has anyone experience with a screen 1015 ai drum scanner?

[rainer_viertlb_ck]

i have a good offer for a little drum scanner screen 1015. has anyone

experience with this machine? how good is it? is it very unpractical

for 4x5"? and...would be great to find a more modern software than the

screen software for the mac....

[doug_dolde]

I used a 1030ai and was not thrilled with the color rendition, but possibly it needed a tune up or had a bad PMT. The software is aged (but functional) and will run only up to OS 9.2. Main problem I see with the 1015ai is that the drum is not removable making mounting your transparencies difficult. It's hard enough to mount one properly when you CAN remove the drum.

[donald_f_degen]

I have not had a lot of experence using the 1015 AI, but I was factory trained to repair both the 1015 and 1030, and spent lots of time doing so. These are wonderful machines, the quality you can achieve is as good as anything on the market today. But, they require a fair amount of tuneup and calabration. Once they are calabrated they work for a long time. The three most likely problems are a bad (yellowed) lamp, aged or broken fiber optics, or the color amps are out of tune. All of these things are relatively easy to adjust or replace. The scanner was not designed for the home hobbist, they are professional machines of the highest quality (none better at the time - about 7-8 years ago) and just like any high performance machine they require maintenance. They also are a bitch to connect to the Mac (always have the scanner turned on before booting!). A few things to look for or remember: 1) check the cylinder, they are easy to scratch, 2) make sure that you have all the software (R.I.P.) and drivers, 3) they do not function on OS9.2 of higher and may not work correctly on a G4 (software was written for power Macs - there is NO pc software, Mac only), 4) you need a GOOD! SCSI cable and the scanner is NOT terminated (if the scanner is the last or only item on the SCSI chain they need a terminator!), 5) Replace the light source and start fresh, 6) make sure you have the operaters manual, you can not figure it out. DO NOT play with the buttons, there are sub menus and sub - sub menus, you can really screw the scanner up if you enter some of the service menus. Also the scanner is not supported by Screen any more, parts are hard to come by. On the other hand Screen builds equipment to last, we had surprizingly few problems. The 1015 was designed for use with 4x5 slides, the 1030 for 8x10. Learning how to mount a slide/neg (it also does prints) on the drum is not as simple as taping it flat on the drum. To get good results you need to use a mounting oil (prevents newton rings) and special tape that leaves no residue. Go to a Graphic Arts House to learn how to do this, many still use drum scanners. As for the removel of the drum, I know that the 1030 had a removable drum, but for the life of me I can not remember if the 1015 was removable. They were not designed as high production scanners, but high quality. And, yes the software is old, but all you want is a tiff to use in Photoshop. With all that I have said I hope that I have not turne d you off to the scanner. Lets put it this way, if you deside not to buy, and the price is right, let me know how's selling it. Hope this helps, any questions please contact me.

[alan_schietzsch]

I had a Screen 1015AI for a few years, and it was great; real

optical USM, not just software, and bulletproof construction,

totally reliable. For a small volume of 4x5's it's ideal.

I echo the suggestions; start with a new light source and a good

clean drum, get a quick lesson from any scanner operator

(printing shops can network you with someone) and you're good

to go.