RE: filmscanners: Dust in Sprintscan 4000?

["Gregory Georges" <ggeorges@mindspring.com>]

I rarely get dust spots in my SS4000. I probably do something Polaroid would
recommend against. Occasionally, I use my air-gun nailer compressor to blow
air through the unit. I set the air at 30lbs pressure and blow carefully. I
cover the unit with plastic and avoid having slides or film out of their
slide pages or negative sleeves unless I am scanning them. I also use a
small blower brush to remove anything that I can see before scanning.

I probably only remove spots on 1 out of 5 scans. If there are many spots
(or fibers) I remove the film, clean it, and scan it again.

During the winter months when the air is dryer, there are unquestionably
more bits of debris to worry about. I live in a very humid part of North
Carolina and so maybe that is part of the reason why I do not have dust
problems. Moisture in the air helps keep down dust levels.

---
Gregory Georges
Really Useful Content, Inc.
Chapel Hill, North Carolina
www.reallyusefulpage.com

Author of Digital Camera Solutions &
50 Digital Photo Techniques



> I have not done a count, but I'm sure that I also find from 200-
> 1000 spots
> on every scan, no matter how careful I am, and I live in a humid climate,
> but work under much less clean conditions.   I've been
> preoccupied with the
> dust problem for some time.  Some people don't seem to consider it a big
> problem, but that must be because they do not spot scans from slides using
> the Acutal Pixels view while making 13x19 prints.  I'd hoped that a new
> SS4000 purchased at Ecost would do a good enough job and save me lots of
> bucks.  But, the comparison between using ICE on a Nikon LS 4000
> and not ICE
> on the Sprintscan is too dramatic to ignore, especially since I have not
> been able to see any significant difference in quality.