Microtek ScanMaker 1000XL PRO?

[Ted Harris]

ed -- I assume you mean you bought the 2500f. You said " From what I have found out it has the Creo CCD" Yes and no, it may use the same CCD array as some of the earilier Creo scanners; in fact,the Creo Jazz was manufctured for Creo by Microtek. I would be surprised if it use dthe same array as any of the current generation of Creo's since they all deliver optical resolution that is higher than that of the 2500f, true even of their 'entry level' iqSmart series. Both Creo scanners adn the Microtek 2500f (the 1800f too for that matter) use Kodak senor arrays and that was true before Creo became a division of Kodak.

[Ed Gurrie]

been out of town for a few days. sorry i did not respond. i just bought the 1000 xl pro. should be here in less than a week. any other info on it from the group is really appreciated especially wet, or oil, mounting.

[Ed Richards]

If you are game, I would love to run a test againt my Canon 9950f. I have a couple of good test negatives with a region that can be cropped to show the details. Once you get going, I could send you the negatives and you could scan them, then we could post the comparisons here. These are black and white negatives, so we do not have to worry about color balance - just dmax and resolution. Maybe we can get one of the drum scanning guys to do a third scan as a gold standard. I did not find the scanner test that useful - issues with the color and difficulty of sorting out the detail make it had to draw any conclusions about what the tests mean for black and white.

[Ed Gurrie]

i would like to do that. it will take me awhile to get up and get going though because i am in a "crunch time" with my engineering job.......small medical startup and not enough people.
i would also like for you to walk me thru the process with the black and white. i am strictly a provia guy. it'll take some patience on your part ed. if you are up for it so am i. it sure would be great to have the drum scanner guy do the same. as soon as i get the 1000xl i will get it going and we can proceed from here. ok? ok!!!
ed

[Julio Fernandez]

Hi: Microtek is notorious for Excellent engineering, bad marketing and service. I guess that this is a far better mix than great marketing good service and bad engineering. This time however their marketing guys have made a good step in positioning this scanner well, as it offers 2X as high a resolution as any other Epson, Epson XL or Microtek scanner and good dMax, excellent software, etc. Looking up there is the Imacon for quite a bit more money and yes, the Creos with their new high res CCDs but all at a quantum leap in price. The glassless thing is gone, good riddance. Microtek should focus on bringing to market a 9X12 scanner at around $1200 with similar features as the 1000XL and stop fooling about with mind-less glass-less features. At 3200 dpi real optical resolution that would be a clear choice against offerings from Canon and Epson whose real optical resolution is only about 1666 dpi. The 1000XL is a hefty, heavy duty commercial machine and hopefully will not need to see the service department for a long time. Add wet mounting to it and you have a great machine.

[Ted Harris]

Several comments:

1) At our scanning workshop last weekend we tested the 1000XL against the 1800f. It was an unscientific, empirical test. We scanned a 5x7 negative on each machine using basically the same settings, edited the two scans the same way in Photoshop and printed the final images at 16x20 using a QTR RIP using the exact same settings ... the prints were made on the same Epson 4800 printer. We printed on Epson Enhanced Matte paper. The group of us then looked at the two prints. The results were very very close but the print from the 1800f scan was marginally superior to that from the 1000XL. Further, these were simple test prints and we might have been able to produce equal images if we had worked at it. We were not scanning at highest optical resolution either (since we don;t really know what it is for the 1000XL) but at 1200. Stay tuned for more accurate results.

2) Michael took the 1000XL home from the workshop and is putting it through its paces with USAF test target, Stouffer wedge and real 7x17 images, etc. for an upcoming View Camera article where we will look at the big and the little ... e.g. the 1000XL and the i800 scanners. So stay tuned. There is no doubt that the 1000XL will be an excellent performer. It did a great job right out of the box for starters.

3) Julio, you said "At 3200 dpi real optical resolution that would be a clear choice against offerings from Canon and Epson whose real optical resolution is only about 1666 dpi." True enough IF it has real world 3200 dpi which is unlikely since Microtek is stating theoretical resolution based on the fact that they are using a stack of two 1600 spi ccd's, similar to what the 'consumer' level Canon, Epson and Microtek scanners use. The difference here is in (hopefully) better optics and scanning motors. The 1800f has true optical 1800 resolution with a single, larger 1800 spi chip.

[Ed Gurrie]

ted or michael,
is there any more news you can give me (either online or offline) about max resolution, dmax, better than-worse than news with the 1000lx pro. i have put alot of time into scoping the scanner out for my digital darkroom and surely do not want to buy it if you guys think the 1800f is better or eveb close!!!! i will cancel my order and wait til more data is available. any news you can share with me (quickly, i might add as the goods are on the way!!!) will be most appreciated.
thank you.

[Ted Harris]

Ed,

The most important question is how large are the negatives/trannies you are scanning? If the answer is 8x10 or smaller then the answer is almost certainlky go with the 1800f.

If, on the other hand, you have a need to scan larger than 8x10 then the answer is the 1000XL as the 1800f only goes to 8x10 or a bit longer.

[Ed Richards]

I scan 4x5, but I would think that would be a stronger case for the 1000xl - the higher resolution, if it really works, would be an improvement over the 1800.

> i will cancel my order and wait til more data is available.

We were hoping you would be the guinea pig. If you want to wait, they are going to test it at the view camera conference.

[Ed Gurrie]

i have gone back and forth with this about 150 times. i am going to get it and be happy at whatever i can get out of it with the wet mounting system etc. i like the firewire drive idea (for the mac g5) and the great software (silverfast 6.?>?). so i guess i will be the experimental sheep for the good of all lf mankind!!!! i will be doing 4x5 provia trannies mostly but am open to any more ideas you guys have.
please keep posted me with any and all info, data, results (especially that preliminary data from the view camera conference. i am a novice and hope to learn a ton from this as well as contribute something to the group.