Polaroid SprintScan 4000

Review Date
June 5, 2003

Overall Rating
 5 of 5

Value Rating
 5 of 5

Used product for
3 Months to 1 year

Visitors rate this review
3.00 of 5, 4 votes

Reviewed by
Killerbee , Intermediate , from Canada

Price Paid
$300.00

Photography Experience
6-10 years , Other

Summary
After not being happy with photo cd's and paying for hi res scans I decided to get my own scanner, that was december and I got a sprint scan 4000 used. I had rented both the nikon and canon 4000 dpi scanners before so I was prepared for the problems ahead. The scanner came with the scsi card and the install went well, so off I go scanning negs and slides. As I knew colour casts and some editing was to be expected ( welcome to the real world ), the polaroid software was decent and I only seem to have problems with colour neg ( and we all know they are just a pain ). One bug seems to posses the scanner tho, after scanning negs, and ejecting the carrier, it resets to the slide carrier when you reinsert it, yes just ejecting the carrier again and putting it back in solves this but it's a pain. As far as quality this scanner is sharper than both the nikon and canon 4000 dpi units I tried, but it lacks dust removal ( something the others have ). I found the software dust removal takes fine detail out of the scans, but thats better than the others softening the image. I have resorted to a hurricane blower and brush, I keep my negs and slides rather clean and have not run into any dust that won't blow off. Once a week I have to wipe the dust off the scanner to. As far as speed, it's quick when scanning but polar colour always warms up the lamp for 52 sec before scanning, vuescan doesn't, I find polar colour is wonderful on slides and negs it has profiles for, vuescan better on negs where there are no canned profiles. For B&W negs the polaroid is a wonder, it doesn't overly enlarge the grain like the nikon does and allows alot of control to the curves before I scan. This is a hi res, sharp dedicated 35mm scanner, no frills no nonsense. This is among the best I have tried, the only scanner I have seen sharper scans from was a imacon 8000 dpi drum scanner and it has no dust removal either. I have been getting some scsi noise on the scanner at times, I replaced the scsi cable and it went away. I also notice that you don't need to do a multi pass with this scanner to get good shadow detail, it does it all in one pass!! File sizes are 119 mb tiffs and up to 120 mb of data in photoshop. Just a hint about dust again, buy a toaster cover for this baby.

Strengths
Fast, sharp, durable. Polar colour is great on slides, batch scans 4 slides or 6 negs, no need to multisample one pass scanning

Weaknesses
no dust removal, no frills, scsi noise on scans, annoying carrier reset bug.

Similar Products Used
Nikon 4000, canon 4000 dpi scanners, epson 2450 and 3200 scanners, Imacon 8000 dpi drum scanner.

Customer Service
they are still around and have updates on their site, that good enough for me, who bought a used 3 year old scanner from a bankrupt company.

Review Date
September 28, 2002

Overall Rating
 4 of 5

Value Rating
 5 of 5

Used product for
More than 1 year

Reviewed by
Evolstad , Intermediate

Price Paid
$0.00

Photography Experience
21+ years , People

Summary
I've been using this at home to scan hundreds of negatives and slides, old and new. As a hobbyist, I enjoyed the learning curve to get the colours the way I like them - a certain amount of craftsmanship is definitely required. I bought mine before they started shipping with SilverFast. I get great results from the Polacolor interface with slide film, and great results with negatives using Ed Hamrick's excellent VueScan software (best $40 I ever spent - check it out! www.hamrick.com). All scans still need attention in Photoshop to remove dust and scratched (using the clone/healing brush tools), and to fine-tune colour and sharpness. Overall, the machine works as advertised, and I'm very happy with it.

Strengths
Excellent resolution and Dmax.
Consistent colour.
Now available at a bargain price.
Reliable.

Weaknesses
SCSI connection requires scanner to be on before booting computer.
Very occasionally, the scanner misinterpets the slide film holder as a negative holder, or vice versa - simply eject and reload.
Open holes front and back, and no dust cover provided - had to make one (essential!)
Foot-long film holder travels out back of machine, requiring considerable space.
Negative holder is a little fiddly, but fine when you get used to it.

Review Date
April 7, 2002

Overall Rating
 4 of 5

Value Rating
 4 of 5

Used product for
More than 1 year

Reviewed by
Carl , Intermediate

Price Paid
$0.00 at cdw

Photography Experience
21+ years , Outdoor

Summary
Superb scans of my Kodachrome slides. Great detail & very good color. Only corrections needed are cropping & setting levels (use RGB not luminence). I do any other fixes (residual dust mainly) with Photoshop Elements. I have not tried other slide or negative film. Polacolor Insight 5.0 works fine. Silverfast is too complex, I'd rather invest such detailed learning into Photoshop. Vuescan is available on the web, but I also found it harder to use than Insight. Having software choice improves chance of finding a good color correction table for your film.

My main troubles are dust on images & huge files. I use a camel's hair brush & a large puffer air bulb to prepare slides before scanning, which eliminates most (sometimes all) dust. With 4000dpi I consume lots of CD's, & pray for DVD-R. When I start a new "album" (slide tray) project I free up 20GB on the hard disk.

I use a "toaster" dust cover. Perhaps unnecessary but I run a HEPA air filter in the room for an hour before starting scanning. At 4000dpi, roughly 5 minutes per scan including setup/dusting, much much faster at 2000dpi.

Strengths
See above. Tray holds 4 slides, provides convenient handle for "dusting", & says allows batch though I have not bothered to learn.

Weaknesses
Might have been same with any scanner since I started as a digital novice & also am picky, but it took quite a bit of experimentation to understand all the settings options & settle on a standard work flow. Each person must decide for themselves about the risk of Polaroid going out of business. Personally I am happy & would buy it again, especially if price is still much better than Nikon.

Similar Products Used
None.

Customer Service
Very good. I called & bought extra slide holders to prep more slides while others are scanning, & they sent me a free internal brush that I have not needed to use. A couple of email''d questions on se

Review Date
February 7, 2002

Overall Rating
 2 of 5

Value Rating
 3 of 5

Used product for
More than 1 year

Reviewed by
giehug , Professional , from London

Price Paid
$1300.00

Photography Experience
6-10 years

Summary
Not happy anymore with this unit so we are off to buy a Nikon. Maybe even sell the car and get an Imacon to scan up to 4x5 and bigger. Newer and better products on the market now.

Polaroid software easy to use but very poor colour handling so try Silverfast. Anyway Polaroid maybe going under i think Nikon will still be around!

Strengths
High resolution, now can be bought for around $800

Weaknesses
lousy colour accuracy, very poor build quality, crap handling of film strips.

Similar Products Used
Nikon coolscan, imacon

Customer Service
Not bad but will they still be around next year

Review Date
December 9, 2001

Overall Rating
 3 of 5

Value Rating
 3 of 5

Used product for
More than 1 year

Reviewed by
pad , Intermediate , from Cambridge, MA

Price Paid
$1399.00 at cameraworld.com

Photography Experience
2-5 years , Sports

Summary
At first I was pleaseed with the product; good scans, however need to make sure you adjust your scanning software (Insight or SilerFast) to get correct exposure, color correction, sharpness etc. Does require some amount of Unsharp Masking for most scans. After a while the scanner does become a pain! This seems to be due to having to place your scanner in a near dust free environment (I am not found of working in a vacum bubble!) There is a sensor in the unit to gauge when the film media is loaded. One spec of dust on this and the film holders will not load and initialise the scanner. If you ask Polaroid tech support they will ship you "the Cleaning Brush" which clips onto the end of the slide carrier. Then the problen can be fixed (until the next spec on dust arrives) Polaroid say there will be a dust cover out soon, but for now just make sure you keep the unit covered when not in use.

Right, now for the really bothersome part. For some negative films I get a cast which I can't get rid of easily even using the software. Maybe something with my unit but then again maybe not. In these cases I just don't bother scanning and go down to the pub. Transparencies scan great, some negative film types (b & W and colour) scan great (Kodak Supra, with the extra layer is good), some films yuck. Also when processing your negs make sure you cut negs strips of 6 this makes it easier to load in the what I consider crappy negative fil carrier.

Strengths
Good resolution
Price now down to below $900

Weaknesses
Flimsy mechanics. Negative fil holder a real pain in the a** to use. On a unit that cost above a grand Polaroid could have done better. Suspect to dust and hence the need to work in a bubble with oxygen mask. PS Do NOT blow on/into the inside of the unit 'coz one bit of dust on the scanning lens and you can kiss goodbye to $400 (the min cost of the repair)
1 year warranty (can get a maintenace after the year at a min of $165 per year)

Similar Products Used
Will be looking at the new Nikon 4000 dpi

Customer Service
OK, will send out cleaning brush for free