Help with my Artixscan M1??

[mrkauffman]

Hi,

i recently aquired a used M1 on ebay. After setting everything up and getting it running i have a couple questions that i hope yall can answer for me.

As a background, ive been scanning my negatives for about a year now with a Canon Canoscan 8800F but its limited to 120 film. I always had decent results and gotten good prints up to 11x14 with my 8800F so i expected the M1 to do at least as good but from all the research it should do better.

The main advantage of the M1 besides the resolution is that its glassless scanning and the scanner has autofocusing. it also does larger formats which lets me scan my 4x5's myself.

So this is my workflow, i select a negative, clean it with a cloth, put it emulsion side UP in the film holder as indicated in the manual, open scan wizard, preview, select auto focus point and then scan.

My problem is as follows, i think it lies in the auto-focus feature. Scan Wizard and Silverfast allow me to choose an auto focus point in the negative, how do i know where to pick? ive been picking a spot that i know is sharp in the negative but my results havent been that great over the 8800f. Everything at 2400dpi, no sharpening applied.

Ive used scan wizard, vuescan, and silverfast. I was really expecting something sharper than the 8800f and am a little dissapointed in the results i am getting.

Im sure i missed something vital to the conversation so if you have any advice, help, questions ill be more than happy to offer anything i can to get a solution.


ALSO, for those who have used the scanner, is the loud and obnoxious noises it makes normal? it has like 5 different noises, ranging from low to extremely high pitched.

Thank you in advance!

[ashlee52]

I wish I could help. Mine was so buggy, and the company had left the US market, that it is now in the Glenwood Springs CO landfill. My Epson V-700 works pretty well however.

[Matus Kalisky]

I have this scanner and have troubles with color casts (for a long time). Yes - the scanner is loud and some sounds give the impression that it is about to break down.

Now, the AF - another "advantage" :rolleyes: I have made the same scan twice with the SAME settings - one was completely unsharp, one was better. It is hit and miss. To improve your chances chose a place on negative that was in focus and contains some contrasty edges/shapes.

To be honest, I would swap it for V750 anytime.

[mrkauffman]

Well i have 28 days to return it...lol

[Ken Lee]

I had a similar Microtek scanner, a 2500F for which I paid over $2K. The only really positive thing I can say about it, is that the Green channel got very close to the claimed resolution of 2500 spi.

When it started making lines in all 16-bit scans, I gave it away for free to a fellow forum-member. I got an Epson 4990, and then later a V700. The Epsons don't quite match the resolution, but they don't clip the low values and are considerably smaller and lighter - and much much quieter. Also, they are a fraction of the price.

[drew.saunders]

Well i have 28 days to return it...lol

As someone who's owned one for several years and has gotten used to it, I can recommend you return it and get a V700 or V750. The AF can miss sometimes (when there's no nice, sharp, bits of dust, then either the negative bowed or AF missed), and I can often only do 4 or so scans before the scanner or software lock up and it writes an empty file, so I have to shut it all down and start over again. Fortunately, I only use it for 4x5, so 4 scans between reboots isn't all that much of a problem. I've tried wet mounting with it, but get bubbles.

[Ken Lee]

...I can often only do 4 or so scans before the scanner or software lock up and it writes an empty file, so I have to shut it all down and start over again...

Oh yes - I forgot about that: it happened to me all the time, on Windows as well as Mac. It got pretty annoying. I thought I had made a mistake somewhere, and re-installed the drivers and software any number of times before realizing that it was a "feature".

[Matus Kalisky]

My F1 keeps locking down too. But on average the scanner would do more than 4 shot (around 10) before freezing.

And I had the banding problem too - it went to Microtek once (at that point under warranty from the seller) and came back fine - it was dust somewhere in the optical path. More visible with negative films than positive though.

I would say - return the beast as long as you can. The V750 is cheaper too.

[mrkauffman]

well considering i got the M1 for $409 with a working copy of silverfast, id say i got a hell of a deal.

BUT the damn thing wont focus for the life of me. with 4x5 film it seems to do alright, but with 35mm slides its impossible. I even went in vuescan and chose manual focus and did a scan all the way from -1 to 1 on the focus scale in 0.1 increments...with no success. This thing mustve really took a beating in shipping.

Its sad, i love the idea of this scanner, if microtek could make it work reliably, without increasing the specs, itd be a hit. Its the perfect combination of film and flat bed scanning, and the film tray is a genius invention in my opinion, taking the glass out of the optical path is great.

guess ill get a v700 and see how it does. Im tempted to make film holders for it and remove the scanner glass since ill only use it for negatives. someone did that on here

[ashlee52]

For $409 these days you can buy one hell of a 4x5 enlarger.

[mrkauffman]

^^^ im already wet printing, the scanner isnt part of my workflow, its just a way to display images online. i mean i have scanned negatives to print but its not my main source of prints, not by a long shot.