ScanMate drum scanner DIY maintenance, troubleshooting, mods

So lately I've been wondering how limited I'm in my scanning by only being able to scan at 8bit on my SM5000. So far I'm not seeing the artefacts I would expect from a 8bit output. I don't see any banding even when inverting and editing negs. Why is that? In fact, I don't see much of a diffecerence compared to the 16bit output of my Epson and Plustek scanners. Do any of you with a SM11000 see a big difference between 8bit Raw and 16bit Raw?
 
Kamph, you should be able to compare the 8bit vs 16bit comparison in Tiff mode with no correction profile attached. What I have noticed is that there is very little to no difference when you scan at 1500+ DPI but there is a noticeable difference at lower resolutions. It's more noticable on some slides that have color ranges that push the limit of the 8bit RGB values typically in blue sky it shades of brown in land.

When you scan at higher resolutions, the file itself has many pixels that make up the area of the image that on average, you rarely go beyond the limits of a 8bit file and this is why you don't see what is the technical limit of 8 bit file. I made endless scans between my 5k and 11k and eventually came to the conclusion that there is no difference between the two for negatives as long as I scanned at 2000+ dpi which for me is 100% of the time. What I do like about the 11k is the better shadow performance which makes a big difference for denser sides.

Pali
 
Same here. Can't see the difference, though my "better" scanners do not work with 16bit internally so my observation is really valid for 8bit vs 12bit.

As for the higher resolution helping the 8bit files, I think the nature or the film is helping with the banding in 8bit files when scanned at at least moderately hi resolution. Slight horizontal displacement of vertically stacked dye clouds in layers act as a nice way of dithering. So, no banding, but I would expect a tiny bit more colour noise in hi res 8bit files.
 
Thanks guys. Glad I'm not the only one not seeing the difference. I really should stop worrying about the theoretics and just enjoy the wonderful output that I get from the SM5000 😉
 
Kamph, 8bit ColorTrio or 8bit RAW in ColorQuartet is the best you can squeeze from the SM5000. Unfortunately, it's a bit sad.
 
btamas said:
Dear Colleagues,

Is there any solution for the encoder vibration?


Thanks


Tamas
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Supposedly so, at least that was what I was told by ABC-scan in Denmark. I haven't send my scanner in yet, but I was able to get rid of most of the vibration by balancing the drum and putting some wrist weights on top of the scanner. I'm assuming that your scanner is on a stable platform as well?
 
Thank you, Kamph. Yes, it is on a stable platform. I will try some extra mechanical damping, as you suggested. It is not serious issue, I can live with it.

BTW: is ABC-scan still in business? Isent them a mail half year ago and no answer ... but have not tried again
 
btamas said:
Thank you, Kamph. Yes, it is on a stable platform. I will try some extra mechanical damping, as you suggested. It is not serious issue, I can live with it.

BTW: is ABC-scan still in business? Isent them a mail half year ago and no answer ... but have not tried again
Click to expand...

They helped me do the SM11K board modification in early 2017. The communication is slow because Michael who runs the business is in his retirement and goes on long-term travel trips. He is helpful but expect communication to be very slow.

Pali
 
Good to know that they are still active.


Has anybody tried to set the PMT gain using the potentiometers on SM11000?
As I can recall, it was quite straightforward on the SM4000 and was (reasonably) clearly described in its service manual, too. No such option is mentioned in the SM11000 manual. My first impression is that the potentiometers have no effect at all. Neither on the test point voltages (TP12,13,13 - TP201) nor on color balance. Am I overlooking something?
 
btamas said:
Good to know that they are still active.


Has anybody tried to set the PMT gain using the potentiometers on SM11000?
As I can recall, it was quite straightforward on the SM4000 and was (reasonably) clearly described in its service manual, too. No such option is mentioned in the SM11000 manual. My first impression is that the potentiometers have no effect at all. Neither on the test point voltages (TP12,13,13 - TP201) nor on color balance. Am I overlooking something?
Click to expand...

Based on my understanding of the scanner, there is no need for any pot adjustments for PMTs on the 11000 because the board has digital pots that adjust automatically when you do an aperture and/or white balance calibration. The SM11K has significantly more advanced circuitry and the only tuning I do on it every year or so is the mechanical cleaning and calibration which is similar to the other Scanmate scanners.

Pali
 
Thank you, Pali. That is what I figured. Good to have confirmation.
(I was disturbed by an old post suggesting pot adjustment to cure red cast. I wrongly thought it was sm11k.)
Tamas
 
I've been reading this thread and some of the other popular drum scanning threads for a while and I could no longer resist.

I'm picking up a 5000 in fully working condition with the required equipment (A G4 mac, software, dongles, cables) to operate it. I'll be doing some test scans over the weekend if transport and related hurdles don't prevent it.
For dry mounting (temporary I hope), do people still use the mylar or do they just mount the film straight to the drum?
 
Mylar without mounting fluid will just give you even more Newton rings. You'll have enough of them from the drum alone...
 
You seem to have been correct on the drum alone being enough of a challenge.


I got the system set up in a short evening at home and it's already impressive how much detail I can see in -very bad- scans. The newton rings and general bubbles in the scans are a challenge.


The seller was the first owner of the scanner and hadn't used it since the time he sent it in for repairs in 1998, he bought a large Dainippon unit in the mean time and had no need for the Scanmate anymore. It seems to have had a very safe home during those 20 years.



Glad to be part of the Scanmate owners family now, I hope to have something nice to show soon.
 
Thanks for the recommendation. I am picking up some drum cleaner for sure, I got a bottle of Kami film cleaner with the scanner when I bought it.


Over the weekend I have been trying to get some scans to work. I'm amazed at how good a dry scan can be. This is at 3000DPI and massively overexposed Kodak Ektar 100.


Scan-43.jpg


RZ67 - 110mm f2.8 W@ f2.8



Straight out of the scanner it had a slightly less appealing look:
Scan-43soos.jpg
Not bad for an 8 bit file.
 
I have a question about the Colorquartet software.
My Scanmate 5000 came with Colorquartet 4.4.1, I seem to be unable to locate any raw options in the format drop down.


I run Colorquartet on OS 9.2.2 if that might have anything to do with the option lacking. There is a version 5.x.x installed on a Mac OS X partition on the computer but that doesn't seem able to connect the scanner. The previous owner also used the OS9 only.
options.jpg
I assume the dongle would cause me trouble if I tried to upgrade to version 5?


EDIT: I found the software 5 version on the hard drive somewhere for OS9 too. It doesn't recognize the dongle but I can verify that this one DOES have the RAW options.
 
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