jotloob
DPRF-Patron Gold
I got my new scanner just two days ago . ARTIXSCAN F1 .
The scanner is very well packed and all accessories are supplied . No parts missing .
Unpacking has to be done very careful , as the scanner is in a slippery plastic bag .
My predecessor scanner was an ARTIXSCAN 1800F . The F1 is of almost the same housing design and also size . The film holders are of a new design . Glasless film holding , but its a bit tricky and you have to get used to that .
The 35mm film holder takes 4 stripes of film and the slide holder can take 12 framed slides .
The 120 film holder just takes one stripe of film , for the sizes 4,5x6 , 6x6 , 6x9 , 6x12 or even 6x17 . This holder is a real advantage in comparison to the 1800F .
Before you switch on the scanner , you have to unlock the transport safety screw and install the scanner software .
Unlocking the screw turned out to be not so easy . You have to turn the screw counterclockwise and then the screw should push out for about 12mm , which did not happen . Even not after many times turning the screw forward and backwards .
This issue solved itself next day , after the scanner was up to decent room temperature .
Installing software .
You can either install MICROTEK SCAN WIZARD PRO or SILVERFAST Ai STUDIO .
These two packages came with my scanner .
I prefer the SILVERFAST Ai STUDIO .
I am using MAC OSX 10.5.1 LEOPARD . That operating system did not make any attempts to install SILVERFAST .
So what you have to do , visit the SILVERFAST WEB-PAGES and register with the serialnumber of your software . Then you can download the version which is then recognized by LEOPARD . NO plug and play .
After power on , the scanner does do something , but you dont know what . At least you can hear some funny "noise" of different frequences . A bit later , your software tells you , that the scanner is initializing . O.K. Have a beer in the meantime .
Finally , the scanner came to a rest and , I found a hint in the very poor documentation , that this was the warmup and initializing phase .
Next step is : color calibration . The SILVERFAST IT8 calibration .
You have to insert the little color target film piece into the 120 holder . IMO , this little piece of film is too small , but I managed .
You then need to click on the color calibration icon in SILVERFAST and the calibration works fully automatic from now on . A good thing . When the calibration is finished the icon turns into a colored icon to reflect , the calibration is performed .
For my first scans I took two 4x5 color slides , KODAK EPN .
It is adviseable to download some of the handbook information from the SF homepage .
SF is quite easy to understand and all parameters are easy to set .
I choose an outputsize of 40x50 cm at a resolution of 360dpi . Hitting the control button at your keyboard now shows you the scanresolution . This resolution is automatically calculated depending on your choosen output size , which in my case was 4800 ppi and that gave me a file of 208 MB .
You need patience , because that scan took about 5 minutes to come to the end .
As I said , nothing for people in a hurry .
I have done some more scans in the meantime .
As far as I can see up to now , the quality of the scans is superb .
Now , this was no fairy tale , but my first experience with the F1 .
Images to show the resolution , as good as it can be here on the net , will follow .
Jürgen
The scanner is very well packed and all accessories are supplied . No parts missing .
Unpacking has to be done very careful , as the scanner is in a slippery plastic bag .
My predecessor scanner was an ARTIXSCAN 1800F . The F1 is of almost the same housing design and also size . The film holders are of a new design . Glasless film holding , but its a bit tricky and you have to get used to that .
The 35mm film holder takes 4 stripes of film and the slide holder can take 12 framed slides .
The 120 film holder just takes one stripe of film , for the sizes 4,5x6 , 6x6 , 6x9 , 6x12 or even 6x17 . This holder is a real advantage in comparison to the 1800F .
Before you switch on the scanner , you have to unlock the transport safety screw and install the scanner software .
Unlocking the screw turned out to be not so easy . You have to turn the screw counterclockwise and then the screw should push out for about 12mm , which did not happen . Even not after many times turning the screw forward and backwards .
This issue solved itself next day , after the scanner was up to decent room temperature .
Installing software .
You can either install MICROTEK SCAN WIZARD PRO or SILVERFAST Ai STUDIO .
These two packages came with my scanner .
I prefer the SILVERFAST Ai STUDIO .
I am using MAC OSX 10.5.1 LEOPARD . That operating system did not make any attempts to install SILVERFAST .
So what you have to do , visit the SILVERFAST WEB-PAGES and register with the serialnumber of your software . Then you can download the version which is then recognized by LEOPARD . NO plug and play .
After power on , the scanner does do something , but you dont know what . At least you can hear some funny "noise" of different frequences . A bit later , your software tells you , that the scanner is initializing . O.K. Have a beer in the meantime .
Finally , the scanner came to a rest and , I found a hint in the very poor documentation , that this was the warmup and initializing phase .
Next step is : color calibration . The SILVERFAST IT8 calibration .
You have to insert the little color target film piece into the 120 holder . IMO , this little piece of film is too small , but I managed .
You then need to click on the color calibration icon in SILVERFAST and the calibration works fully automatic from now on . A good thing . When the calibration is finished the icon turns into a colored icon to reflect , the calibration is performed .
For my first scans I took two 4x5 color slides , KODAK EPN .
It is adviseable to download some of the handbook information from the SF homepage .
SF is quite easy to understand and all parameters are easy to set .
I choose an outputsize of 40x50 cm at a resolution of 360dpi . Hitting the control button at your keyboard now shows you the scanresolution . This resolution is automatically calculated depending on your choosen output size , which in my case was 4800 ppi and that gave me a file of 208 MB .
You need patience , because that scan took about 5 minutes to come to the end .
As I said , nothing for people in a hurry .
I have done some more scans in the meantime .
As far as I can see up to now , the quality of the scans is superb .
Now , this was no fairy tale , but my first experience with the F1 .
Images to show the resolution , as good as it can be here on the net , will follow .
Jürgen
