Sony UY-S90 scanner

[Tom Diaz]

Hiya, folks.

Earlier, I whined in RFF about the unavailability of a simple scanning service in the U.S. for shooters with films other than C41 color negative. With C41 you can take your film to almost any drugstore and, sometimes in an hour, get back developed negatives and a CD with decent 1000-dpi scans. Then you can go to town using the scans as proofs or for onscreen shows. (I use a desktop Minolta Elite 5400 II for high-quality scans when I see something for which I want an exhibition-sized print.) In other words, with C41, a shooter has almost the same workflow and turnaround time as a digital shooter, plus of course the nice variety of speeds and color palettes still available in C41.

For me, E6 film is more desirable than C41, but I have not been able to find labs in the US that would give me quick & low-res scans of E6 film for a reasonable price.

So I recently bought, on eBay, a used Sony UY-S90 scanner and also a Sony UYAS90SF slide feeder for it.

With this equipment, I am supposed to be able to take an uncut roll of any 35mm film--color or black and white, positive or negative--and the machine will make 1100-dpi scans of the whole roll in 4 minutes! The slide feeder will take a magazine of 50 or so slides and gobble them into similar scans at just a little lower speed. You can do scans with twice this resolution at (I'm sure) correspondingly slower speed. This is according to the specs; I have not yet received the equipment.

Does anyone have experience with this machinery? It was originally expensive (introduced about 7 years ago) and was obviously made for minilabs, to be part of the production flow with film developing and printing stations. I got the scanner for $227 and the slide feeder for $250.

In the U.S. I have had almost no luck getting people to tell me this kind of service was even possible, but of course that is partly the result of talking to sales people instead of people in the labs. Assuming this equipment performs as I would like, this all means that the kind of service I wanted is perfectly feasible technically, because there are processing labs that had just the right machinery, and some probably still have it. I realize that for most labs, they might not be getting enough e6 or b&w business to justify the labor and maintenance costs.

Evidently minilabs are unloading older equipment, so these things come up on ebay from time to time. (There is a newer model, the UY-S100, that is available for higher prices in new/refurbed condition.)

Anyway, I'd be interested in anyone's experience and will share my own.

 

[RML]

Interesting. How big is this scanner? Table top sized, or would I need to hire a C130 Hercules to have it shipped to Holland? 😛

 

[Tom Diaz]

Interesting. How big is this scanner? Table top sized, or would I need to hire a C130 Hercules to have it shipped to Holland? 😛

Dimensions: 438 (W) x 148 (H) x 560 (D) mm (17 1/4 x 5 7/8 x 22 1/8 inches)
Mass: Approx. 12 kg (26 lb 7 oz)

You could ship it to Ulaanbaatar, for that matter.

 

[RML]

That's not nearly as big as I had expected!

Hmmm, something to consider for the future... when money is aplenty again. 🙂

 

[Tom Diaz]

Initial success!

Initial success!

I got the scanner up and running today and am very impressed! I have a few uncut rolls of c-41 negative film that are good for testing. I fed in one end and, using the scanner's TWAIN application, told it to scan the roll at 1024x1536 resolution. It gobbles the roll into itself and then buzzes away, scanning negatives, gradually spitting the roll back out. Total time for 39 frames: 4 minutes.

At twice that resolution the total time is about 12 minutes. (I will be using this mainly at the lower resolutions for proofing, since I have a higher-res scanner for exhibition prints.)

It works fine with a strip of B&W negatieves I tried, too.

It recognizes most film types from DX codes on the film and adjusts automatically.

This is (seems like) industrial-grade, robust equipment. Film carriers are very solidly made, not like what you are used to with consumer desktop scanners. Sony (evidently) still has some spare parts.

I have not yet tried slide film. Waiting for my auto slide-feeder to show up; that is an accessory I got from a different ebay seller. From what I can see, if you have a ton of slides or negatives you would like to start scanning and cataloging, this is a good solution. New, it cost thousands of dollars, and I can see why.

Tips in case you get one:

I use Windows XP Professional, and I used an Adaptec AHA-2930CU SCSI card. SCSI cards are available from big dealers but are becoming more rare, with USB so good these days. You are supposed to load Adaptec ASPI software (available from their web site) before installing the Sony driver, so I did. The Sony driver was a little unwilling to install till I turned off my antivirus software and rebooted.

In operation, on my computer with this SCSI card, I have to power up the scanner, then the computer. The first time, the computer tried to do its "recognize new hardware" thing. What worked for me was to just ignore all that and run the Sony TWAIN application, which worked fine and started operating the scanner. Then I told the "found new hardware" wizard not to bother me any more when it sees this equipment. (If this is unclear and you get one, send me private mail and I will help.) The driver can be launched from within Photoshop, too, and will bring the scans right in there.

Again, I am impressed, including with the quality of the scans, considering they are 1000 dpi and done really fast. This is just what I was looking for!

 

[MadMan2k]

Could you post some samples? That sounds like close to what I want too, and it's a lot less than a Nikon 5000 and a roll film adapter.

I want to start bulk rolling B&W and shooting a bunch of it in the Leica while it's still reasonably affordable, and my current workflow is a huge pain in the ass, I need something to scan the rolls at home, preferably without much effort.

 

[RML]

I want to start bulk rolling B&W and shooting a bunch of it in the Leica while it's still reasonably affordable, and my current workflow is a huge pain in the ass, I need something to scan the rolls at home, preferably without much effort.

Quite the reason why I'm reading this threat too. 🙂

 

[Tom Diaz]

Could you post some samples? That sounds like close to what I want too, and it's a lot less than a Nikon 5000 and a roll film adapter.

I want to start bulk rolling B&W and shooting a bunch of it in the Leica while it's still reasonably affordable, and my current workflow is a huge pain in the ass, I need something to scan the rolls at home, preferably without much effort.

Yup, shoot your favorite B&W or slide film, develop the roll, dry it, and zip!--you have scans before you can say Rumpelstiltskin. (I have a nearby lab that does real fast developing, so that part I can skip if I like.)

This is better than what I wanted, actually, because it is faster and seems to be very high-quality machinery. I will post a few samples.

The TWAIN driver (scanner application) has a good set of features for previewing and correcting individual images if that's what you want to do, or you can skip the previewing and go into automatic-fire mode.

Set your ebay searches now! There is also an older model, the UY-S77, and a new model, the UY-S100. I would trust either of those if you got it in good condition. There were a couple of UY-S100s for sale NEW the other day. They were expensive ($1000), but as the man said, that's cheaper than a new Nikon with a roll film adapter. A SCSI card and cable will set you back another $100.

Sony has a Mac version of the driver, too, by the way.

 

[Tom Diaz]

Test scans with the Sony UY-S90

Test scans with the Sony UY-S90

The contrast is elevated by this scanner, although it is easily corrected in Photoshop if need be. I'm happy enough!

http://www.rangefinderforum.com/photopost/showgallery.php?cat=6877

E100G is my favorite film of all, and now it is more reasonable to use. (Till Kodak stops making it--can't last too much longer, I fear.)

I usually do not shoot such fast C-41 film, but perhaps the Fuji shown here can represent the quality nadir. I have actually gotten good exhibition prints with this film.

 

[Tom Diaz]

And furthermore, the auto slide feeder...

And furthermore, the auto slide feeder...

Today I received (via a separate ebay purchase) the UYA-S90SF slide feeder attachment. If you have a UY-S90 Sony scanner, this accessory will let you feed it a deck of up to 50 mounted slides. Result in first try today: it did 1024x1536 dpi scans of 37 slides in less than 10 minutes. Granted, if the slides were unmounted and on an uncut roll, it could scan them in 4 minutes, but still, 10 minutes is really nice, with no time out for loading the slides into some kind of special appliance--it is no more complicated to use than the slide "stack loader" on an old Carousel projector.

The slide feeder has some expendable parts (little rollers) that one should buy from Sony while they still have them... if they still have them. It comes with two spares.

Anyway, as I go forward with the UY-S90 I will tweak it to see if I can reduce the extra saturation and contrast it gives, especially to slides, but I am very, very happy with it.

 

[Jerrold]

You can also get the older and cheaper Nikon Coolscan LS-2000, and the same (or older SF-200) bulk feeders as the LS-5000. OK its a SCSI connection, slower than the sony and mine looks a a slightly yellowy colour, but it works and I am slowly churning through all the old mounted slides at 2800dpi...
There is also the bulk uncut film adapter, not seen many of those about though....

 

[SarahT]

Hello to everybody,

I'm also a new user of the scanner and also bought a used one, same as you, Tom.

One problem I sometimes encounter is that the scanner leaves scratches across the film, after the film has been scanned.

I would like to know if any of you also encountered the same problem, and what did you do to resolve it.

BTW, I am sure it's the scanner responsible for those scratches since I hand-process my films, and also have checked the films before I scanned them, to make sure my films weren't the problem.

Thanks, Sarah.

 

[Tom Diaz]

Hello to everybody,

I'm also a new user of the scanner and also bought a used one, same as you, Tom.

One problem I sometimes encounter is that the scanner leaves scratches across the film, after the film has been scanned.

I would like to know if any of you also encountered the same problem, and what did you do to resolve it.

BTW, I am sure it's the scanner responsible for those scratches since I hand-process my films, and also have checked the films before I scanned them, to make sure my films weren't the problem.

Thanks, Sarah.

Hiya, Sarah.

I have used mine just three or four times so far and have not noticed any problem. I have two thoughts:

1. The film carriers can be opened and cleaned, so that would be my first move. Did you get a manual with yours? If not you can get a spare manual (and some other spare parts) from Sony.

2. I saw a film carrier for sale on ebay recently and bought it, for $20. I thought that even though they seem to be built very solidly something could go wrong with them. I had not thought of something actually scratching the film, but if the scratches are due to a defect and not dust, this might be an option.

Have you used color film with yours? An increase in contrast & saturation (which I also have seen in a couple of b&w tests) is my only complaint. I am using mine mainly as a proofing device, so I can live with it, but I would still like to see if there is some way to tweak it.

 

[SarahT]

Hiya, Sarah.

I have used mine just three or four times so far and have not noticed any problem. I have two thoughts:

1. The film carriers can be opened and cleaned, so that would be my first move. Did you get a manual with yours? If not you can get a spare manual (and some other spare parts) from Sony.

2. I saw a film carrier for sale on ebay recently and bought it, for $20. I thought that even though they seem to be built very solidly something could go wrong with them. I had not thought of something actually scratching the film, but if the scratches are due to a defect and not dust, this might be an option.

Have you used color film with yours? An increase in contrast & saturation (which I also have seen in a couple of b&w tests) is my only complaint. I am using mine mainly as a proofing device, so I can live with it, but I would still like to see if there is some way to tweak it.

Hi Tom!

1. Yes, I have cleaned the carrier thoroughly, but that did not help... And yes, I have the manual and followed all of the instructions, but I don't think I can rely too much on that manual for troubleshooting.

2. I think I may take your advice and buy a new film carrier (although buying a second-hand component is risky as well 😉).


Regarding the increase in contrast - I don't know, could be - but then again every film you scan needs a bit tweaking, no matter which scanner you use. There's an option in the scan utility to generally change the settings of the contrast/saturation which I use, which gives me decent results.
Also, if you scan in higher definition, you will get better results when it comes to the color and contrast.

If you'd like a bit more guiding,
or have some more suggestions regarding my problem,
feel free to send me an e-mail.

 

[man-analogue]

I am having trouble installing this type of scanner onto a pc running XP, i don't have a manual and am struggling to find one online. I have installed the scan utility program which as far as i'm aware contains the drivers, but when i connect the scanner and try to run it it displays the message that it isn't connected. My scsi is ok but in device manager there is a yellow question mark next to the scanner, any ideas??

 

[bredy73]

I have the same scanner Sony UY-S90 but don't work in windows XP, I think the problem is the driver, where can I take it.

Or there is someone that sand me.

Thanks

 

[Tuolumne]

The scratches are a feature of the scanner. The digital camera manufacturers had Sony add a random scratch feature to drive people mad and make them use digital cameras. 😀

/T