Scanner Jones

At long last, I finally sprung for a decent scanner, an Epson 4990 Photo. It seems that I almost waited too long, as it appears that Epson is discontinuing these scanners, in favor of the 700 series they announced a few months ago. Of course, Epson hasn't announced this on their site, but their own on line store is out of these models, and it appears that the retail big-box chains are clearing their channels.

The local CompUSAs were stocking the 4990, but had always wanted MSRP ($450) for them. Not wanting to mail order a mechanically shock-sensitive instrument like this, I had resisted buying one on line, hoping that CompuUSA would finally put them on sale. A few months ago, I missed one opportunity, when they put a clip-out coupon in the Sunday paper sale flyer to get 10% off any one item (not otherwise discounted) in their store for that Sunday only. In spite of the fact that I get all their email flyers, this one was only put in the paper ad, and I ended up missing out on the chance to get a 4990 for about the same price local that I could mail order one.

So, several months later, I notice that in the latest CompUSA email flyer, the price had dropped on the 4990, along with a note, saying they were already sold out on line, suggesting that I check with local stores for availability. Oh boy. Talk about a where-is, as-is sale. Out of the half-dozen stores in the SE Mich area, I finally found one that had one in stock, and it was the display unit. The folks on the phone assured me that they had all the pieces/parts and had never been so much as plugged in, so I buzzed over to pick it up. 40+ minutes later, and finding one partial kit of stuff, and finally one entire kit, I ended up with what appears to be one of the few remaining units in the area. The store actually had two display units, but the other is missing all but the 2 1/4 film frames (and you need the frames, because the critical focus is a millimeter or so *above* the surface of the glass, accounting for the thickness of the supplied film frames).

It will take me a couple of days to get around to getting this thing hooked up, and try out a couple of scans, but I'm pumped about getting proper access to my approximately 1000 negs/slides that I've accumulated over the last several pre-digital decades of on-again/off-again shooting.

Now I really need to get cracking on Peter's DAM book, so I can get a handle on my burgeoning supply of digital image files.