SprintScan 35 in Mac OS 9, anyone?

batterytypehah!

batterytypehah!

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My Pathetic Post Processing (that's trademarked 🙂) happens on circa 1999 equipment, Powerbook 1400, Polaroid SprintScan 35, Photoshop 2.5. (A newer film scanner just isn't in the cards at the moment.)

Works well enough for B&W, not so great for color, and not at all for slides. The PS plug-in has three slide profiles and they all return a solid black frame. (Similarly, some of the neg profiles return solid white.)

Any ideas? I did just learn from a recent thread that Polaroid's FTP server is still up, for the time being, so I might try to re-install.

I have Polacolor Insight but it doesn't see the scanner at all. VueScan won't even start up on this machine.
 
back alley said:
can you put a scsi card in your laptop?
Click to expand...

You don't have to. The PowerBook 1400 has SCSI built in. It's a square plug with some 30 pins. To attach standard SCSI devices, you either need an adapter cable or a plug that looks like this:

hdi30-800.jpg


Cables can be had for $20 off eBay, just search for "HDI30 PowerBook". Depending on what SCSI interface the scanner has, you either need a cable for a small D-Sub 25 plug or a large 50-pin Centronics plug.

With scanners it's usually DB25.
 
^ that is exactly the setup that I'm using, rxmd.

Not recommended. SCSI is enough of a pain if you have the cable secured with screws. This miniature connector has no attachments at all. Any kind of movement of the laptop and the garden hose, I mean, cable pulls the plug out.
 
VueScan: Yes. It's 7.6.64 for OS 9. Gets as far as throwing up the splash screen, then quits with error 12. Never held out much hope that it would run, but figured I might as well try the free download.

Specs: I've got two PB1400s, same issue on both. The better one has a G3 upgrade and maxed out RAM (all of 64 meg).

Some more symptoms: The scanner goes through the motions but doesn't slow down when it gets to the preview area of the slide, like it does with the profiles that do work. Just moves the holder down and back up at the same speed, then gives me the black "preview."
 
You go, Joe! 🙂

batterytypehah!: Don't ditch that SprintScan just yet: what version of OS 9 are you running? Also, do you have s CD with the system on it for running stuff like Disk First Aid and the like? (If not, I might be able to help.)


- Barrett
 
If it's a Sprintscan 35plus, don't throw it away. It will give far better results than any flatbed scanner, I love mine! It works fantastic with vuescan, but I use a PC and Windows XP. Maybe you should buy a cheap PC for scanning...


wallace
 
batterytypehah! said:
VueScan: Yes. It's 7.6.64 for OS 9. Gets as far as throwing up the splash screen, then quits with error 12. Never held out much hope that it would run, but figured I might as well try the free download.
Click to expand...

I assume that's Error 12 and not Error -12. Looks like you're just missing a library somewhere. Might be worth firing off an e-mail to Ed Hamrick, he won't be fixing bugs for the old version but he may be able to tell you what libraries you need. It will also work better with Joe's scanner.

The SCSI connectors on the Powerbook are indeed terrible. For that problem the best solution is a bit of electrical tape to secure the plug, the second best solution is wedging a piece of cardboard in the plug so that it doesn't slide out.
 
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Thanks for all the suggestions:

Barrett: It's OS 9.1 and I have all the disks.

Wallace: Nope, just the plain original SprintScan 35.

rxmd: I'll see how I like Joe's scanner with the PS plug-in. Probably good enough for me. Remember, PPP™

All: Lest you guys think I'm starving here, thanks, I'm doing fine. I just happen to have this film scanning setup from a long ago Craigslist purchase and didn't see a need to upgrade until I started shooting slides again. I'm probably going to get an Epson flatbed of some sort soon, for my 127 and 120, but all I hear is they don't quite cut it for 35.
 
Well your question is kind of off topic here. In general your best bet for video playback is VLC. However, for Real Media format VLC is usually not the best solution.

If you're on Windows, there is Real Alternative, a codec that allows Real Media playback with any other Windows video player. There is no good alternative for OS X, the best is probably MPlayer OSX Extended, but it's not on par with Real Alternative.
 
Thought I'd let you guys know what became of this. It took a while to get everything sorted out, but as of today, the freebie scanner from back alley is up and running in its new home. Surprisingly, finding the requisite PS plug-in was more difficult than I thought. I finally scared it up on Canon's German website.

So, now I "just" need to practice my scanning skills. Well, here's an easy one with nice fat highlights for a white point. Taken this summer at Zion NP, Fuji Provia 100F.

Thanks again, Joe! You rock.
 

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