Re: [Leica] Polaroid SprintScan Question

["Francesco" <fls@san.rr.com>]

You know, I had EXACTLY the same problem for the longest time.  I have the
Sprintscan 35 PLUS and I could NEVER seem to get the scans to look as good
as I knew they could be.  In fact I was so frustrated I went entirely to
PhotoCD
for a few months, and kept the Sprintscan in the box.  For the past two
weeks I have
has the scanner out again, tinkering in my spare time, trying to find a way
to make the
scans better.  Out of the blue I decided to call Polaroid and talk to tech
support to
see what they recommended.  After calling three times and talking to three
different
techs, I finally got an intelligent woman on the line who recommended a NEW
version
of their "non Photoshop plug-in" scanning software, called Polaroid Insight
v. 3.
I went to the ftp site and downloaded it and BAMM!  Instantly, the preview
images
and final scans looked very nice.  She said that this new version of the
software has
a scanner calibration routine it runs each time it starts, something that
the Photoshop
plug-in version of the scan software does not have.
I suggest you try this new download.....maybe it will work wonders for you
as well.

ftp://ftp.polaroid.com/pub/imaging/input/sscan35/

Francesco




- ----- Original Message -----
From: Michael Bell <mbell@mail.utexas.edu>
To: <leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us>
Sent: Friday, April 23, 1999 6:05 AM
Subject: [Leica] Polaroid SprintScan Question


> I posted this to the Scan list and received no responses.  I'm hoping
> someone here might have some ideas.  I promise most of the slides and
> negatives I scan are made with Leicas!
>
> --------
>
> Where I work we have a Polaroid SprintScan 35 LE.  When I  scan slides
they
> are coming out fairly dark and detail is lost in the shadow areas.  I can
> turn up the brightness in the settings, but then the blacks look faded and
> I am still losing detail.  I can restore the blacks in Photoshop, but I
> still have the feeling something is not right.  When we first got the
> scanner a year or so ago I seem to remember a well exposed slide would
need
> very little adjustment.  Now, they all need to be lightened and tinkered
> with.
>
> Negatives don't seem to be affected quite so badly, but the highlights are
> tending to block up and lose detail.  If a negative is dense enough it can
> be quite difficult to deal with, sometimes impossible, even though it is
> printable in a conventional darkroom.
>
> When the scanner was first installed in the lab, the person running the
lab
> insisted that it be left on all the time.  He's gone now and I make sure
> the scanner is off when not in use.  The original bulb had turned pretty
> dark.  I put in a new bulb hoping that would fix my problems, but that
> helped little if at all.
>
> Any suggestions would be much appreciated.
>
> thanks
>
> Michael Bell
> MBell@mail.utexas.edu
>
>
>
>