I had a demo of the Microtek 2500 and 1800f last week. The opening in the 4X5 holder for the 2500f was so large that Velvia from Quickloads would fall through it. The 1800 they brought out to demo was defective and produced posterized looking blocky areas in the shadows. I'd appreciate a little feedback from 1800f owners. Does this scanner produce clean shadow areas without multi-sample scanning? Does the film holder work with film from Quickloads without having to tape them in place? - Thanks!
My 1800f does a good job with the shadows, I use it over my 4870 for everything. The scan times are also reasonably fast compared to the 4870. All the 4x5s I have scanned have been Fuji Quickloads, Acros and Provia, the holder seems just fine and holds them very flat. I have considered using fluid mount on this scanner because the glass holder is removable and could be cleaned without doing any damage to the scanner. I would be afraid to try fluid on a normal flatbed glass. As I said in the above post, I have seen no Newton ring problems and the film lays quite flat with the non adhesive mounting strips provided...Evan
What do you want to spend?
You can get refurbished umax powerlook 1000 for $269 (email umax outlet store on ebay). You can buy Linotype Jade 2 from MPG for $200. You can find old UMAX's on eBay for anywhere between $100 and 350. I just bought a UMAX mirage II tabloid size for $245 (11x14 scan area, 700dpi full bed, 1400 down the middle 6 inches).
I'll post some samples when I get the scanner set up.
"Re the Atrixscan 2500, Microtek says it's a 10,000 pixel CCD. Seems that the 4" wide high resolution strip would then be a true 2500 pixels per inch."
Doug, You are right !
I re-did my old test, comparing 1250 to 2500 ppi, and there is a pretty noticeable difference. See www.kenleegallery.com/scantest.htm Once you add some sharpening, the difference is fairly substantial.
Thanks again !
The detail is certainly there for such a small crop. Ken did you have the same problem with your 4x5 film falling through the film holder?
This seems to be an issue with the Microtek 2500f and 4X5 from Quickloads only. Seems they are about 1/8 shorter than actual cut sheet film. I got this report from another 2500f user.
No problem with ordinary 4x5 sheets. I only wish that the holders didn't perform a little cropping of the image. They cut just a hair off.
Nevertheless, it's nice to be able to scan without any intervening glass to clean, scratch, or otherwise worry over.
I have the Agfa T-2500 and have used it to scan both B&W and chrome 8X10s. The scans are certainly good enough to print 40 or 50 inch prints on my Roland printer, but I often encounter Newton Rings.
Until this grouping of posts I had not thought of replacing the glass in the carrier with anti-Newton glass, nor had I considered placing glass on the top of the material. I've been taping the negs or chromes down.
Has anyone here replaced the glass in the carrier? Would you like to share details?
TIA, Barrie Smith Missoula, Montana
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