Drum Scanner: Scanmate 11000 Questions

[Pali K]

For those who use drum scanners or have worked with one in the past, I would appreciate your help to get me started with a Scanmate 11000. I do not actually have the scanner in my possession but I just put down payment to hold one for from a photographer who lives 4 hours away. While researching on these, I found several sources that talk about how sensitive these scanners are and how careful you have to be with them. With all the information that I have read, I am a bit worried about driving with it for a long distance and am hoping that I can get some advice from those who know more about them.

Can you please give me tips to what I should keep in mind while packaging and driving with this in my car for 4+ hours? I am thinking that I need to remove the drum from the Scanner to lighten the load on the motor? Should I do this or would this make things worse to keep everything calibrated. The seller mentioned that he had the Scanner calibrated recently and everything is in perfect shape right now - the sample scans he made for me validate this and I am really hoping I don't screw anything up in the relocation process.

Also, any special steps to check everything before I turn it on in it's new location? If all goes well (fingers crossed), there will be a new source for free drum scanning in MD :)

Regards,

Pali

[sdzsdz]

Hi!

I had a Scanmate for several years. For checking: if it connects with the mac without problems and if it gives no error while calibrating white on the clear drum and if it is calibrating focus on a good, sharp and contrasty slide everything should be ok. Check also the drums. And you will need a mounting station. Otherwise mounting is a great pita!
For transport: This scanner originally comes in a big wooden box with exactly formed rubber foam inside so the scanner sits very tight in the box. But this packaging doesn´t do anything else than partially dumping vibrations and bumps and preventing the scanner from crashing into something. These scanners are quite heavy built and most of the internals ant also the outsides is from metal (despite the electrical boards that should be the most sensitive thing).You should place it on a matress or some thick blankets and prevent it from sliding around in your car. If you don´t drive offroad everything should be fine.

[Pali K]

Hi!

I had a Scanmate for several years. For checking: if it connects with the mac without problems and if it gives no error while calibrating white on the clear drum and if it is calibrating focus on a good, sharp and contrasty slide everything should be ok. Check also the drums. And you will need a mounting station. Otherwise mounting is a great pita!
For transport: This scanner originally comes in a big wooden box with exactly formed rubber foam inside so the scanner sits very tight in the box. But this packaging doesn´t do anything else than partially dumping vibrations and bumps and preventing the scanner from crashing into something. These scanners are quite heavy built and most of the internals ant also the outsides is from metal (despite the electrical boards that should be the most sensitive thing).You should place it on a matress or some thick blankets and prevent it from sliding around in your car. If you don´t drive offroad everything should be fine.

Thank you! Seller has promised to give me an overview of the scanner and asked me to bring some of my slides so he could walk me through the entire process. I will definitely check on the focus and white balance.

He bought it new in 97 and has kept up with the service since. Included with it are wet mounting supplies, drum mounting station, software dongle, cables, and an old Mac computer with everything setup. It's good to know that I'll be taking a plug and play setup even though there is probably nothing plug and play about this scanner.

Do you know if scanner came mounted with the drum in the original shipment?

Pali

[Pali K]

Happy and super excited owner of a new-to-me ScanMate 11000! I have only made one test scan at 2000 DPI and am already blown away with the resolution which is putting my Epson V700 to shame

Here is the first scan crop comparison between SM1100 @ 2000DPI and Epson V700 @ 3200DPI. Both are dry mounted. Image Link (http://www.netsoft2k.com/Docs/Media/Pictures/Scans/Sinar/Epson%20vs%20SM1100.jpg)

The Epson is color calibrated but the ScanMate is not. The current setup is running on a 300MHZ PowerPC and is on CQ version 4.2. I can tell the monitor is horribly calibrated so calibrating scanner will be hit or miss. My 1st goal is to get this working with a new PC.

Lots to do/learn but super excited I have a working drum scanner!

Pali

[Pali K]

1st successful scan after several hours of cleaning/tuning.

Full Scan Link (4x5 @ 700 DPI) (http://www.netsoft2k.com/Docs/Media/Pictures/Scans/SM1100/Scanmate%20Version%20700DPI%20-%20Black%20Hill%20HP5%20Oct%205%2014%20Velvia%20-%20001.jpg)

Scanmate Scan (downsampled to 850px)

http://www.netsoft2k.com/Docs/Media/Pictures/Scans/SM1100/Scanmate%20Version%20-%20Black%20Hill%20HP5%20Oct%205%2014%20Velvia%20-%20001.jpg (http://www.netsoft2k.com/Docs/Media/Pictures/Scans/SM1100/Scanmate%20Version%20700DPI%20-%20Black%20Hill%20HP5%20Oct%205%2014%20Velvia%20-%20001.jpg)

My original Epson V700 scan that I spent several hours on

http://www.netsoft2k.com/Docs/Media/Pictures/Scans/SM1100/V700%20Version%20-%20Black%20Hill%20HP5%20Oct%205%2014%20Velvia%20-%20001.jpg

Pali

[sheel]

1st successful scan after several hours of cleaning/tuning.

Scanmate Scan (downsampled to 850px)

...
My original Epson V700 scan that I spent several hours on
...
Pali

Doing research, came across this thread again... wooooot so excited :D :D :D