Heidelberg NewColor 4000 advice

[FreddyF]

My boss wants to get rid of her old flatbed scanner. It's a Heidelberg NewColor 4000 and I'm wondering whether to take it off her hands.

It's not a name I'm familiar though and a quick search on google doesn't yield too many results either.

Does anyone have any experience with these scanners? This one is in pretty good shape and all software seems to be complete (as far as I can tell).

Oh, and I'd need a SCSI card installed in my PC for it to work which kind of puts me off a little bit.

Anyway - if anyone could offer any advice/knowledge I'd be most grateful.

 

[dmr]

Back years ago when I worked in printing, the name Heidelberg was very well known as the Cadillac of offset presses.

I don't know if this is the same Heidelberg company or not.

 

[FreddyF]

I asume it must be dmr, as this was described to me as the "Rolls Royce of scanners".

Here's the link to their site: http://www.heidelberg.com/www/html/en/startPage but alas - no mention of this particular scanner.

 

[FreddyF]

Okay, this will explain why I can't find it anywhere, It's proper title is a Linoscan 1400. NewColor 4000 is just the name of the software I think.

 

[sfb_dot_com]

Basically what you've got there is a piece of pre-press equipment. My knowledge is a bit out of date, but if it's a Linoscan, then it's from the same family as the Linotype range of Imagesetters which certainly back in the early 90's were the kit of choice for publishing.

Whether it will produce good results or not I don't know, but it will be a robust piece of kit for sure. I'd have a go with it, as I'm sure you could acquire the SCSI card for peanuts too.

If you do, let us know how you get on.

Andy

 

[FreddyF]

I'm going to bring it home and take a proper look at it.

There is a plastic tray for slides (I presume from looking at it) but I don't think/know how it can be used to scan negatives.

 

[LuvEmacs]

It is a good quality scanner, however, it can only deliver 1200dpi, which is only good enough for 4x6 or 5x7 prints with 35mm film, or bigger prints if you are using 120 (such as 6x6cm) size film. The advantage it has is better color fidelity and greater dynamic range (ability to capture shadow details) than many other scanners. Free, or less than 50 bucks, is the right price. You may find it easiest to buy an old Mac and use that to drive the scanner, as the old Macs have SCSI builtin.

 

[FreddyF]

Thanks LuvEmacs - I've got it here now waiting for me to get around to installing a SCSI card in my PC.

Actually, I don't think it's worth the bother for what I want to use it for. I've got my eye on a Epson 4990 (It's less likely to break my desk too).

Good idea about a old Mac though - if I happen across one cheap anytime I might just give it a go.