Old scanner operator seeks new home!

[RenoType]

Over the last 20 years I have watched my industry -- high end commercial color reproduction-- move away from color separators and pre-press operations, and to photographers. There really is no support any more from the conventional sources for my trade (sigh), so i thought it best to see what I can learn from you photography sorts.

My last old-school drum scanner finally called it quits... leaving me with a Scitex (well... creo.... and now Kodak) EverSmart Pro II. I miss the quality we used to be able to achieve... but only curmudgeons like me seem to know the difference any more, so I guess I should be happy that I can still do a good scan, huh?


I look forward to reading posts, responding when I have something relevant to add, and to asking all of you for help when I need it!

Kurt

[domaz]

Welcome- you might also check out the "ScanHi-End" group on Yahoo. It's the only forum I know dedicated to drum scanning.
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/ScanHi-End

[Marek Warunkiewicz]

Hey Kurt!

Welcome to another curmudgeon who is sad at the lack of demand for quality in today's world. You'll know the phrase "pleasing color". That's what people now think is what we called exact match. Oh well, it's entropy, ain't it? I had a lovely Screen laser scanner that the movers damaged so now I don't have a drum scanner at all. One day soon, I hope, I'll buy an Aztek or maybe find a good scanner going cheap somewhere. Miss those drum scans!

Marek

[Jim Galli]

Hello from down the road in Tonopah, NV.

[RenoType]

Thanks all for the warm welcome!

Thanks for the link to the yahoo group, domaz, i will check it out!

I never used a Screen machine, Marek, but some associates swore by them Certainly one one of the "big 3 "high-end" manufacturers. Crosfield 646 was what I was used to. There were a few Hell scnners in town... but alas, all are dead now. Saqw one in a parking lot 2 years ago :eek: I know where a tango can be had for about 6500 bucks... am thinking about it, but even that little a price is hard to justify based on the amount of scanning we do now. I recently sent some 4x5s out to a lab to scan. As they used a tango, I thought I'd get better results than I did. Seems very few people know how to get the most out of that equipment anymore. And yes, I ama total hard-ass when it comes to color.

And Jim... visited your site. Nice work! I did the scans and film for what I think was the first "shooting the west" poster. Have it around here somewhere....

kurt

[Ivan J. Eberle]

Tangos do a poor job with 35mm and 120; I've spent big bucks to discover this. Something about the optical res not being greater than about 2000 dpi, the rest being hardware interpolation. Also not a true 16 bit hardware conversion but dithered. I wouldn't spend anywhere near $6500 for one, being that there are better scanners and that's no fire-sale price.

[Vick Vickery]

Welcome to group therepy, Kurt. With all of your experience in the graphic arts, no doubt your contributions here will be valuable.