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

[Evanjoe610]

Sandy,

Which color frame would that be? I remember Bill talking about it. I have a black frame glass in my Eversmart Pro II and a purple frame glass in my Jqzz+ and Jazz.

Evan

[sanking]

Sandy,

Which color frame would that be? I remember Bill talking about it. I have a black frame glass in my Eversmart Pro II and a purple frame glass in my Jqzz+ and Jazz.

Evan

The black frame base glass is coated. The purple frame glass is not coated. The coated glass is preferable for most work but you could fluid mount on the non-coated glass without worrying about scratching it.

Sandy King

[Kirk Gittings]

FWIW, I have a Jazz+ I bought off Ebay from Genesis. I'm not currently running it for lack of space, but it ran great when I did. All of the info above from Sandy about 8 bit workflow and compromises in the Jazz series etc. are true to my knowledge and limited experience. But it is a great scanner capable of professional results. It is no drum scanner for sure but a cut above any Epson 750 (which I also own and use) or an older Imacon.

[Evanjoe610]

Sandy and Kirk,

Thanks for the information. Would any of you know what was the very last version of software for the Jazz & Jazz+, that would allow it to run a PowerPC G5?

The information I recieved was software version 3.5 and that it could run under SCSI with the Adaptec 29006 card. I think that there was also a Scitex Firewire upgrade kit available.

I could go with a Ratoc Firewire adapter, but just need to what was the last version software version.

Thanks in advance,

Evan

[Vertex Ninja]

Byran,

Which version software are you using on OSX? Is it Version 3.5? I know that with this version you can use it with a SCSI card (Adaptec 2906). I guess that you are using the Ratco Firewire convertor?

Can you tell me your configuration setup? I plan to update my G3 to a PowerPC G5.
Evan

Evan,
I'm not next to my machine right now, but I believe I'm running 2.6.3. Don't hold me to that, I'll report back later when I'm sure. It says Oxygen Scan, but it's my understanding that it's really just the old Eversmart software updated to run on OSX. My Jazz plus has the official firewire upgrade from Creo.

[Vertex Ninja]

The base glass of all Eversmart scanners, except for the Jazz, has an anti-reflection coating, similar to to the coating on lenses to minimize reflections.

My understanding is that the Eversmart Jazz scanners were made by Microtek, not by Scitex. They are excellent scanners but some cost saving compared to regular Eversmart can be noted. The lack of anti-reflection coating on the base glass is one example of cost saving.

Eversmart scanners make a lot of noise when moving the head. The first time I ran one I was sure something was broken but turned out that this is normal. But at times it sounds like there are a bunch of evil elves in there banging on the side of the scanner.

Sandy King

Yeah, mine has the anti-newton glass. I'd really like to pick up the Anti-reflective glass if I could find it at a price that didn't cost me my appendages.

While cleaning my machine I also noticed that the lens is made by Ace Optical. It's my understanding that Rodenstock makes the lens for the pro and up. This could be another reason for the flare. The flare is not a deal breaker, but it's definitely there on very contrasty slides and if I don't use the masks.

I've noticed that the fans are pretty dang loud on mine too, not like they are dying, but like they are industrial fans spinning at high speed... basically like little hairdryers! Definitely some evil elves doin' their best, but they do good work, so we can't complain too much.

[Evanjoe610]

Bryan,

Software version 2.6.3 will allow you to run the Jazz and Jazz+? Wow! I was under the impression that Oxygen was not written for the Jazz series. But then I can't confirm if that is true or not. Based on what I was told by a Scitex engineer, Version 3.5 was written for the Jazz & Jazz+ only to allow it to be used in either SCSI or with Firewire upgrade kit from Scitex. Id this software was Oxygen, I would not know about it.

Please let me know what version software you using on that Jazz.

Thanks,

Evan

[Vertex Ninja]

Bryan,

Software version 2.6.3 will allow you to run the Jazz and Jazz+? Wow! I was under the impression that Oxygen was not written for the Jazz series. But then I can't confirm if that is true or not. Based on what I was told by a Scitex engineer, Version 3.5 was written for the Jazz & Jazz+ only to allow it to be used in either SCSI or with Firewire upgrade kit from Scitex. Id this software was Oxygen, I would not know about it.

Please let me know what version software you using on that Jazz.

Thanks,

Evan

Yeah, I may be wrong on that number, but it does say Oxygen Scan. I'll check it out tonight to make sure and let you know. If I don't have the latest version for the Jazz I'd sure like to get it.

Edit: You're probably right Evan. Looking over the chart it must be 3.5.0.1 because I can only use up to panther or maybe tiger. Not sure why I remembered 2.6.3. I'll still double check.

[Ivan J. Eberle]

...As soon as you get the scan into Photoshop change the file to 16 bit grayscale and you can then do apply curves and tonal changes to the file without risk of posterization. Canging an 8 bit file to 16 bit will not create more tones but it will prevent the loss of tones from rounding off...

Sandy King

Working in color, my experience with this workflow has not been so positive.

I find native 16-bit files to be much more elastic before banding or posterization occurs, than are Photoshop 16-bit mode-selected 8-bit native files. It's been particularly apparent with scans of color negs, where the limited density range of the neg gets expanded into too few bits.

Another problem encountered with a scanner dedicated to an older computer was that the RAM usually maxed out 500MB or 1GB. Which sure seemed like a lot and cost an arm and a leg back in the day, but 16-bit scanning at maximum resolution can severely tax the resources of an 90's era Mac, page outs to disc, etc. and might regularly bomb it.

[sanking]

Working in color, my experience with this workflow has not been so positive.

I find native 16-bit files to be much more elastic before banding or posterization occurs, than are Photoshop 16-bit mode-selected 8-bit native files. It's been particularly apparent with scans of color negs, where the limited density range of the neg gets expanded into too few bits.

Another problem encountered with a scanner dedicated to an older computer was that the RAM usually maxed out 500MB or 1GB. Which sure seemed like a lot and cost an arm and a leg back in the day, but 16-bit scanning at maximum resolution can severely tax the resources of an 90's era Mac, page outs to disc, etc. and might regularly bomb it.

I did not claim that 8 bit files were as good as 16 bit files. However, with the proper work flow, which involves making as many corrections as possible in the prescan to take advantage of the Eversmart's 14 bit analogue to digital conversion, and then converting the 8 bit file to 16 bit before making any corrections, it is possible to do extensive corrections without causing banding or posterization. I do this all of the time with both B&W and color negatives.

As for the computer, for scanning with the Eversmart I use a MAC G4 that has 1.5 gig of Ram and have no problem at all scanning files up to about 1 gig in size. Naturally I transport these files to another computer for processing.

Sandy King