RE: filmscanners: SS120 first impressions and a few questions.

[rafeb <rafeb@channel1.com>]

At 05:37 PM 7/10/01 -0700, Slavitt, Howard wrote:

>I too wonder whether the Polaroid may have problems with dust getting insde.
>I strongly suspect that with either the SS120 or Nikon 8000ED scan quality
>may decrease over time as more dust gets inside the machine.  You should
>definitely put a dust cover over the machine whenever it's not in use.


Surprisingly, in 2 years time, this hasn't been an issue 
for me on my SprintScan Plus.  If you look at the construction 
(of that model, anyway) it turns out the optics are embedded 
in a long narrow tube, in between the film carrier and the 
CCD sensor.  I guess dust has a hard time getting onto the 
front side of the lens, and no way, really, to get at the 
back side of the lens.

FWIW, the 8000 ED has two separate doors covering the film 
carrier slot.  There's that thin hinged door which flops up 
when the film carrier's inserted.  It also turns out (geez - 
I had to read the manual to find this out <g>) that that 
"decorative" black panel is also a secondary cover for the 
film carrier slot.  Most photos of the 8000 show this panel 
pushed down to reveal the film carrier slot.  When the 
scanner's not in use, this panel slides up to cover the slot.

Jeez, it's hard writing this without sounding like Masters 
and Johnson <g>.


rafe b.