AGFA Scanners - dust on glass inside

Guenter Waibel (mailto:guenter@UCLINK4.BERKELEY.EDU)
Fri, 18 Dec 1998 12:43:43 -0800

Message-Id: <199812182058.NAA32112@dns.ccit.arizona.edu>
Date:         Fri, 18 Dec 1998 12:43:43 -0800
From: Guenter Waibel <mailto:guenter@UCLINK4.BERKELEY.EDU>
Subject:      AGFA Scanners - dust on glass inside
To: mailto:IMAGELIB@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU

Hi Imagelib Listserv,

at the Berkeley Art Museum, we own three Agfa Scanners: a 2 year old Arcus II, a fairly recent StudioStar and a brand-new Duoscan. When we got the Duoscan, I discovered a thin layer of dust on the inside of the glas which serves as the scan surface. You can not really see the dust by looking straight into the scanner, but once the light-source turns on and you look at the surface from a low angle, it becomes quite apparent. First I thought this might be a singular defect of our new scanner, but it turns out that all the AGFA scanners we have at BAM plus two other Duoscans which I looked at have the same veil of dust coating on the glass. I ran a couple of tests scanning just the black surface on the inside of the cover to see whether the dust shows up on the images; however, at a high resolution it seems almost impossible to tell dust from the micro-structure of the black cover.

Has anybody experienced similiar problems with Agfa or non-Agfa scanners? My more specific questions: (1) Do your scanners have the veil of dust, too? (2) Do you know of any test method which would enable me to ascertain whether that dust shows up on the scans or not? (3) Especially the Duoscan seems to be prone to dustproblems. Particles can enter via the slide tray, and via the hinges of the lid. How do you clean out the inside of the glass without voiding the warranty, i.e. taking the lid off?

For the project I am involved in, we scan original artwork on paper at a resolution of 6ooppi for archival purposes.

Thanks for your feedback!

Guenter Waibel ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Guenter Waibel Berkeley Art Museum & Pacific Film Archive 2625 Durant Avenue Berkeley, California 94720-2250 CIAO Project Specialist http://www.bampfa.berkeley.edu/ciao/ mailto:guenter@uclink4.berkeley.edu Phone 510-643-8655 Fax 510-642-4889 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~