ABSTRACT: The i800 Microtek ScanMaker is a great over-all flatbed scanner that allows one to scan documents and even photo negatives and slides.
CONTENT: (©Nov 6, 2008~Ciao~previously published at Ciao under my pen-name of pyewacket)
When I finally got my own computer system, a Mac, it wasn't just a computer system I needed, but some kind of film scanner as well. I'm one of those few rare people that still uses a 35mm film camera, my trusty Nikkormat EL-W that I got way back in 1977. That of course means my images are on film, either black and white and/or color negatives, or on color transparencies. From the years 1980 to 1996 I was pretty successful in getting my photos published and many of my images were published on the covers of magazines, in newspapers, calendars, even books. Then by 1996 I had to stop my photo work due to some personal issues, but my dream of being an actively published photographer never left me.
By the time I was ready to plunge into the world of photography again just over a year ago, I had to change my strategies of my photo work and efforts. As anyone knows, in today's photography world, very few places will accept the film medium of photography, preferring the digitized imagery. Since it is still my eventual goal to set up a successful on-line photo business, I realized I needed to somehow transform all those photographic images into the digitized format. Yes, I do hope to get a digital camera one day and join the rest of the world, but I just thought it plain unfair to let my huge collection of photos collect dust and I do have a lot of images. (21,049 color slides and over 15,000 black and white images.)
That's where the Microtek ScanMaker i800 came into the picture. Now originally, when I was set to get a film scanner I wanted the one that most pro photographers used, that is the Nikon CoolScan, but lo and behold it was as if there was suddenly a "run" for them and couldn't find one place that had any of them in stock. So then I began researching on-line for some alternative. I'm still hoping to get the Nikon film scanner, but for now I'm very content with the Microtek one.
Specifics of Scanner
The i800 Microtek ScanMaker is actually in a sense more convenient for me in that I don't have to have a separate film scanner, and a regular flatbed scanner, it does everything. Here are some of it's features:
The first is that it has three separate type scanning features.
1). Set on "Reflective" it works like a regular flatbed scanner, it can scan documents, photo prints, even books.
2). When set on "Positive" this scanner can scan up to twelve 35mm color transparencies at a time.
3). In the "Negative" setting one can scan any kind of negatives, both black and white and of course color negatives, and the amazing thing is that while the images are negative, when it scans it comes out as a positive image.
This scanner comes complete with several negative film holding options:
a). 35mm filmstrip holder
b). 4"x5" film holder
c). 6"x22" film holder
d). slide holder for 12 sildes
When one scans documents or photo prints it will do so in either the .tiff or .gif formats and when scanning 35mm film it will automatically do so in the .jpeg format. As for the amount of resolution one can scan, one can scan as low as 72 dpi all the way to 4800 dpi.
However, as I discovered, scanning at the lowest resolution scans the image on a one to one ratio, that is, the size comes out the exact same size so this means when I scan 35mm color transparency at such a low resolution the image size comes out really small, making it useless. For the majority of my film scans I usually go for the 300, 600 or 1000 dpi, then if I need to resize the image to 72 dpi for website presentation, I can do so by using the "Save For Web" feature in my photo editor without sacrificing the larger sized resolution image. For images I send to places that will publish my work however, I've had to rescan the image at the highest resolution of 4800 dpi and that way the company wishing to use my image for their publishing needs can rescale/resize for their own requirements.
The i800 Microtek scanner also comes with it's own software program that includes the Digital Ice for restoring damaged photos. Both types of software are available, that is it includes one disc that is formatted for PCs using Windows, and another disc formatted specifically for Mac computers. It also comes with a separate Photo Elements 0.3 software for all your photo editing needs once your photographic images have been scanned. Photo Elements is the cheaper version of Photoshop, but is every bit as effective and has all the same tools and applications, such as retouching with a choice of "brushes", the lasso tool, the text tool for adding words to photos, a vast array of "filters" in which one can create a totally new looking type image, cropping, resizing, bright/contrast, hue saturation and so forth just to mention a few features.
Disadvantages:
One of the frustrating disadvantages is the fact that there are no in between resolution possibilities meaning that it jumps from 1200 dpi to the 4800 dpi, so in other words one can't scan say at 2500 dpi.
The second slight disadvantage is that in keeping the glass of the scanner clean. This is almost a reminder to me of the days when I printed photos the old fashioned way, that is in a darkroom, using chemicals. If there was one slight speck of dust on the negative, when the image was enlarged onto a piece of photo paper, it wound up looking like some weird glitch and I had to resort to retouching the photo to get the "blemish" out. The same goes for the scanner. One itsy bitsy speck of dust on the glass of the scanner and again one gets odd looking glitches that have to be removed via retouching in Photoshop.
All in all though despite some disadvantages the advantages out weigh them and I would recommend this scanner for anyone who needs one for a multitude of purposes and uses and especially for those involved with photography in particular. The average cost for this scanner is about $375.00 or so not including taxes and shipping charges if you order on-line, but one may find it a bit cheaper by hunting around various photo websites, such as Adorama (where I got mine), and B&H Photo.
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