Buying a Scitex Eversmart Jazz: Dirt-Cheap, but Smart?

[Vertex Ninja]

Evan and others,
As promised, I had a look at my software and it is indeed 3.5.0. Here is a screen capture that shows the identity crisis it seems to be having. Notice "Eversmart Scan" on the dock icon and "oXYgen Scan" on the title bar. PM me if you need more info.



I'll continue to beat this horse and agree again with Sandy. While I'd like to have a 16 Bit file and make all corrections in Photoshop, the 8 bit files are not limiting in any way other than a bit of convenience. You just have to do the large corrections(if any) in the Eversmart software. I rarely have to do anything more than a little bit of levels and curves and final color correction in Photoshop. I am laughably far from a pro, so others experiences may vary, but I have never seen banding in a print from these scans; Slides, color neg, or B&W.

Also like Sandy, my G4 has 1.5GB of ram and I've never noticed a problem. I don't think it has to load the whole file in memory. If you watch the file which it creates the moment you hit "scan", it appears it saves the data as it goes (i.e. The file continues to get bigger until it finishes). While I have no real evidence, and have never had an issue or need to investigate, I'd imagine the scanner has the memory it needs and just streams the file to disk. Matter of fact, I regularly open the files to check them while the scanner is scanning another file and have never heard the disk thrashing. Slow to open, yes, but it's only 800mhz after all.

[sanking]

Evan and others,
As promised, I had a look at my software and it is indeed 3.5.0. Here is a screen capture that shows the identity crisis it seems to be having. Notice "Eversmart Scan" on the dock icon and "oXYgen Scan" on the title bar. PM me if you need more info.

That is very interesting. So your software is called oXYgen Scan but is really just Eversmart Scan to run on a Jazz? I was under the impression that anything called oXYgen Scan allowed for 16 bit saves, which Eversmart Scan does not.

BTW, I wonder if you could tell me how to make No Sharp the default with this software? I prefer to use no sharpening in scanning but the software always defaults back to Sharp-Default whenever I restart the scanning software and I have to manually set to No Sharp for every scan.

Sandy King

[Evanjoe610]

Bryan,


COOOL!!! That is great news for me! Now I can search for at least a PowerPC G5 that will last a couple more years. What I understood what about 3.5.0, was that it would recognize both SCSi (with Adaptec 2906 card0 a Firewire setup.

Would you be able to burn me a copy if possible? Also are you on Leopard or Tiger?

Evan

[Evanjoe610]

I was under the impression that the 16-bit was an Option that came with the DT. We beta-tested it several years ago, but didn't buy into it, as 8 bit by 14bit scanning was more then adequate for our end purpose of offset printing.

Someone here, please correct me if I wrong here.
For those individuals whom have the 16-bit scanning option or mode on their Setup, can you please take a Screen Grab like Bryan did for us?

Evan

[Vertex Ninja]

That is very interesting. So your software is called oXYgen Scan but is really just Eversmart Scan to run on a Jazz? I was under the impression that anything called oXYgen Scan allowed for 16 bit saves, which Eversmart Scan does not.

Well the splash screen says "Eversmart Scan" too, but I believe there is "oXYgen Scan" in a couple places throughout the interface. My guess is this software was wrote during the transition to the newer oXYgen scan and things just spilled over. As far as I can tell, it's essentially the same as the version I had on OS9 except for maybe the ability to rotate the scan.

BTW, I wonder if you could tell me how to make No Sharp the default with this software? I prefer to use no sharpening in scanning but the software always defaults back to Sharp-Default whenever I restart the scanning software and I have to manually set to No Sharp for every scan.

Sandy King

Yeah that is more than a bit of an annoyance, I'll let you know if I find anything. Smart sets can help with applying settings. I also wish I could turn off auto image analysis too. I often scan 35mm and there will usually be at least a few shots from each roll that I need to scan in. If it's color negative I like to neutralize the film base on a blank frame. That works when I'm doing a digital contact sheet but is a royal pain when scanning individual frames. The software auto analyzes every crop individually, and gets it wrong nearly every time; I wish I was so lucky to have an 18% gray card in every shot. Any of you know how to apply identical settings to multiple crops?

@ Evan
My memory is horrible and I only use the machine for scanning, but I believe it's Panther(10.3 or something). Email me your details and I'll send you a cd. bmwolfatgmaildotcom

[Evanjoe610]

Bryan and Sandy,

As far as I can remember, the No-SHARP setting has to be apply Manually. I do not think that you SAVE it as a SMARTSET, due to the fact that I'm moving my equipment around for optimum space in my office. Just bought a new workbench (weights 200+ lbs!!!) strictly to handle the weight of the scanner and also with the vibration from scanning.

Have you try to SAVE your final settings a as SMARTSET, so that you can enable it every time you need to apply the same LUT to it?

We used to set up Custom CURVES and SAVE them out with the Function Name to be used as a Good Starting point whenever we encounter similar chromes or negatives.

I hope to get a newer PowerPC G5 to run both scanners on. My PowerPC G3 Beige Tower is at its end of its lifecycle. I want to move on to the next phase of OS 10.

[Vertex Ninja]

Thanks Evan. I have been playing with smart sets lately, but still need to play with it a bit more. Does anyone have a source on blank masks? I could use a few more.

[Vertex Ninja]

...Slow to open, yes, but it's only 800mhz after all.

EDIT: Make that 500mhz.

[Evanjoe610]

Bryan,

I received the cd yesterday. Thanks!!!

I will keep you posted as which machine I will choose in e end to run the Jazz.

Most probably a PpwerPC Dual Core G5. Now all I need to do is to locate an older version of PS7. I 'm going to try to load in DTi to convert my scan from 8 bit to 16 bit.


@ Evan
My memory is horrible and I only use the machine for scanning, but I believe it's Panther(10.3 or something). Email me your details and I'll send you a cd. bmwolfatgmaildotcom[/QUOTE]

[Vertex Ninja]

Evan I wouldn't bother with DTi for the 8bit to 16bit conversion unless you like editing your files in the Creo/Scitex software. Photoshop can do it just as well. Unless you can get a 16bit DT file out of the scanner from the start(if you can, please let us know) it'll still be just an 8 bit file in a 16 bit wrapper... essentially. However, doing edits in 16bit will help prevent degradation to what's there, so it's recommended.