RE: cheap drum scanner

I sometimes still use a friend's Isomet 405 HR, and the quality of the scans
absolutely blows away anything I've gotten on his Imacon. Take shadow
detail: the Isomet can pull out grain detail in a black section of film,
while still preserving detail in the highlights.

Using them is a major time-consuming hassle especially when one adds having
to oil mount the film with expensive materials. They aren't all that hard
to use, but fixing them is another story. They spin fast, so they break.
On top of the maintenance hassles, software is the next limiting factor.
The ones I use are connected to ancient Unix servers running on some clunky
20 year-old computer so exporting files can be a challenge in itself.

I use an Epson now. But it certainly isn't because I found the quality of a
drum scan lacking.

-----Original Message-----
From: Mateo Leyba [mailto:mateo@mateoleyba.com]
Sent: Thursday, May 27, 2004 10:42 AM
To: alt-photo-process-l@sask.usask.ca
Subject: Re: cheap drum scanner

Today you can buy a desktop scanner, such as an Imacon, hook it up and
scan away. These old drums require a temperature controlled room
(68ûf), a lot of space, and specialized training to operate. In
addition there is some maintenance involved by a trained technician, if
you can even find one. The company that took care of our stuff, went
out of business when we cancelled our $30k annual contract, just no
demand for his service. We even offered him our units for free which he
declined because he had three in his garage already. So compared to
what you can plop down on your desk today, they do suck, but you could
scan a 12"x20" neg on one!

mateo

On May 27, 2004, at 8:58 AM, Jon Danforth wrote:

> Can you please explain why there are at least three of these
> quarter-million
> dollar machines going for free / cheap? Do they just really suck by
> today's
> standards or what?
>
> -Jon
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Mateo Leyba" <mateo@mateoleyba.com>
> To: <alt-photo-process-l@skyway.usask.ca>
> Sent: Thursday, May 27, 2004 10:53 AM
> Subject: Re: cheap drum scanner
>
>
>> I have TWO of them that are FREE to anyone who wants to pick them up.
>> Paid over $250,000.00 each new. FYI - You only want one of these if
>> you
>> are a complete mad scientist.
>>
>> mateo
>>
>> On May 26, 2004, at 9:04 PM, Keith Gerling wrote:
>>
>>> http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?
>>> ViewItem&category=57057&item=3817341065
>>> &rd=1
>>>
>>> this guy must really want to get rid of this thing
>>>
>>
>
Received on Thu May 27 13:35:30 2004