filmscanners: Acer Scanwit 2720 problems

[Tom Christiansen <tomchr@softhome.net>]

Hi List,

I'm experiencing some problems with the Acer ScanWit I bought two weeks 
ago. Before I call Acer I figured that it might be wise to check if others 
have the same problems I have...

When scanning negs (Fuji Realla, NPC, and NPS) the results are OK -- not 
excellent but not bad either. The scans are a little cooler in color 
compared to the prints. A few scans were directly bad. A picture of a 
Pacific beach on an overcast day showed the grey sand rendered with a green 
tone to it.

When scanning slides (Fuji Sensia 100) the results are directly BAD! All 
slides have a cool, bluish, cast to them. Especially one taken in the 
twilight is very blue. Not just a cast! A significant blue bias. All of my 
test slides does not have that large a contrast range in them. There is 
maybe 1-2 stops difference in exposure between the lightest and the darkest 
parts. Yet, on the scan the "darker" parts come out almost black, whereas 
the "lighter" parts come out mid tone. I have a slide that's purposely 
underexposed one stop. The darker parts of that one comes out nearly black 
with a very blue cast.
I compared all the slide scans to the picture I get when viewing the slide 
on a Kodak projector. I've tried using both the bundled Photoshop/Mirascan 
driver and Ed Hamrick's VueScan (with *several* different settings). Same 
sad results.


The reason why I bought this scanner was that I've heard a lot of great 
things about it. On mailing lists and Internet reviews it seems to rule. 
But this far I'm not too impressed with it. Do I just have a bad scanner or 
is it a general problem? If it is indeed a problem, what's the solution?

I expect to get at least the same quality scan as when I scan a 4x6 print 
on a flatbed scanner. Am I expecting too much?


Thanks,

        Tom