Re: filmscanners: Polaroid Sprint Scan 4000

["Tom Scales" <tscales@attglobal.net>]

I agree with everything Roger says -- you cannot get anything close to the
quality of the SS4000 for this money. Buy one!

My only suggestion is that if you're doing lots of scanning, I do find the
spare carrier useful. I do negs, not slides, and they're a little harder to
get properly aligned in the carrier.  So, scanning one while loading one
works very well for me and they're under $20.

Tom

From: <RogerMillerPhoto@aol.com>


> Thank the gods!  Finally a filmscanner question.
>
> If you are going to buy one do it soon.  The $200US rebate ends at the end
of
> this month.  If you can find one, they are selling for under $450 right
now
> (including the rebate) as it's being replaced by a new model.  The new
model
> will have 14-bit color depth and USB and Firewire interfaces.  But the
SS4000
> was a good scanner when I bought mine less than a year ago for $1400, so
> you'd be out of your mind not to buy one now.
>
> You can probably get a list of what's currently included with the scanner
> from either the Polaroid web site or from the web site of someone like B&H
> Photo.  Mine came with a SCSI cable and a SCSI card.  The end of the cable
> that attaches to the card was a DB25.  I received a slide carrier (4
slides)
> and a film strip carrier (6 frames).  The plastic spring that holds the
slide
> in the first slot of my slide carrier cracked.  It was a manufacturing
> problem and not a design problem.  I've been putting the slide in position
> number 2 for over 6 months and it's working just fine, so I don't think
> you'll have a problem if you take reasonable care of them.  (Polaroid sent
me
> a replacement under warranty.  They also sent me a spare film strip
carrier
> even though I hadn't asked for and didn't need it.)  So you don't need to
buy
> any spares, in my opinion.  (They should always be available if you need
one
> during the life of your scanner, anyway, so save your money.)  You'll get
> Polaroid Insight (recently upgraded and pretty good) software and
SilverFast
> (very sophisticated).  The SilverFast software will probably be the old
> version and it will cost you $45 to upgrade SilverFast Ai and another $45
to
> upgrade SilverFast HDR.  Or you can get by with just upgrading HDR and not
> Ai.  But you don't need the upgrade at all if you only do slides as the
> upgrade adds a very good negative profile system called NegaFix.  Don't
worry
> abut dust.  Some people have exaggerated any problems to justify their
choice
> of some other scanner.  I've never had a problem.  By now, your scanner
will
> probably come with a brush that can be attached to the end of a film
carrier
> and pushed through the scanner that will remove any dust that gets on the
> sensor that detects the presence of the carrier.  If not, Polaroid will
send
> you one for free.  The bottom like is that it's a great scanner and the
price
> is terrific.
>
> By the way, I see you must live in Seattle.  I'm across Puget Sound from
you,
> so if you have any problems learning to use your new SS4000, I be happy to
> offer what ever assistance I can.
>
> In a message dated 9/9/2001 7:41:18 PM Pacific Daylight Time,
> williams@u.washington.edu writes:
>