I got my SprintScan 4000 just a couple of weeks ago. Pretty amazing
gadget. I'm reminded of the current state of home recording gear. Sure,
the best pro gear is still a little better. But it's 10 to 100 times more
expensive for an improvement that many people would never notice. And if
the operator and/or source material is not near perfect, the differences
don't even matter.
Mine didn't come with a SCSI card. Not a serious problem for me since my
system is all SCSI to start with. I did have to run out and buy a new
cable. I think I will eventually get a different, probably cheap, SCSI
card just for the scanner. It uses a very old, slow form of SCSI which I
suspect is not fitting in well with my latest, fastest hard drives. I get
short system freezes (no mouse motion) and a few other strange
things. Also, I think a connection built for devices that are commonly
turned on and off, like USB or Firewire, would be better for a scanner,
except that I bet USB would slow it down. The Polaroid never seems to turn
off its light so I don't want to leave it on all the time. Reviews I have
read say that this type of light will color shift over time
(~1000hrs?). But it doesn't seem to work unless it has been on since
before the computer was turned on (or reset). I'm pretty sure it is
possible to detect the power cycle or the scanner and reinitialize
everything but none of the software seems to do this well. Perhaps I'll
bug Hamrick about this as I now use Vuescan exclusively, though I suppose
the trouble could be in the Windows SCSI drivers (I use WinME and before
anyone says anything, NT/2K is not a choice for other reasons).
Do you other Polaroid users leave your scanner on most of the time? Do you
reboot your computer when you turn it on? Or do you just not have any such
trouble?
Just for fun, here are a couple of scans of 38 year old Kodachromes from my
early childhood.
http://mcgriffy.com/photos/Dads/David/david024_Med.jpg
http://mcgriffy.com/photos/Dads/David/david038_Med.jpg
The first one I understand to be one of the first photos ever taken of
me. I guess there weren't camcorders in the delivery room in those
days. Heck, there probably weren't even fathers in the delivery room in
those days.
For more fun, for those of you on high speed connections, here are a couple
of shots of the same thing taken first with my father's Sony 3.3MP digital,
then with my OM-1/65-200/ProviaF 100/Sprintscan 4000. Warning, these are BIG!
http://mcgriffy.com/reno/Reno2001/FuriasNoseSony.jpg (1.1MB)
http://mcgriffy.com/reno/Reno2001/FuriasNose_Full.JPG (8.1MB)
DMcG -- gotta get that rebate form mailed in
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