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Thread: Screen Cezanne Users Unite

  1. #781

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    Re: Screen Cezanne Users Unite

    Hello to everyone that's still participating here. I purchased the Screen Cezanne Elite i that was in the Chicago area and listed on craigslist and ebay earlier this year. After a trip across the country and months in storage I finally got it up and running last month. I opened it up and cleaned everything, including the very dirty mirror, and I just got around to reopening it to oil the rails the camera travels on, as there seemed to be some sticking. It came with a Power Mac G4 running OS X 10.2.8, and the ColorGenius 2 software. I cloned the HDD(3 times) in case the current one gives up the ghost, so I should be able to keep operating it as long as the scanner itself is operable. I'm also lucky enough to have CDs with ColorGenius 1 and 2, with registration codes still intact.

    Thanks to all of the great info here I was able to get right to scanning, and was shocked at how great the quality of the scans seemed to be at first glance. I have primarily scanned 4x5 positives, as that is what I've mostly been shooting lately. I use an OEM optical glass platen for wet mounting and scanning, and do 2 roughly 2 inch strips at a resolution of 4000. I use Aztek wet mounting supplies, and put a homemade black plastic mask around the film, on top of the mylar, to prevent blooming. I always scan with the empty right side box in the scanning menu, and always scan in 16bit positive, to get files as close to untouched by the scanning software as possible.

    Upon closer inspection of the scans I've noticed some issues. The main issue is that many of the 30 or so scans I've done have light(er) streaks that occur parallel to the direction of motion(i.e. they are parallel to the longer dimension of the bed), in dark portions of the scans. I had been mounting the slides in the middle of the bed, and it appears the white calibration strip has some minor scratching in the middle, so I assume this was the cause of at least the worst of the streaks. Some preliminary test scans seem to bear that out. I cleaned the mirror again last night, and did a scan from the side of the platen, which seems to have mostly solved the problem for now. It's kind of disconcerting though, and I'm interested in finding a means of returning the full bed to a usable condition. The scanner came with an extra, old calibration strip covered with blemishes, and I'd like to refurbish it if possible. I'm considering just sanding down the old strip, and reapplying some new white paint as uniformly as possible. I imagine that any matte white paint with consistent color would be fine, but since there are many more knowledgable folks than myself here I wanted to see if there were any ideas of how to best go about it. Has anybody attempted this already? Any ideas of how I should go about the whole process? Any paint recommendations? Should I try to match the shade of white as closely as possible, or will a slightly different shade of white just require color correction in post?

    My next issue is occasional disparities in the color/exposure between the 2 strips from the same 4x5 frame of film. I always let the bulb warm up for well over 30 minutes, but have still had problems with inconsistencies. Has anyone else experienced this? If so, did you solve it? How?

    My last problem at the moment is the computer going unresponsive in the middle of long scans, and having to shut it down by holding the power button while the scanning is stalled. If one of the strips has already completed scanning, it will be saved on the HDD when I restart the computer, but the strip that the stall occurred during will be lost, understandably. I assume this is just a sign that I need to to get an updated computer, but if there is another method of preventing the problem I would love to know. My current tower is the Power Mac G4 with a 533mhz processor, Ram maxed to 1.5 gb, a 40gb HDD that I use as the boot drive, and a 160gb HDD that the scans get saved to. The G4 can only recognize up to 128gb on a HDD, and I've partitioned this 128gb into a 40gb partition which contains one of the previously mentioned bootable clones, with the remaining portion in a single partition for storage. Should I try an SSD? Seems like it would be more stable, and perhaps allow for faster saves, but I wonder if this would have any appreciable impact on the actual speed or reliability of scanning/saving on such an old machine. I'm currently looking around for a pre PCI-x/PCI-e G5 to use instead, since I could easily move the PCI SCSI card from the G4, but will have to wait until I get some more expendable cash. Any ideas or recommendations would be great.

    My last question is about support from Screen. I haven't attempted to contact them for any reason, but does anyone know if there is any support remaining for the Cezanne? I remember reading that the legal obligation to support it ended in August of 2016, but has anyone contacted them since? I am mostly interested in potentially acquiring a new calibration strip, and perhaps some new bulbs. The bulb I am currently using is one of 2 that was installed for reflective scans, which I removed during my first cleaning of the scanner. I also have the other reflective bulb that was installed upon purchase, and a still in the package new bulb that came with the scanner. If I can get the scanner operating at an acceptable quality level, without the problems I've previously experienced, I would love to get at least a couple more bulbs so I can insure that I can continue using the scanner until it experiences some non-repairable fatal problem.

    Anyway, thanks for all of the info already in the thread, and thanks in advance for any help!

  2. #782
    Corran's Avatar
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    Re: Screen Cezanne Users Unite

    Regarding your computer freezing - mine does that too intermittently. Maybe once every 50-100 scans. Sometimes it happens more often, frustratingly. I assumed it was just a bug or panic that happened and I just force restart and try again...that always fixes it. It usually happens when I've been working for a while so another thought is some sort of memory problem after lots of scans. Could be wrong.

    With the slight mismatch in scans for stitching, I have only seen that when the bulbs are starting to go bad. This happens even before the "warning" hits telling you the bulb is low. I personally think the Cezanne bulbs have a short "optimal" life, and then they work fine for quite a while afterwards but with maybe a slight decrease in DMax. I notice the bulbs are definitely hitting their limit when the finished scans are noticeably darker than the initial preview scan. This is only really problematic with dense slides and overexposed color negatives, but knowing this I generally get the preview to have "lifted" shadows and then the scan looks fine after some quick contrast edits.

    I'll be interested to hear what others tell you about the reflective strip. Mine looks great but I still get orange banding in the blue skies of C-41 film - my biggest and only gripe about the scanner.

    As for support - most of their team in my experience hardly know what the Cezanne scanner series is/was. They are nice folks though. I haven't called them recently to try to order bulbs after buying as much as I could afford last year, so not sure about their current availability.
    Bryan | Blog | YouTube | Instagram | Portfolio
    All comments and thoughtful critique welcome

  3. #783

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    Re: Screen Cezanne Users Unite

    Thanks for the reply!

    I figured the freezing might just be something that happens. Unfortunately it occurs about 10% of the time for me, sometimes on the first scan of the day. I did notice a distinct reduction in the rate of freezes by replacing the computer's old, failing storage HDD, and always saving to the drive that the computer isn't booted from, in case anyone else has the same problem in the future.

    Old bulbs causing the mismatch issue is a bit worrying. It doesn't occur frequently for me yet, so hopefully the bulbs I removed from the reflective fixtures still have a little more usable life in them, and maybe just need some extra warmup time. Are you the one that purchase the bulbs from the 3rd party middleman(in KY I believe)? If so, do you still have their contact info available?

    Since I've got the extra calibration strip I'll definitely have a go at making it usable again one way or another, and report back. After checking it out more closely, it seems like just removing the glued on white strip, and replacing it with a strip of opaque white plastic sheeting would be the best option. Now to find a suitable material. The texture is a lot like the material used on the lids of reflective flatbed scanners to hold materials flat, generally backed with foam. These are removable on the Epson V700-850, and the replacement "document mats" are reasonably priced on amazon, so I'll probably try that first. It would make for a fairly cheap and easy replacement method, though removing the foam backing could be a pain.

    Thanks again for all of the info.

  4. #784
    Corran's Avatar
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    Re: Screen Cezanne Users Unite

    I always save directly to a compact flash card so I can transfer the files to my normal computer - so perhaps that is the fix, to save to a non-OS drive.

    I did buy my first set of replacement bulbs from a 3rd party but I can not find the info in my emails. I did a "group buy" last year after getting on Screen's dealer list and provided some bulbs to other users at cost, and bought a bunch for myself. Again, I'm not sure if they even have any bulbs anymore after ceasing support for the scanner, but if in the future there was enough interested people and the details could be worked out I would consider doing it again. I had someone approach me about bulbs earlier this year but it was impossible to do one set cheaply, especially as they were outside the USA. The shipping on these (safely) is not cheap and truth be told I lost money last time trying to do it at "cost."

    Anyway, if it's not mismatching often perhaps it's just a fluke. By the way, one thing I found was that you should absolutely not change the "frame size" of the scan between the two strip scans. If you change the size of the scan (especially perpendicular to the bed where the lens would then need to refocus the scan) the images don't line up perfectly and I have also seen slight differences in rendering like you mention. I just make sure to drag the frame around the preview window to select each strip and do not make additional, overlapping frames.
    Bryan | Blog | YouTube | Instagram | Portfolio
    All comments and thoughtful critique welcome

  5. #785

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    Re: Screen Cezanne Users Unite

    That could very well be the issue. I'll give some other methods of saving the files a try.

    I'll look back through the thread and try and find the info for the 3rd party supplier. If anyone else is interested in a group buy in the future I'd add my name to the list, but I wouldn't expect you to do it if meant you losing money. At least there's always the possibility of switching out the fixtures and using different bulbs, as detailed earlier in the thread.

    That makes a ton of sense! So far I've been doing it exactly the way you advise against, so I'll try just moving the frame around on the photo I'm currently scanning, to see if it improves my results.

    Thanks for all of the help!

  6. #786

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    Re: Screen Cezanne Users Unite

    I just looked through all of the literature that came with my scanner, and realized I have a treasure trove of information that seems to not be available anywhere online, including startup manuals for the FT-S5500 and FT-S5000, a hardware manual for the FT-S5500, a users manual for ColorGenius 2.0, and perhaps a few other things. The Screen is my only scanner, so I won't be able to digitize any of it until I get ahold of a more appropriate scanner for the task. When I do, I will upload it and put it somewhere online. In the meantime, if anyone has any pressing questions they think the manuals I've listed may answer, feel free to ask.

  7. #787

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    Re: Screen Cezanne Users Unite

    Also, it came with what may be intended as replacement material for the white strip on the "white reference unit", or what I've been calling the calibration strip. I'll see if that is indeed what it is. If so, I should have some excess material left over that I could send out to people with white reference units in bad shape.

  8. #788
    Guilherme Maranhão coisasdavida's Avatar
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    Re: Screen Cezanne Users Unite

    I fixed a strip of Kodak Endura and used double sided tape to make a new cal strip for my first Cezanne. It worked very well.

    A few posts back I mentioned the Adaptec 78xx kext that can be removed (using Safe Boot in OSX 10.2.8). The only time I got freezing issues with one of my Cezannes, that solved it permanently. Sorry if you already did this and I'm repeating myself.

  9. #789
    Peter De Smidt's Avatar
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    Re: Screen Cezanne Users Unite

    This winter I'm going to replace my Cezanne's fluorescent bulbs with an LED diy system. The plan is to make something that will just drop in and replace what's there without wrecking the current system, possibly using these: https://www.yujiintl.com/packages/di...ckage=VTC-2835 They ought to give a more even spectrum than the original bulbs, they'll make less heat, and they'll have the potential to be brighter. The plan is to run them at less than 50% of max current, and so they should be very long lasting. I'll test whether the ability to change light intensity has any uses. I'm open to suggestions.
    “You often feel tired, not because you've done too much, but because you've done too little of what sparks a light in you.”
    ― Alexander Den Heijer, Nothing You Don't Already Know

  10. #790
    Corran's Avatar
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    Re: Screen Cezanne Users Unite

    Peter, I don't have anything to input except I'm interested to see what you come up with.
    Bryan | Blog | YouTube | Instagram | Portfolio
    All comments and thoughtful critique welcome

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