Imacon/Hasselblad scanners - tips and tricks?

Well, I decided to keep my Imacon 646, it seems there is nothing around that can catch up with this scanner, at least not at that price.

I did not find something like a real Imacon/Hasselblad scanner or Flexcolor forum, just a forum with just ONE entry on the Hasselblad web site.

Having this 646 scanner since more than 2 years now I am afraid I still do not get out of it what is really possible - neither in terms of quality nor in productivity. The manual is suboptimal, there seems to be nobody who really knows how to use these wonderful machines and this cranky software really well.

Where do I find tips and tricks or a good tutorial?

Many people read this thread, nobody has an answer...

Maybe it is time to start something.

I make a start:

Did you know, that....

1. If you switch off USM in the Flexcolor software it is NOT switched off? You must switch it ON and set it to -120 to get an image that is not sharpened.

2. ... (your turn)

What is it that you actually have a problem with, with this scanner? I'd trade my Canon 9950F in for your 646 at any time...

I have used both a 646 and 949 at a professional lab that hires these machines per hour and have always been impressed with the results (but I haven't yet done a drum scan...), way better than anything flatbed. I must admit I have never really tried to "tweak" the results, as again I was quite happy with results, both in terms of detail, color and sharpness (not oversharpened in my opinion, just good, no change needed in Photoshop). Actually, I'm not even sure if these machines used custom setting (except being well calibrated) or used the defaults of the Imacon software.

Yes, the 646 is waaaay slower than the 949 (about 3-4 times), but there is nothing you can do to improve the "productivity" of 646, unless you upgrade to the 949... It's probably a hardware limitation, maybe not so much the scanner itself, but the connection to the PC.

The best review I have ever read about an Imacon, is this one about the 949 by Giorgio Trucco:

Dead Link Removed

I find the 646 is best at around -90 to -45 (sharpening) at .8 for most negs...I also oil mount my film on the Imacon using Kami mounting fluid and their optical mylar as a sandwich...the results are amazing and it lets you turn off the dust and scratch software...the negs are much sharper and cleaner scans (read less retouching). Most films I scan at 3200 dpi as that seems to be the sweet spot for this system. I have had it for almost 2 years with no problems.

Cheers-
Stephen

There is a very good yahoo group, "imaconusers" that is dedicated to their scanners.