First of all:
Finally Microtek responded today, after more than a week! They attached
the firmware version 1.61 for the ArtixScan 4000tf, saying
"Unfortunately there is no Mac OS X updater available for this scanner
model. The attached updater is for Windows only."
Great! But there was no other information attached, no upgrade
instructions, no release notes, and no information inside the
zip-archive. Nevertheless, I have already managed to install it from
the temporary-connected PC over USB, but I had to install ScanWizard
just for the updater to find the scanner. And it works! (I normally use
Mac OS X, but once the firmware is installed in the scanner, it is of
course as good from Mac OS as from Windows.) It is too early to say if
there are any improvements though.
On 2006-01-30, at 16.24, Carlisle Landel wrote:
> Are you sure you need a firmware update? Would you mind re-
> explaining the problem?
No, I'm not sure I need it. It is more of a "hope" that quality goes up
and erratic behaviors go down...
Originally I wrote: "Although the scanner still works, it sometimes
happens that it misses focus, or that the calibration tables come in
wrong, or slightly inconsistent brightness/color between scans, so I am
hoping that a firmware upgrade might perhaps help."
When I joined this list in 1999, I had a lousy scanner, but then I
bought the ArtixScan 4000tf as soon as it was possible to buy it in
Sweden. I happen to belong to the picky ones, so even though this
scanner is supposed to be one of the best (e.g in terms of shadow
performance), I have never been fully pleased, and the quality of
scanner software, IT8-calibration in particular, is generally lousy
with zillions of problems. Issues have been discussed with LaserSoft,
and I've had various private communication with Ian Lyons and other
friends. It has taken me a long time to get results that I consider
descent. If you are interested in calibration issues, you may want to
read the articles <>. Still
though, the scanner sometimes misbehaves, and it has always been like
that.
As for why it sometimes misses focus, I don't know. I'm just hoping
that new firmware will make it better. The most confusing aspect
though, is the erratic behavior of multisampling. I have generally
stayed away from multisampling for that very reason, but I really want
to use it more. (It is common to hear people say it is not needed with
this scanner, but that is just outright wrong -- if you demand
capturing full-range slides all the way down to the deep shadows.)
Apart from sometimes missing focus, the problem is that the brightness
in the shadows sometimes change with different scanning sessions!
Sometimes by a lot! Sometimes also shifting the color somewhat. Both of
these problems seem to be related to multisampling (seem to happen more
often then), despite this scanner has hardware support for
multisampling. In principle, it could also be SilverFast that is the
culprit here, but I don't think so. I suspect the electronics in the
scanner is not stable enough, or its firmware is not good enough.
I know I am picky -- some might even say perfectionist -- but I want
full-range scans, and I want to do ALL image manipulation in Photoshop,
including dedusting, i.e I really "just" want as clean and raw and
noiseless sharp scans as possible.
I tried VueScan a few times, but gave up on it. I have never before
tried ScanWizardProTX, since it was not even available for Mac OS X
until "recently", and I don't know of any people who use it. But since
I had to install it on the PC just for installing the firmware, I
started to wonder: Who use it? Does it have any merits over SilverFast
Ai 6 for a person that really "just" wants clean noiseless raw sharp
scans -- no image manipulation done by the scanner software!
______heb___________________________
Harald E Brandt
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