for over a week. Today we are in the low 70's.
  Things must be warming up Down Under. Yes?

Go easy,
John

  __________________________
John Campbell
PhotoGecko Studios & Gallery
1413 South First Street
Austin, Tx 78704

(512) 797-9375

www.photogecko.com

On Saturday, October 4, 2003, at 05:05 PM, Catherine Rogers wrote:

> John,
>  
> I really enjoyed your note! Thanks. Despite my despair it really made
> me laugh.
>  
> But you don't seem to have solved the Imacon problem either. Amazing
> really given how much the thing costs. I just wanted to be able to
> scan larger medium format like 6 x 9cm and 6 x 17cm negs among other
> things which a nikon ED doesn't do. I feel like a big sucker. 
>  
> Meanwhile I'll see if there is any reply from the Imacon makers. Maybe
> it runs better on a Mac. Also, I'll try it with all the lights off  -
> I NEVER thought of that one! Maybe we could try a class action which
> unites the US and Australia.....
>  
> All the best with your praying and chanting and reading.
> Thanks again,
> 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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