Re: filmscanners: line on Polaroid SS4000

[Arthur Entlich <artistic@ampsc.com>]

Before you give up on your scanner, or have to to cut and paste on the 
bad line every time, you might want to try to place your scanner on a 
different plane (try New York to LA ;-))  NO, seriously, try placing the 
scanner on its side and give it some gentle taps on all sides to 
dislodge any dust that might have fallen on the CCD.  Then put it back 
upright and try again.  It might just be a speck of dirt that needs to 
be "vacated".  If that gets you nowhere, then likely it is a defective 
CCD element, or a problem with the calibration process.

While on the subject of the "other cause" (a bad CCD element), I have a 
bone to pick with manufacturers about this.

I can think of no reason (other than a manufacturing defect) that can 
cause a failure of a CCD element, at least none that can be the caused 
by a user, other than perhaps excessive use.

I understand that the CCD can't be warranted forever, but it should 
provide some reasonable use without failing.  It is a known 
manufacturing problem that CCDs can have one or more weak or defective 
elements which fail prematurely.  If the person uses the scanner 
regularly, they will likely be covered under warranty, as it will fail 
prior to the one year anniversary, but if, as in the case of John, the 
scanner gets intermittent usage, well, then they get saddled with a huge 
repair bill.

This seems completely unfair to me.  A CCD sensor unit should be able to 
be reliable for several years, or more to the point, a certain number of 
scans.  I'm gonna bet that most scanners have something in the firmware 
that keeps track of the number of scans run through the unit, so the 
manufacturer could tell (and so could the user), and since the CCD plus 
labor is a major expense for replacement, I think a special CCD sensor 
warranty of say 3 years or 5000 scans (or whatever) would not be 
unreasonable.  Auto manufacturers do the same thing.

So which is the first manufacturer to step up to the plate? (BTW: Nikon 
should offer the same deal on their LED array!)

Art



salome1@pacbell.net wrote:

> Hi,
> Earlier, I had posted a "help" message regarding a line that I was
> getting on my scans from the 4000.  If I scan a horizontal  slide, there
> is a light colored line about one third of the way down from the top, it
> goes all the way from left to right.  I called Polaroid and since the
> scanner is out of warranty, it would cost $125 for an estimate and the
> lady on the phone said it might end up costing a total of $500-600 to
> fix. I only use the machine perhaps 3 times a week, so it is not
> something that is critical to my work. Thanks to Paul Chefurka and his
> suggestion to see if the line was one pixel wide, I found my own
> solution.  I just don't feel at this point that I want to spend almost
> half the price of the scanner to have it repaired. In Photoshop, I
> enlarged the image on the monitor to about 1000 per cent. At this
> magnification, you are able to see the individual "lines"  of pixels. I
> selected the line above the light scan line I got and then copied it,
> and then with the move tool, moved it over the line caused by the
> scanner, and it works perfect, you can not tell it is there. It took all
> of maybe 2 minutes to do. I guess this could also be  a good fix for a
> scratch that went from side to side.
> 
> John Hough