Customer Reviews

Polaroid 4000 DPI Scanner

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Despite dramatic improvements in digital photography, film is still preferred by many photographers. For them, the Polaroid SprintScan 4000 (...) combines the highest resolution in a desktop film scanner with fast performance, excellent image quality, and a remarkably easy-to-use interface.

The SprintScan is a 36-bit film scanner with an optical resolution of 4,000 by 4,000 ppi and dynamic range of 3.4. By comparison, the top resolution of the Nikon SuperCoolScan (...) is 2,700 by 2,700 ppi, with a dynamic range of 3.2.

Matte-black and compact, the SprintScan comes with a SCSI-2 interface, a cable, a controller board, and AdvanSys's Super SCSI setup utilities. Also included are two carriers for 35-mm strips and slides; an optional APS film adapter is available.

The unit also ships with a quick-start guide and a single page with instructions for installing under Windows NT. The main documentation is a 74-page PDF file. Though useful for novices, the documentation lacks detailed explanations and scan tips for pros.

Setup and installation are relatively simple, so long as you follow the recommended sequence of events. For instance, you must insert the film carrier after (not before) the driver loads, or the computer "loses" the SCSI connection.

Although the Mac version can be installed as a Photoshop plug-in, the PC version is not Twain-compliant, so you can't scan directly into any application. Also, no provisions are supplied for creating scripts, saving images in 12-bit color, or preserving customized settings as default values.

Scanning with the SprintScan is fast and easy. The PolaColor Insight interface is intuitive and offers an impressive variety of manual and automatic tools.

The SprintScan took only 20.4 seconds to scan a 12.8MB slide. But this blazing speed is somewhat tempered by a 49.5-second auto-calibration routine and by the time needed to name and save a file and then open it in an application. Image quality is excellent and holds up even when magnified. Colors are accurate and tonality is very good.

Though the Polaroid Sprint Scan 4000 has occasional limitations, its image quality is superb. The scanner leapfrogs over the competition in price, ease of use, and most important, high-resolution scans.

This unit is easy to use, and has a great user friendly software package. The quality of scans are superb, and now that the model is older it is very affordable. (I think it was quite expensive when introduced about 10 years ago). The one drawback is that as an older model it requires a SCSI connection, and many newer computers do not have a card to accomodate this. However, I installed one in my computer and got the scanner hooked up. I spent an entire winter scanning 3000+ vintage family slides from the 50's, and they came out REALLY beautiful. Starting with a cleaned/dusted slide and high-def scan, it is not hard after playing around with the software to crop, adjust colors and contrast, dodge and burn, sharpen, remove dust spots and overall drastically improve image quality from old faded originals. I brought the 1950's back to life with my sprintscan 4000, and with remarkable results. I would highly recommend this machine to professionals and beginners alike. Too bad Polaroid got out of the scanner business, because they got this one right.