Free Creo IQSmart, worth it?

[Shootar401]

I have a chance to rescue a Creo IQSmart before my company sends it off to be recycled. Is it worth rescuing it from the trash? I already have a V700. How do they compare? They are also trashing a 12TB Fiber RAID array, but no way am I going to deal with that electric bill.

[bob carnie]

Don't even think twice grab the scanner.
they are great and there is good service in Michigan.
I have a refurb creo eversmart supreme ( a bigger brother) and it is fantastic.

I have a chance to rescue a Creo IQSmart before my company sends it off to be recycled. Is it worth rescuing it from the trash? I already have a V700. How do they compare? They are also trashing a 12TB Fiber RAID array, but no way am I going to deal with that electric bill.

[Daniel Stone]

Shootar401,
If you don't, tell me where I can pick it up
these machines are WAAAAAAY beyond the quality a V700 can pump out. With the fluid mount station, you can *almost* get on-par with a good drum scan quality-wise. Most eyes can't tell the difference, but with some perseverance, you can get vastly higher quality scans from a Creo/Kodak IqSmart/Eversmart than from an Epson(even one equipped with the fluid mount kit)

Just make sure that you have a place dedicated space-wise for it, as they have a much larger footprint than your Epson does.
And IIRC, they have a carriage lock for transport, so you don't damage the internals when moving it.

-Dan

[Shootar401]

I had a chance to look at the scanner again and move it into my office where it is safe. It's a IQSmart2 not a 1 like I thought. I managed to find the instructions and both the color and scan tutorials and the original packing list which noted only a 35mm film guide, which was luckily in the scanner. No luck on the software yet. The IT guys said I was more than welcome to look through about 500 CD's in a box to try and find it. Sadly no calibration target, but I didn't check with he DTP guys who had this scanner. Scanner powers up and after reading the instructions managed to lock the transport.

If I can't find Oxygen for the scanner, is there another option for Mac?

Thanks to both GEM and cdavis324 for the valuable info!

[richardman]

Someone just sold one for $3000 to someone in China, I think.

[cdavis324]

Oxygen is the only option - the scanner scans like a lawn mower, and stitches together in the software, so I imagine complicated to reverse engineer. Hopefully you can find the original cd. The yahoo scan hi end group has lots of info on creo's including a chart that shows what computer and operating system you need for what software version. With a clean install of the software you'll need the calibration slide when you first open the software.

@richardman - That someone who sold the iq to China was me... I kinda regret it, but wasn't using it often enough to justify having it around. It was in perfect condition having just been serviced, and with all the accessories.

[richardman]

@cdavis324, 5 years ago, I would have bought it without a thought....

[bob carnie]

Email this dude mstreeter@genesis-equipment.com Mike is fantastic to work with and should be of great help.

I had a chance to look at the scanner again and move it into my office where it is safe. It's a IQSmart2 not a 1 like I thought. I managed to find the instructions and both the color and scan tutorials and the original packing list which noted only a 35mm film guide, which was luckily in the scanner. No luck on the software yet. The IT guys said I was more than welcome to look through about 500 CD's in a box to try and find it. Sadly no calibration target, but I didn't check with he DTP guys who had this scanner. Scanner powers up and after reading the instructions managed to lock the transport.

If I can't find Oxygen for the scanner, is there another option for Mac?

Thanks to both GEM and cdavis324 for the valuable info!

[Daniel Stone]

Ryan Newton is/was(not sure if he's still doing scanner services/repairs) a great guy to talk with, and many worldwide have purchased items through him.

send him a message and see if he can lend a hand:

omnicow@gmail.com

cheers,
Dan

[Brian K]

I own and IQSmart 3, they're great scanners and you can't even come close to comparing an Epson to them. However you're going to need the software, which is only up to Mac Snow Leopard and there will be no upgrades on it. Kodak is done with these scanners and will barely support them. You'll also need the calibration slides for it, basically flatbed sized sheets of film that have all the needed testing and calibrating images on them. Without these the scanner can not ever be re-calibrated, and if the software preferences on the operating computer have been lost you are screwed.

I don't think Ryan Newton works on these anymore as I tried emailing him and never got a reply.

All that said, it is far too fine a piece of gear to see trashed so if it works do not trash it. If you can't get the needed software or calibration films then see if another IQSmart owner might consider buying it, although to be honest, it's a bit of a risky expenditure given a lack of support for it.

If you can't find a home for it, I'll happily take it off your hands if the price is right, I'm in the NYC area, but again if it has issues, the chances of getting repairs grows smaller every day. It's a shame the way Kodak abandoned these fine machines.