Microtek ArtixScan 120tf driving me crazy!

[Ezzie]

Du er tålmodig du Børre. Men så har det også gitt resultater. Bra gjort.

 

[borrel]

Not so much patient ("tålmodig") as stubborn mixed with a good measure of stupidity. Film scanners work differently from flat beds and as with most hardware, the way to do it is use the the manufacturer's software first, READ THE MANUAL, and then go on to experiment with "recommended" 3rd party software. What seems to have confused first time users of this scanner is Adorama's insistence on bundling SilverFast with it without actually ascertaining that SF worked well. Add to that incompatibilities in operating systems and program versions and you have the correct formula for complete frustration. My experience is that both SilverFast and VueScan produce banding of various kinds under the "right" circumstances for THIS scanner and with my combination of harware, OS and software, ScanWizard produces the best results with the easiest interface. The recommended way above of starting up and getting the thing working still applies, but ScanWizard is much more tolerant of the order in which it's done.

- Børre

 

[borrel]

Latest on the ArtixScan 120tf.

After solving the banding problems by using Microtek's own Scanwizard Pro V7.51 (which runs only under OS X 10.4), the scanner has now developed a film holder transport problem where the filmholder is pulled into the scanner erratically. This causes scans to start at wrong places with respect to the image frames.

My negotiations with Microtek Taiawan and Evestar Germany (their European dealer and service center) are not encouraging. Taiwan report that the costs of shipping and repair will be prohibitive compared to buying an ArtixScan F1. Germany report that they no longer have a complete range of spare parts, nor can they order any.

I'm going to try some simple lubrication of moving parts and start looking for a replacement scanner. The F1 is reportedly not significantly better than my V750, so it's going to have to be another 120tf or a 9000ED?

- Børre

 

[bagdadchild]

Latest on the ArtixScan 120tf.

After solving the banding problems by using Microtek's own Scanwizard Pro V7.51 (which runs only under OS X 10.4), the scanner has now developed a film holder transport problem where the filmholder is pulled into the scanner erratically. This causes scans to start at wrong places with respect to the image frames.

My negotiations with Microtek Taiawan and Evestar Germany (their European dealer and service center) are not encouraging. Taiwan report that the costs of shipping and repair will be prohibitive compared to buying an ArtixScan F1. Germany report that they no longer have a complete range of spare parts, nor can they order any.

I'm going to try some simple lubrication of moving parts and start looking for a replacement scanner. The F1 is reportedly not significantly better than my V750, so it's going to have to be another 120tf or a 9000ED?

- Børre

I am sorry to hear about your problems. Since you're located in Scandinavia, have you considered the possibilty to purchase a Scanmate drum scanner? There seem to be quite a few of them for sale from time to time. You should pay no more than €1000 for a Scanmate 5000 with Mac and software in good shape or even less. I was fortunate enough to find a used Scanmate 11000 for €100, a true bargain. I also have a Scanmate F10 flatbed sitting here in need of service, possibly it's a DIY thing, but I haven't been scanning for a long while now so it will likely keep on sitting here.

 

[borrel]

Sounds very interesting. Where on the net would I find such a scanner for sale? I see that the interface for the 5000 is SCSI, so I must admit that maintaining yet another ageing computer platform with a working SCSI port and slow CPU is not a very attractive proposition. Unless of course there is a workable USB (or FireWire) to SCSI adapter that could be used on one of my present machines.

 

[borrel]

Filmholder advance problem solved! Upon taking the scanner apart, I discovered that the cog wheel that transports the film holder (the largest one in the center of the image below) was pushed up and at an angle, barely engaging with its train drive. The vibrating movement when lifting the whole film holder assembly had apparently lifted the shaft of the cog wheel out of its seating. It's been like this for some time while still working after a fashion, because slightly pulling the film holder would allow the wheel to drop slightly back into a very loose position. All of this explains the erratic behaviour in positioning of the film holder and now recently, the uneven transport of the holder when scanning. On close examination there was nothing but friction holding the shaft in its hole, so I removed the wheel, cleaned the shaft completely, put a drop of Locktite in the seating hole and pressed the shaft back in. Put the cog wheel back on after the cement had set and now I have a beautifully working ArtixScan 120tf again! (Also took the opportunity to clean the lamp and mirror of dust and lubricate the transport drive train with Vaseline.)

- Børre

 

[bagdadchild]

Sounds very interesting. Where on the net would I find such a scanner for sale? I see that the interface for the 5000 is SCSI, so I must admit that maintaining yet another ageing computer platform with a working SCSI port and slow CPU is not a very attractive proposition. Unless of course there is a workable USB (or FireWire) to SCSI adapter that could be used on one of my present machines.

It's indeed SCSI. I am using the same old 1GB Ram G3 for various old SCSI connected scanners. While the processing of the fresh scans is not lightning fast, it's not too bad either. In the meantime you will have plenty of time to edit your scans on another computer. The quality of the scans more than enough make up for the hassle, and in use professional scanners are much more convenient to work with than consumer scanners or semi-professional scanners, especially if you use a pro CCD "flatbed" scanner, which can be quickly loaded with dozens of negatives and then left to scan for hours while you can do something else.
There are a range of CCD scanners, which in practice are equally good as a drum scanner, if they are clean and in good shape. People engage in bidding wars for Nikon scanners, while the best scanners often don't find buyers although they are lower priced. Of course you would need a car and be prepared to drive hundreds of miles or more on a short notice since the scanners don't show up every day. I searched for about a year until I was successful.
There are good chances on ebay.de, but also in the local internet classifieds, sites like dba.dk, blocket.se and also look for photo labs and print shops which go out of business, which is perhaps the best possibilty for bargain hunting.

 

[bagdadchild]

Filmholder advance problem solved! Upon taking the scanner apart, I discovered that the cog wheel that transports the film holder (the largest one in the center of the image below) was pushed up and at an angle, barely engaging with its train drive. The vibrating movement when lifting the whole film holder assembly had apparently lifted the shaft of the cog wheel out of its seating. It's been like this for some time while still working after a fashion, because slightly pulling the film holder would allow the wheel to drop slightly back into a very loose position. All of this explains the erratic behaviour in positioning of the film holder and now recently, the uneven transport of the holder when scanning. On close examination there was nothing but friction holding the shaft in its hole, so I removed the wheel, cleaned the shaft completely, put a drop of Locktite in the seating hole and pressed the shaft back in. Put the cog wheel back on after the cement had set and now I have a beautifully working ArtixScan 120tf again! (Also took the opportunity to clean the lamp and mirror of dust and lubricate the transport drive train with Vaseline.)

- Børre

That is great news! Searching the market for old scanners is no fun. I hope yor scanner keeps going for a long time!

 

[srtiwari]

I have acquired this scanner now, and find the software will not work on Mac OS X 10.6, where Vuescan works just fine. Actually, I lkike its scans as well as the Nikon 9000ED.
Unfortunately, it could do with a bit of cleaning. Anyone know how to clean the glass inside ? Have not had much luck on the Internet.

 

[scottyb70]

I never took mine apart but you could download the Polaroid software, it helps eliminate the dust. The Microtek is very underestimated. I compared it with the Nikon Super Coolscan 9000 and couldn't even tell the difference in the scans. The only problem is the dust removal software is subpar.

 

[srtiwari]

Nikon 9000ED vs Microtek 120TF

Nikon 9000ED vs Microtek 120TF

What I see are white "spots" on the pictures that look like dust. Immediately doing a scan on the 9000 beside it- without dusting the negs- provides a clean scan. The spots are form the scanner ! See the scans below...


NIKON 9000ED 100% crop.

Microtek 120TF 100% crop.

 

[blank]

I have an Artixscan 120TF. As with everyone else I know who has this scanner (or the Polaroid Sprintscan 120), it's been a pain in the ass. That said, the results are fantastic for the price compared to the Nikon 9000.

My biggest problem was always getting it initially recognized by the computer and Silverfast, and some of those line artifacts you posted on the previous page. Nowadays if I leave it sitting for a long period of time (off, of course), I come back to it and it's difficult to turn back on or have the PC recognize it. I think I'm going to start unplugging it completely because it always seems I have to unplug it and plug it back in several times to get it to turn on and stay on.

Still working for the moment...

 

[borrel]

I have found that the only reliable software for the 120tf is the last version of Microtek's own ScanWizard.

It's also very important to start the system in the correct sequence. I always leave the scanner turned off and unplugged when not in use.

Make sure to load the film holder with the film strip in the correct position in order to hit the frames correctly.

Load and insert the filmholder before booting the computer. Let the scanner transport the holder to its initial position and to settle down before starting the computer. Let the computer boot up competely before starting the ScanWizard software.

Always cover the scanner with its original dustcover when not in use.

This routine has worked well for me for well over a year and the results are very good. Here are some recent examples: http://abdallah.hiof.no/iddesletta/

 

[borrel]

I have acquired this scanner now, and find the software will not work on Mac OS X 10.6, where Vuescan works just fine. Actually, I lkike its scans as well as the Nikon 9000ED.
Unfortunately, it could do with a bit of cleaning. Anyone know how to clean the glass inside ? Have not had much luck on the Internet.

The body of the scanner is basically two extruded sections of aluminum with plastic end caps. Remove visible screws on the back cap and bottom, carefully remove the front cap (there is a ribbon cable to the front switches that needs to be unplugged), then slide and lift the top section off. The light is located right on top. (See the picture of the open scanner above.) Therefore the sensor and its reflecting mirror is vertically below and rather inaccessible. You might first try to get rid of dust by carefully applying a stream of air, from blower or can. Try to position some sort of vacuum close by so that the loosened dust doesn't just settle back in. Other than that, it appears to be a major disassembly job. An important point with this (as with most) scanner, is always to use the very good original dust cover when not in use.

And while you have the scanner open, check that the cog wheel that engages with and transports the film holder is properly seated. See the discussion above.

- Børre

 

[brbo]

I recently bought a used Microtek 120tf and I'm experiencing same things. No matter what I do, I get defocused bands in scans and also color fringing in color negative/positive scans. Both are limited to Vuescan (regardless of Vuescan version , OS...) and no such problems in Microtek's Scanwizard Pro TX. Scanner's firmware is 1.80.

I asked the original owner about this and he said that he didn't get (or noticed?) those problems in any of the scanning software, said he used Vuescan for his scanning.

Hmm... Not really sure what is going on. Since scans with this scanner when scanned in Scanwizard are really really good, the plan is to buy a dedicated machine (an old PowerPC Mac with OSX 10.4. - last officially supported version by Scanwizard) to drive the scanner. I compared the scans of Microtek to those made with my Minolta 5400 mkI and it comes pretty close. Minolta is still a bit better in terms of resolution (and has grain dissolver), but I think Microtek might be even better in DMax department and film flatness seems not that crucial as with Minolta.

But still, this really is a strange problem. If this is a hardware problem then Scanwizard obviously can somehow run around it. Is this a case of problem with specific firmware version? If this is a software problem then everyone using this scanner with Vuescan/Silverfast would have this problem and I guess this is not the case... I just read a great review of Epson V700 where a RFF member XFer also compares V700 with Microtek 120tf and it would seem that he is using Vuescan. Maybe he'll be able to share details of his setup...

 

[borrel]

There is a comparison of the ArtixScan 120tf and Epson 4990 here: http://abdallah.hiof.no/photography/4990-artixscan/ I can see no significant difference between the 4990 and the V700 I have now and the 120tf is definitely better.

 

[dagbb]

Another fix for the Microtek 120TF

Another fix for the Microtek 120TF

Thanks for all the tips everyone!

I have a Microtek 120TF which hasn't been working since about 2007, which I was inspired to try to fix because of this thread... The problem was that the mechanism which moves the film holder became loose after a year or so - I could push and pull the holder without any resistance - and the scanner-motor could not move it.

After I opened the scanner I didn't find any problem with the cogwheel which Børre pointed out. After taking the scanner apart, however, I noticed the cogwheel at the end of the main threaded rod driving the mechanism for moving the film holder was loose (first picture, the motor worked but moved the wheel, and not the rod itself). Getting access to the rod/cogwheel was the most "difficult" part... On the cogwheel there is a small umbraco-screw (black, see first picture) for tightening it to the rod. After doing this, it couldn't "freewheel" anymore, and the motor moved the whole mechanism again... finally 🙂

I wonder though - it seems I always have had to push the film holder firmly into the scanner (the motor doesn't allow you to move the holder, but if you push hard enough it will) before the motor will engage and pick it up... I guess this is the reason the wheel came loose in the first place... Does anyone else have this problem, or can you just put the holder "loose" in the scanner, and get it to pick it up using the software or similar?

In any event - if you have the same problem like me, don't throw this great scanner away - it's an easy fix (check the pictures) 🙂

 

[borrel]

I was in contact with Ed Hamrick (VueScan) some time ago about the "out-of-focus banding" problem of the 120tf. As I recall, a new version of VueScan at the time eliminated the problem with 135 film, but was still present in medium format. The other problem with VueScan was that it didn't register MF film carriers correctly either. So as long as I have an old Power PC Mac that runs ScanWizard, that appears to be the only reliable way of getting good results.

Another recommendation though, is to get an original spare lamp from the German Microtech agents while they still have some. Apart from electronics, that would be the first part that would need replacement with age.

 

[brbo]

I wonder though - it seems I always have had to push the film holder firmly into the scanner (the motor doesn't allow you to move the holder, but if you push hard enough it will) before the motor will engage and pick it up... I guess this is the reason the wheel came loose in the first place... Does anyone else have this problem, or can you just put the holder "loose" in the scanner, and get it to pick it up using the software or similar?

That is normal (or better, my 120tf is the same). You have to push the holder and there is quite a bit of resistance while you're pushing the holder to the point where motor takes over the transport.

 

[borrel]

Another recommendation though, is to get an original spare lamp from the German Microtech agents while they still have some. Apart from electronics, that would be the first part that would need replacement with age.

The German agents for Microtek is Evestar (http://www.evestar.de). However, clicking the link to Microtek takes us to Microtek Taiwan, so it's probably best to send an email to something like <info@evestar.de> and asking for the repair section. In 2011, they still had some spare parts for the ArtixScan 120tf.