Drum scanner tape, drum scanner oil.

This particular page will further discuss drum scanner tape, drum scanner oil, and all the accessories you need to have for your drum scanner. To get started, the best place to look for cleaning material, to clean your drum scanners, is Veratec, Graphic Arts Products, Walpole, MA 02081, tel 800 338 7954, fax (508) 668-8473. I do not know if Publishing Perfection sells these products, but if not, they should.

The sections on drum scanners in this web site on prepress-scanners is getting higher hit counts every month. As a result we are developing more reviews, more information, more content (the trademark of the FLAAR network on digital imaging).

I thank Chris Protopapas for the following information on drum scanners: "as far as the scanning liquid is concerned, it's actually not oil at all. It's sort of thin alcohol-based liquid. It doesn't look like it would work, but it does. No one who uses it once would ever want to go back to using oil. It literally evaporates in seconds after you dismount the film, and leaves no residue."

"The only drawbacks are these: you can only use the special tape that is sold by the manufacturer (it turns all other tape into a messy goo) and it doesn't heal severely scratched transparencies the way oil does. But for that they make a special scanning gel that is also not oil-based, and cleans up fairly easily. I have to use it only rarely.

"The name of the company that makes this stuff is KAMI, it's German and the US importer is KAMI USA, PO Box 1235, Starke, FL, (904) 964-3408. You can buy from them direct or from most graphic arts dealers that handle pre-press supplies such as Arkin-Medo or Pitman.

"There's a handy starter kit you can get from KAMI USA for not too much money. The tape, though expensive, works very well as an all-purpose scanning tape."

"The best scanner wipes are sold by Scanner Drum Service in Toronto (Canada), tel (905) 873-1857."

"The use of liquid mounts for drum scanning (and on some Creo flatbeds by the way) stems from a variety of reasons, obvious scratches being only one of them. At very high magnifications, all sort of minor scratches, pits, and other surface imperfections can become quite apparent. The liquid also seems to minimize dirt, both by conducting it away from the film by a sort of squeegee action as you mount it, and by saturating dust particles so they become almost transparent and do not refract light."

The other main reason to use liquid, even if your transparencies are perfectly clean, is that the combination of the highly polished drum and most film emulsions often creates Newton rings (those nasty rainbow-like patterns) which can be very prominent in the highlight areas of your image. They are present in the shadow and midtone areas as well, but higgen by the image density.""

"Depending on the atmospheric conditions, the condition of the drum, and the nature of the film emulsion, these may or may not be a problem, but if they occur there are only two solutions: one is a liquid mount of some sort, and the other is to eliminate the slick surface-to-surface contact with some sort of file particle substance. Traditionally, darkroom workers used corn startch powder, but now all sorts of "anti-Newton-ring" sprays are sold for this purpose."

It would be nice if prepress people as knowledgeable as Chris could write a book or at least some articles to help others learn why a drum scanner really is better than a flatbed scanner.

In the meantime, it is crucial to cut through the increasing amount of misinformation in advertising scanners. The recent ad by Nikon, claiming that their sub-$2000 35mm slide scanner is as good as a drum scanner is nonsense. The ad states "I need to save the studio $13,000 by Tuesday. What to do? What to do?

Anyone in a studio who is lured by an advertisement as incomplete and potentially erroneous as this deserves to be demoted. Instead of saving the studio $13,000, you have just wasted $1,600. The Nikon CoolScan 2000 is a fine desktop scanner, for scanning for the low resolution needed for the Internet, or for simple desktop publishing. I have had two Nikon slide scanners and still use my Nikon CoolScan LS-2000 all the time, indeed give it favorable reviews.

But first, it is unlikely you will find many good drum scanners at $15,000. The Imacon is a good mid-level scanner but is a CCD scanner, not a drum scanner. Indeed probably the only serious pre-press quality flatbed scanner at that price range would be the new Creo EverSmart Jazz. This is because the other lesser flatbed scanners usually do not provide full dpi across the entire bed. The ads don't always warn you that you get the optical dpi only down the middle.

In conclusion, neither a Umax 3000 and especially not a Nikon CoolScan, come close to a drum scanner in quality. In the freedom of the American way of life, exaggeration and "wishful thinking advertising" are rampant. But it is still "buyer beware." Nikon itself makes great products. The advertising agency responsible for the drum scanner claim should be fired.

Besides, the scanner software that comes with the Nikon is rather average. Indeed if you buy the Nikon be sure to get SilverFast scanning software, which is considerably better than what Nikon bundles with its product. Furthermore, in a Nikon you can scan only a single solitary slide at a time. With a Creo iQsmart you can scan 40 slides at a time. With the Creo EverSmart Select and Supreme models you can also get considerably higher dpi and better dynamic range than any toaster-sized dedicated 35mm slide scanner.

Last updated Feb. 5, 2004.