joeswe
Well-known
So ...
I am the happy new owner of a ~15 year old battered Imacon Flextight Precision II ... 😀
I would like to share my experiences here in case anyone else is in the same situation as I was in, that is looking for a affordable quality MF scanner.
After my Canoscan 9000f crapped out a while ago I was in need for a new solution to scan medium format film. After much pondering and reading about the offerings from Epson, Reflecta and Plustek, I just couldn't get myself to spend more than 1000 Euros on any of them ... So I finally jumped for a used Precision II that was offered as defective and was able to secure it for a reasonable price. While the unit certain looks a bit battered it turned out that technically everything was fine and the kit also complete with half a dozen film holders, original handbook, focus calibration target etc pp
One of the great things about the Flextight is that the Flexcolor software that is used to operate the scanner has been continuously developed since these scanners came first to market in the late 1990s and (not the newest, but) recent versions still support the old SCSI units, so unlike some other exotic high end film scanners from 1990s you can download a relatively up to date version for free from the Hassi website and don't have to worry about hunting original CDs or even FDs of long gone original scanning software or paying $$$ for some legacy solution from Silverfast.
The first results of testing the unit are very promising, after calibrating focus and understanding the resolution settings (a bit confusing, took me some time to figure that out) I was able to get some very well resolving scans from 35mm film that show the capabilities of this "old technology".
I attached a sample scan that shows the detail achievable from a scan of 35mm slide film at maximum resolution (6300 ppi). The crop area is the tiny flyer attached to the shop window next to the phone numbers - the area is marked red on the picture that shows the complete frame (sorry for the crappy shot...). Some sharpening was applied within Flexcolor. The whole frame would be a file of 5680x8160 pixels or 50x70 cm in a print resolution of 300 dpi. With 120 film, resolution is limited to 3200 ppi but this is absolutely sufficient for my needs. It is also possible to scan 4x5 film (1800 ppi is the resolution limit for this format, I think).
While the PII is certainly not breaking any speed records when scanning at full resolution, I find it not to be a big problem as the unit emits zero noise during the scanning process, so it is possible to just work on a different task while the actual scanning is taking place in the background. This quietness is very welcome and much different from the film scanners I had used up until now.
So much for now, I will add some more impressions later ... stay tuned!
I am the happy new owner of a ~15 year old battered Imacon Flextight Precision II ... 😀
I would like to share my experiences here in case anyone else is in the same situation as I was in, that is looking for a affordable quality MF scanner.
After my Canoscan 9000f crapped out a while ago I was in need for a new solution to scan medium format film. After much pondering and reading about the offerings from Epson, Reflecta and Plustek, I just couldn't get myself to spend more than 1000 Euros on any of them ... So I finally jumped for a used Precision II that was offered as defective and was able to secure it for a reasonable price. While the unit certain looks a bit battered it turned out that technically everything was fine and the kit also complete with half a dozen film holders, original handbook, focus calibration target etc pp
One of the great things about the Flextight is that the Flexcolor software that is used to operate the scanner has been continuously developed since these scanners came first to market in the late 1990s and (not the newest, but) recent versions still support the old SCSI units, so unlike some other exotic high end film scanners from 1990s you can download a relatively up to date version for free from the Hassi website and don't have to worry about hunting original CDs or even FDs of long gone original scanning software or paying $$$ for some legacy solution from Silverfast.
The first results of testing the unit are very promising, after calibrating focus and understanding the resolution settings (a bit confusing, took me some time to figure that out) I was able to get some very well resolving scans from 35mm film that show the capabilities of this "old technology".
I attached a sample scan that shows the detail achievable from a scan of 35mm slide film at maximum resolution (6300 ppi). The crop area is the tiny flyer attached to the shop window next to the phone numbers - the area is marked red on the picture that shows the complete frame (sorry for the crappy shot...). Some sharpening was applied within Flexcolor. The whole frame would be a file of 5680x8160 pixels or 50x70 cm in a print resolution of 300 dpi. With 120 film, resolution is limited to 3200 ppi but this is absolutely sufficient for my needs. It is also possible to scan 4x5 film (1800 ppi is the resolution limit for this format, I think).
While the PII is certainly not breaking any speed records when scanning at full resolution, I find it not to be a big problem as the unit emits zero noise during the scanning process, so it is possible to just work on a different task while the actual scanning is taking place in the background. This quietness is very welcome and much different from the film scanners I had used up until now.
So much for now, I will add some more impressions later ... stay tuned!
