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Re: Digital Scanners



We've got a Minolta PS3000 which was purchased two years ago. And while
it works fine as a face-up photocopier for text and _some_ b/w and
greyscale images in difficult-to-copy items, I'm generally more
disappointed in the quality of its reproductions for other digital use.

Plain text scans with fairly good quality, and for web-level work (72 dpi)
it's good. Many images, esp. fine engravings and halftones in books, do
not really reproduce well at all, regardless of resolution or adjusting
the settings.

I've been told by our Minolta rep. that there is some sort of extra
$10,000 super-graphics cards one can add to make it much more capable for
higher resolution work, but I've also been waiting for months for
the specs on these items. Generally speaking, while it works great as a
face-up photocopier, I'm still not convinced that the package is worth its
cost. One drawback is that there doesn't seem to be a competing product
out there to force Minolta to make improvements quickly.

Best,

Jeffrey Makala



Jeffrey Makala
Processing Archivist/Reference Librarian
Special Collections & Archives
Olin Library, Wesleyan University                       860.685.3863
252 Church St.                                          860.685.2661 fax
Middletown CT 06459                                     jmakala@wesleyan.edu

On Fri, 8 Dec 2000, Chuck Thomas wrote:

> Hi Albert and List,
>
> As the "owner" of a Minolta PS7000, I know it is a very specialized piece
> of equipment. It can do a great job on rare books (its main purpose), but
> also handles flat paper materials quite well. If you intend to scan books
> (producing the equivalent of a high-quality photocopy with no damage to the
> book's spine) then the PS7000 is worth it's $20,000 price tag. If you need
> it mainly for flat documents, however, you should know:
>
> 1) it's incapable of color scanning, only grayscale at a max resolution of
> 300 ppi.
>
> 2) it CAN handle document larger than your typical flatbed scanner
>
> 3) the focus mechanism cannot handle rippled, curved paper surface very
> well on flat pages. It will focus on one height, and cause some blurring on
> the indentations or "valleys" in rippled documents.
>
> 4) The illumination light on the PS7000 is VERY hot, and certainly causes
> more light damage to a document than does a traditional flatbed scanner. I
> joke with my students that we need to keep suntan oil close by when using
> the machine:) The tradeoff is that you can scan books that never before
> could be scanned without spinal damage.
>
> Perhaps you could explain exactly what documents need to be scanned. If
> flat paper document smaller than 11 x 17" (including photographs) are what
> you need to scan, then you can find an excellent color-capable flatbed
> scanner for much less money.
>
> In our digital imaging lab here at the University of Minnesota, we have not
> one but two (liked the first one so much I bought another) Epson Expression
> 836 XL scanner, that do a remarkable job of producing photo-quality scans.
>
> Hope this helps.
>
> Sincerely,
> Chuck Thomas
>
> ********************************************************
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>
> Charles F. Thomas, Certified Archivist
> Digital Projects Coordinator
> Elmer L. Andersen Library, Room 6
> 222 21st Avenue South
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> thoma134@tc.umn.edu
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Problems?  Send e-mail to Robert F Schmidt <rschmidt@lib.muohio.edu>