Drum Scanner... a good deal?

[mortensen]

As a lot of others in here, I have quite an urge to get a drum scanner.
I have a local offer on a new Scanview Scanmate 11000 with two drums and a dongle for Color Quartet for €2295,-

... sounds pretty good to me. ABC scan will provide future maintenance and repair and I get one year warranty. They sit on the stock of supplies for scanmate scanners and they are only half an hour away from where I live.

for those of you who know these scanners and have knowledge in these fields, please share your thoughts, thanks :)

best,
lars

[Larry Gebhardt]

Yes, that sounds like a good deal to me. I paid less for my Scanmate 5000, but it has no warranty and I'm not sure how I'll fix it when I need to. Getting a scanner that can be easily serviced is good idea.

[felix5616]

great deal

[LF_rookie_to_be]

Are these high-end Scanmates "made in Denmark"?

[mortensen]

not sure - the guy selling them says that Esko Scanview plus the people behind the imacon ccd's are danish. Well, basically he said that all 'cutting edge' (that'll be cutting edge late 90s) pmt and ccd tech was danish... but whether his absolutely full of BS i don't know :)

[LF_rookie_to_be]

There's a good description (only in Italian, though) of some of the merits and potential pitfalls of buying a used one on effeunoequattro.it site. Basically, there seems to be a slight problem with what I guess is known as "wow and flutter". It would be great to see how a brand new one stands up to this test. (This is just a longer way of saying "absolutely incredible deal!")

[Andrea Gazzoni]

ABC Scan offered one for €3500 two years ago, in like new condition.
Six months ago or so, one sold on ebay.de for around €1700 full of accessories.
Last year one was given for free here in Milan by a prepress lab closing down. Not to me, sadly.

Too many price fluctuactions as you can see..

My experience re the reasonable doubts about buying a used unit without warranty: my SM5000 bought here from a one time member in Bulgaria for €500 is working fine after one year and 3-4 new $12 lamps and it has yet finished repaying for itself many scans ago.

just be aware that the usable area on the SM drums is not enough to fluid mount 8x10 film, dry mount is possible.

[mortensen]

Thanks, Andrea and LF_rookie - it does seem like a good idea.
At the moment I'm really pondering, whether I should 'just' consider drumscanning an expense like developing and spend as much time as possible shooting instead of spending it acquiring new skills... or whether I should just buy the beast :)

[Sideshow Bob]

Andrea, I'm surprised you have a problem wet mounting 8x10 film. I've never tried it but I mount 4-4x5's without a problem so I'd think mounting 1-8x10 would be easier.

Gale

[Andrea Gazzoni]

Gale I usually cut the mylar sheet about 1 inch per side bigger than the film, this helps keeping bubbles off. With 8x10 slides the mylar (or the tape) ends up on the calibration area of the drums. Literature says that the usable area on these drums is 8.75" x 12" on a total surface of 10" x 12.5". My mounting skills are still poor: are you using the "collar" area too? I mean, how near you go with tape to the sprocket/base of the drum? In fact I am not sure this area is involved in pre-calibration or not

[mortensen]

... but good to know, that you can wet mount 4 4x5"s at a time :)

[LF_rookie_to_be]

Mortensen, how did the scanner deal go?

[mortensen]

well... I haven't got the opportunity to see the scanner yet - michael at ABC scan hasn't been the fastest responder to my interest, to put it mildly.

I think I'll stick to Tim's excellent service at cheapdrumscanning.com for the moment.

[Andrea Gazzoni]

an update: thanks to the help of Mr.Gale here I finally succeded in wet mounting four 4x5's on one drum and by the way an 8x10 on another drum.
and with few bubbles also!!! :D

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