Smashed the Plustek with a hammer

SchwinnParamount · Mar 15, 2021

At some point tonight, I was scanning negatives and realized the freaking Plustek scanner was adding random horizontal white lines in my negatives that were not deserved. At first I thought they were "scratches" and then I realized, scratches in the negatives would have been black, not white. Then I realized my shitty plustek scanner was biting the dust.
I enjoyed taking the scanner out to my driveway and smashing it to bits with a hammer. Now if I want to show you my negatives, I'll need to actually print in my darkroom and then scan a proof sheet. I hate scanners. Always have, always will. Digits have nothing to do with real photography. By the way. a cheap and shitty plustek scanner is almost a zero in my monthly income.

It feels really good do smash digits into bits and then smash the mechanisms that make digits. That Plustek is still sitting in my driveway (in bits) as I speak. Oh boy, do I feel good about this. How about you?

Down Under · Mar 15, 2021

Commented then deleted. Nothing intelligent to be gained here.

Respectfully...

Have another glass of red wine - a good red - and then look up Plustek scanners on Ebay.

You will surely be buying another one. There isn't enough quality time left in life to spend it in the darkroom.

Hilo · Mar 15, 2021

ozmoose said:
You will surely be buying another one. There isn't enough quality time left in life to spend it in the darkroom.

Respectfully

Time in the darkroom - no computer, no phone, silence or your favourite music, relative darkness, working step by step to solve positive problems. In short: total concentration. It's been like that since the late seventies and it is still now. What I call quality time.

LimeyKeith · Mar 15, 2021

Hilo said:
Respectfully

Time in the darkroom - no computer, no phone, silence or your favourite music, relative darkness, working step by step to solve positive problems. In short: total concentration. It's been like that since the late seventies and it is still now. What I call quality time.

Time in the darkroom - no computer, no phone, silence or your favourite music, relative darkness, working step by step to solve negative problems. In short: total concentration. It's been like that for 60+ years and it is still now. What I call quality time.
(my emboldening)

Absolutely

Don_ih · Mar 15, 2021

I don't find sitting at a computer adjusting image properties to be exactly "quality time". And, at the end, those images stay on the computer. But it's not shoveling mud, either.

ChristopherCoy · Mar 15, 2021

Don Heisz said:
But it's not shoveling mud, either.

That's probably relative. If it weren't a breach of policy I'd show you what I work in front of 40-60 hours a week. I sit in front of 4 computer's with a total of 9 monitors stacked two high. I have two mapping systems, an emergency phone call system monitor, three monitors with multiple camera feeds, two CAD monitors, and a touch screen monitor for radio communication. Sometimes it's hard to look at the TV at home, much less sit in front of the computer and force myself to look at images.

pentaxuser · Mar 15, 2021

ozmoose said:
Commented then deleted. Nothing intelligent to be gained here.

That sentence sums up in a nutshell why the likes of Ilford and really the rest of us should worry about the future of the darkroom, doesn't it?

It is not a wrong sentiment in any sense of the word "wrong" and I see no point or indeed reason in attacking it but if it represents a growing trend and I think it does then we who use a darkroom do need to worry, don't we?

pentaxuser

fs999 · Mar 15, 2021

Plustek must be happy : one second hand scanner less on ebay

Steve@f8 · Mar 15, 2021

Did you consider removing the lid and attempting to clean the scanning array, eg using a rocket blower and wet wipes.

Rick A · Mar 15, 2021

SchwinnParamount said:
At some point tonight, I was scanning negatives and realized the freaking Plustek scanner was adding random horizontal white lines in my negatives that were not deserved. At first I thought they were "scratches" and then I realized, scratches in the negatives would have been black, not white. Then I realized my shitty plustek scanner was biting the dust.
I enjoyed taking the scanner out to my driveway and smashing it to bits with a hammer. Now if I want to show you my negatives, I'll need to actually print in my darkroom and then scan a proof sheet. I hate scanners. Always have, always will. Digits have nothing to do with real photography. By the way. a cheap and shitty plustek scanner is almost a zero in my monthly income.

It feels really good do smash digits into bits and then smash the mechanisms that make digits. That Plustek is still sitting in my driveway (in bits) as I speak. Oh boy, do I feel good about this. How about you?

Bravo!!!!!! If it were me, it would have been perched on top of a quarter pound jar of Tannerite and dispatched with my M1A. Celebrating my 60th year of darkroom bliss next month.

grat · Mar 15, 2021

So, out of curiosity... do you take a hammer to your dirty camera / enlarger lenses?

Most of the time, lines like you describe are the result of dirt on the optics causing erroneous readings.

TheFlyingCamera · Mar 15, 2021

All tools for making images are just that - tools. I totally get the wet darkroom passion - I have it myself. The ability to have a wet darkroom in my house was a deciding factor in buying it - I wouldn't have bought this house if I couldn't have done it. That said, I do not get the hate-on folks are carrying here for any form of digital tool. To participate in this forum, you have to use a digital tool. To share images on this forum, you have to use a digital tool. If you need to make digital copies of your images, be they prints or negatives, instead of a flatbed scanner (which is nominal at best for scanning film smaller than 4x5), get a decent quality digital camera (anything 16mp and higher will do) with a lens capable of macro focusing, and then throw your negatives on a lightbox. It is dramatically faster, and the resulting digital file is significantly cleaner (no fingerprints or dust in the image, no glass to clean).

Don_ih · Mar 15, 2021

ChristopherCoy said:
That's probably relative. If it weren't a breach of policy I'd show you what I work in front of 40-60 hours a week. I sit in front of 4 computer's with a total of 9 monitors stacked two high. I have two mapping systems, an emergency phone call system monitor, three monitors with multiple camera feeds, two CAD monitors, and a touch screen monitor for radio communication. Sometimes it's hard to look at the TV at home, much less sit in front of the computer and force myself to look at images.

I think you should try shoveling mud. I mean the thick, sloppy, pudding-like goo at the bottom of a foundation trench. It has the amazing quality of not only being heavy, but suction holds the shovel in, it slops off when you finally get it free, and it's normally replaced the second you get rid of it. I'm pretty sure it's one of the punishments in Tartarus....

But I get that your work would make you not want to watch tv.

warden · Mar 15, 2021

Damn that's hardcore. I got a flat tire last week; maybe I should have beat the car to death with a sledge hammer?

Auer · Mar 15, 2021

Emotions over Intelligence has been trending for a while now.

ChristopherCoy · Mar 15, 2021

Auer said:
Emotions over Intelligence has been trending for a while now.

SchwinnParamount · Mar 15, 2021

The plustek was pretty much used up when I smashed it. It wasn't just dust on the lens. The scanner motor would move the scan head but the images came out black as though there was no film in the holder. Basically, the damned thing died. I never liked Plustek anyway. Poorly built and cheap. It couldn't hold a candle to my Nikon Coolscan. But anyway, I am looking forward to doing my proof sheets in the darkroom and then making a print of whatever image I like the most. I will use my Epson v700 when I want to put up a scanned print.

SchwinnParamount · Mar 15, 2021

Auer said:
Emotions over Intelligence has been trending for a while now.

Nope. Nothing unintelligent about a bit of violence once in a while. Especially when deserved.

Tom Kershaw · Mar 15, 2021

SchwinnParamount said:
It couldn't hold a candle to my Nikon Coolscan

Do you still have a Coolscan? Plustek have a newer 120 'Pro' version out but I've not seen much in the way of a review.

SchwinnParamount · Mar 15, 2021

I still have a Coolscan but its USB port needs to be soldered. After about 8 years of being jiggled occasionally, the port failed.

Andrew O'Neill · Mar 15, 2021

Auer · Mar 15, 2021

SchwinnParamount said:
Nope. Nothing unintelligent about a bit of violence once in a while. Especially when deserved.

Call it what you want, it's still just poor impulse control.

Tel · Mar 15, 2021

SchwinnParamount said:
Nope. Nothing unintelligent about a bit of violence once in a while. Especially when deserved.

Did you take a photo of the carnage?

Vaughn · Mar 15, 2021

I think the only problem was that you may not have used the right hammer for the job. I think you should check out a hammer&nail forum and seek advice.

I have no finacial or personal connection to the company, but I recommend Vaughan hammers. The name itself is pretty cool...

moggi1964 · Mar 15, 2021

Tel said:
Did you take a photo of the carnage?

He did but he can no longer scan it and post it to show us

Smashed the Plustek with a hammer

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