Fuji Lanovia C-550 questions

[David Higgs]

I've got a chance on getting a working condition Lanovia plus an old Mac to drive it.

Currently using an Epson V750 and after a year am getting pretty good scans out of it, however for a forthcoming exhibition I got some drum scans done and have now 'seen the light' there is a significant improvement in microcontrast and fine shadow detail. The Epson now acts as a quick and dirty scanner, with anything to be printed large going to be drummed.

Whilst a drum scanner looks like a whole new skill to learn, one of the professional flat beds seems less daunting. I've got the room to house one of these monsters and the price seems to be coming down, an Eversmart and Mac went yesterday for £53.

Couple of questions - firstly I hope I'm right that the Lanovia would be a significant improvement on the V750, although I can get good 20 inch prints from 4x5 and even some MF, any larger is getting into mushy territory. 35mm is pretty useless as we know ( and I'll like to digitize some of my subaqua published work from the 90s)

The seller hasn't got any transport locks for the scanner - does that rule it out, its got to travel 100 miles on a pallet? Any support available in the UK if/when it goes wrong? Any other advice or scanners I should be looking at - Imacons seem to keep their value and are getting out of my price range.

Thanks in advance

[David Higgs]

100 views!

and scarily no answers

[sanking]

100 views!

and scarily no answers

David,

You might try a question to the following scan group on Yahoo.

http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/S...guid=111435302

Sandy

[Bob McCarthy]

The Fuji is a fairly rare item so first hand knowledge is scarce. There are a number of Creo and Screen scanners owned by members of the group. The Fuji was concidered is the same class by the prepress crowd, so I suspect its a good scanner, especially if the price is right!

I would never move a scanner w/o the locks in place. With the Screen Cezanne, they reverse and store on the machine. Anyway to the point, this is an issue you should solve, as transporting the equipment w/o locks puts it at risk.

bob

[David Higgs]

cheers I've posted on the yahoo group - I'll check re the locks,the guy that has it owns the business, and they are having to change tack, the guy that operated it has moved on

[Joerg Krusche]

hello,

the lanovia is definitely an excellent machine .. transporting on a pallet without securing the scanner is not a good idea .. might work since the scanner is built like a tank ..but there is a risk.. the scanner was manufacured in the UK .. so you might perhaps still get some support from Fuji/UK.

good luck,

joerg

[David Higgs]

together with the seller we've managed to work out how to and where the locks are - so that issue looks sorted :-)

[Don Dudenbostel]

I have a Lanovia Quattro which is the newer version of the c550. I think the main difference is the inner frame of the C550 was cast iron and the Quatteo is aluminum. My scanner is roughly 150 pounds and can't guess what the 550 weighs.

The Fuji scanners were made by Crossfield who was owned by Fuji. Parts are nonexistent in the US unless you can find a parts machine.

Performance is excellent. The C550 and Quatteo are very fast scanners and run circles around the Creo scanners with regard to speed. They are XY scanners so the entire platten is equally good for optimum scans. Also they auto focus up to a depth of 10 mm. The resolution and dynamic range are superb.

Make certain you get the software and dongle with the pass codes. You can get updated software for OS X if you have a compatible dongle. You also must have the calibration print and neg and should wave the setup neg that covers the entire platten to set the focus and other persmeters of the scanner. This is particularly important after the scanner has been moved.