Finally broke down and bought an Imacon 343 firewire

[SixSeven]

Yes, I did copy the thread title verbatim from the Minolta Dimage thread!

Anyway, I've been searching for a good 343 (or 646 if I could find one at a decent I-don't-need-to-sell-my-car price) and finally found one to my liking on the auction site.

I was waiting for the Plustek 120 for...well, we all know how long we've been waiting. I know there's been no official review yet so I may have jumped the gun, but the lukewarm reception by certain members here, no AF, film flatness issues because of defective holders, general quality concerns... turned me away from it.

Hopefully I made the right decision, time will tell. But damn I can't wait! I can finally shoot the Mamiya 7 and see the finished print all in the same day! (Not a wet printer, so this meaning shoot, develop, scan, inkjet print). This has been the biggest obstacle to my getting into film more extensively instead of just as a novelty. The ease of use factor could go up exponentially for me if the Imacon turns out to be a winner.

Time will tell, I guess.

 

[raytoei@gmail.com]

wow...the rolls royce of scanners

 

[johannielscom]

Envious!

If that had been an option to me (both financially and availibility), I might still be shooting my Rolleiflexes.

Selling the Rolleis brought me a Ricoh GXR-M and a family trip to Berlin so I can't really complain though.

 

[SixSeven]

wow...the rolls royce of scanners

Well, I don't know if I'd go that far. I do admit to feeling a certain giddy anticipation though.

I am by no means an expert on scanner pricing, so I'm not even sure if I got a good deal. It was a hell of a lot cheaper than some of the Nikon 9000's you see listed though going for 4k+.

All told I paid $2700.00 for it. 700 more than the Plustek for a used, 10+ year old scanner, but I'm hoping it trounces the Plustek on the technical / performance side of things.

Can anyone provide any feedback on the 343, from personal experience? Quality, speed, etc.?

 

[SixSeven]

Envious!

If that had been an option to me (both financially and availibility), I might still be shooting my Rolleiflexes.

Selling the Rolleis brought me a Ricoh GXR-M and a family trip to Berlin so I can't really complain though.

How did the trip to Germany end up? Always wanted to go there.

Never been too keen on the Ricoh, but then again I'm not super familiar with it. The whole interchangeable sensor/module thing is pretty slick. Part of me likes that stuff, yet part of me likes the almost idiot-proof level of simplicity with a Mamiya 7 or equivalent. And I'm saying this shortly after buying an X-Pro 1, which somewhat successfully blends the complicated with the stupid-simple.

 

[thegman]

Never used an Imacon, but you only read good things about them. The price seems pretty good compared to what people seem to want for them over here in the UK.

 

[x-ray]

I bought a new 343 about 8 years ago. They're really great machines. I only sold it because I needed a scanner that would handle 8x10 and larger film and had a chance to buy a demo Fuji Lanovia Quattro at a killer price.

The Fuji cost about 15 times the price of the Imacon and is the top of the line flat bed machines and is a truly amazing scanner. I did a direct comparison of scanns. Etween the two. The Fuji and Imacon produced almost identical scans. The Fuji is considerably faster and had very slightly better edge sharpness but was only visible at maximum resolution of the imacon and at 100% viewing. The difference was very hard to see even then.

Color with the imacon was excellent and B&W scans are better than the Fuji. The files from the Imacon are very clean and have very low noise. The fff files are basically a raw file and give you essentially a negative to work with and manipulate. Also the TIF output is superb. The Imacon machines are truly professional machines and built to last under heavy use for a lifetime.

The Flexcolor software is also a big plus. It's geared for pro use but easy to use and runs on all current OS.

Hasselblad still services the 343 and other scanners. They are excellent with any questions.

I recently decided to sell my Fuji as I'm not doing large sheet film much anymore and will send what I do out for scans. I was looking for another Imacon and ran across one that Hasselblad had taken in on trade and had refurbished. I purchased it direct from Hasselblas and could not be happier. My current machine is a like new 848.

The only issues I've had were recent. I discovered I can't multitask with my Mac Pro tower during scans. I have a 8 core machine loaded with ram but it will sometimes crash the software if I'm trying to do other things during a scan. No big deal. It's not a function of the scanner but is a failing of the computer.

You got a great scanner at a great deal.

 

[x-ray]

I don't know anything about the Plustek other than I had one of the 35mm scanners for a couple of weeks. It did ok but it's nothing close to the level of the Imacons. If the 120 uses LED lights like the 35 and Nikons you'll notice the smoothess of tones are better with the Imacon. The imacon used a cold cathode fluorescent tube and reduces dust, smooths tones and reduces grain. It's much like a diffusion enlarger bs a point source condensor. I think all the upper end pro flat beds use cold cathode.

Forgot to mention flatness of film is a non issue with the Imacons.

 

[SixSeven]

Well there was a package waiting for me when I got home from work yesterday. This thing is beautiful just to look at, it really is a work of art. Absolutely mint condition, all the accessory holders, manuals, original packaging, dust cover etc. Someone took very very good care of it.

After cleaning up my desk to set this thing on it, I only got as far as hooking it up, downloading flex color and powering it on before going to bed.

Scans to come!