michael_berman

I purchased a new 1280 from epson about three months ago... used the

epson cartridge and got great results.

I had hoped to use an archival pigmented ink, and after quite a bit of research

I choose MediaStreet. So far Mediastreet has been one of those nightmares

that give hew technologies a bad name.

There are two critical factors for digital printing, one is to get good icc profiles,

so the colors you see are the colors you get. Media Street offers a library of

starting point profiles. If you use a mac they will not properly download to

your computer, I have spent most of the last two months trying to get the tech

service at Mediastreet to help me with it. The Best advice I got was to wait a

week because the person who might know about it went on vacation. When I

finally got a library profile downloaded.... it was lousy. If you liked doing color

printing 25 years ago you will like Mediastreet... run lots of tests... adjust cyan,

magenta ect ect

The other critical factor is getting the ink out. The system never drew the bulk

ink into the cartridge... and went dry. For now it is good news of sorts from

Mediastreet... no one at tech services replies... so I am not wasting time

trying to get it to work.

I should have known that I was in for problems from the start... media street

offers a 30 day warranty.... not a lot of confidence in their products. And after

three months I have hardly run any prints through it... only to find that

cartridge does not work(something you will not find out in the 30 day warranty,

unless you are using two cartridges a month), no one at tech support replies...

well you know the drill... I am probably out 300.00 bucks.

After three months I have yet to get one good print from Mediastreet, with the

time I have put into just the basic part of getting the system to work... the $300

is the least expensive part of the deal.

I got an email or two for folks trying to contact the source for my scanner the

email address is Equipme@aol.com... he has the scanner that is on ebay

now... also note his 100% ebay rating... he really was great to deal with

I tried to post this yesterday.... so if it comes up twice... it is because I am new

to posting... though Aarons note says it all

I am one of the folks who bought a Polaroid 45ultra on ebay from

equipme.com and I am very happy with both the machine and the help they

gave me. I bought two 3200... and sent them back.

the 3200 is a great general machine... if you want web images, 8x10 prints or

to use it to proof negatives ect you will be quite happy with it. If you think you

will get an optical 3200ppi forget about it. I used an USAF 1951 Precision

Reticle and found that even half that was a generous rating, and the edges

are always soft with a slight halo effect. When I talked to epson about it not

quite living up to its specs they had me switch from silverfast to the epson

program... which was a mistake... the silverfast scans were much cleaner and

sharper... the noise in smooth tones became quite apparent.

After having sent back two 3200 I was set to be disappointed with the

45Ultra... instead I found it met specs... and gave beautiful scans. I�ve only

used the test version silverfast will they let you down load. So I may be faced

with the silverfast dilemma... of buying a program that costs more than the

machine.

My goal was to print beautiful 24�x30� prints from 4x5 negatives. I work with

pyro and other developers and my black and white negs are all over the

place. My theory was: that I could do as well on a good machine with extra

time and attention as a technician would do on a better machine... also I

wanted the pyro stain... which is a spectrum of colors depending on the film

and how I developed the negs. And I have hundreds of negs I would like to

try and print.

I have only just started to work with the scanner ... a babe in the digital

woods... but I have blown sections of scanned images to the equivalent of 3 ft

and 6 ft prints and printed them with a 1280... the 3 foot tests are incredible...

the 6 ft prints will need work/ but have potential... or perhaps exceeded the

limits for the 45ultra.

A couple of people have noted that the 45ultra has an aftermarket film

holder.... this unit is a professional holder... and is much better made than the

stock unit that comes with it... it has been machine cut rather than punched

out... it has both glass and metal holders. If you want the 45ultra to perform at

its optimum it is something you will need to get. Also because there are glass

holders one has the option of using either the prazio or Kami mounting oils

which should give a slight improvement of scans.

Photography is often about limits... limits for equipment... for time... for money.

Digital printers and programs dump excess information. If you work with small

prints you would be pressed to see the difference between the 3200 and the

ultra45 on a 4x5 scan... the 3200 is also faster and easier to use in every

way, but as your prints became both larger and more refined you would

begin to see a difference. My bet is I can match a 24�x 36� epson print from

the 45ultra to a print from a drum scanned negative from a service... a 30"

X36" print probably not.