Flextight 646 film scanner

Alan9940

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campy51 said:
Is this scanner worth considering and what's a good price for one?
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First, I should preface this with the fact that I've never owned a Flextight scanner, but... I've known a couple of photographers with very high standards that have owned earlier models of the Flextight and they both had nothing but praise for them. The trouble with the older Flextight models is that they're SCSI connections and finding hardware/software to run the whole thing can be problematic. The Flextight 646 is a Firewire 400 connection which is certainly more modern than SCSI, but still somewhat hard to find nowadays. And, Firewire 400 ain't no speed demon! Yep, I know there are all types of converters, dongles, etc, but IMO all a pain. Price? Catlabs has a couple listed on eBay in the $8,500 range; too rich for this retirees budget.
 

Patrick Robert James

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Because of the design of the Flextight it is a great scanner for 35mm, but way too expensive for what you get if you want to scan larger negs. For what they sell for you would be better off with a high end flatbed like a Creo.
 

Lachlan Young

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campy51 said:
Is this scanner worth considering and what's a good price for one?
Click to expand...

Yes it is, despite the rubbish written by those who have never used one, or not taken the time to understand them. You'll get most formats to go up to pretty big sizes without difficulty & with careful operation, it's about as good as any other high end CCD scanner in terms of colour etc & a lot simpler to operate. There's also some workarounds that let you get the full resolution on 120 too.
Price should be dependent on condition etc. Have a dig around & see what people are selling them for. Don't go too high, otherwise you'd be better off getting an 848 or 949.
 
  • jtk
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Lachlan Young

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jtk said:
What theoretical advantage Vs Epson 850pro with liquid carrier? (around $1000 in US)
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The Imacon is capable of delivering actual focus, and isn't grossly dishonest about its actual optical or sensor performance. Just the basic stuff. Which Epson fails horribly at.
 

jtk

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Lachlan Young said:
The Imacon is capable of delivering actual focus, and isn't grossly dishonest about its actual optical or sensor performance. Just the basic stuff. Which Epson fails horribly at.
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So...do you have actual personal hands-on experience with recent Epson pro scanners? Or you've read something online somewhere? Links?
 

Bob Carnie

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jtk said:
So...do you have actual personal hands-on experience with recent Epson pro scanners? Or you've read something online somewhere? Links?
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I owned a Epson 10000xl and it was excellent for simple work but in comparison to a Creo or Flextight it was a piece of Crap... Crap I say .
 

Frank53

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jtk said:
you've
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I have owned both an Imacon Flextight Precision II and an Epson V700. The difference is huge. Scans from the Imacon are sharp and show everything that’s in the negative, including film grain. It’s no comparison with the Epson. I sold the Imacon, because I felt I could get a good price now and did not know how much longer it would last after 15 years.
I switched to wet printing and the Epson is good enough for scanning for Instagram etc.
Regards,
Frank
 

Lachlan Young

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jtk said:
So...do you have actual personal hands-on experience with recent Epson pro scanners? Or you've read something online somewhere? Links?
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Like Bob, a 10000XL & his assessment is spot-on. I've also dealt with enough v7/8xx scans to know how depressingly awful the results are compared to anything more competent. And especially compared to the high end CCD scanners.
 

sperera

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I have a Hasselblad branded Flextight 646 running on a MacBook Pro using a Firewire to 400 adapter to a Firewire adaptor to a Thunderbolt adapter and works GREAT using the Flexcolor software.....mind you I cant update said Apple product to the latest OS as have to run it at the previous OS. I have a Scanmate 5000 drum scanner sunning off Powerbook G3 and SCSI cables which I have now 'parked' aside to use this scanner as way easier.......the Scanmate is better for batch scanning as you can mount all ur images on the cylinder but for one by one scanning the quality is superb with colour negatives which is what I shoot......mind you every time I load up the same film I have to decide on the look of the scan......the 'profiles' supplied for my Kodak Portra film are off...for me....
 

Alan Edward Klein

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Lachlan Young

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sperera said:
mind you every time I load up the same film I have to decide on the look of the scan......the 'profiles' supplied for my Kodak Portra film are off...for me....
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A lot of the conversion profiles for neg films on the Imacon can be a bit odd - I tend to use manual inversion methods - have attached my methodology to this message - I largely use the procedure I listed under 'Alternatives' these days, unless dealing with some degree of colour crossover on the neg. There are other approaches (depending on sensor & light source), but they essentially boil down to: scan as a positive, take into Photoshop etc, correct out the mask, invert, correct black point/ white point etc, do other colour corrections, then proceed as normal.
 

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