Digital BW, The Print

What prevents creation of a desktop scanner that uses PMT technology
(without a drum)?  Are there any other scanning technologies besides
CCD/CMOS and PMT?

----- Original Message -----
From: "Truman Prevatt" <tprevatt@...>
To: <DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Friday, May 30, 2003 15:52
Subject: Re: [Digital BW] Any New Film Scanners Coming?


> The first real 2D CCD that was any pratical use in imaging dates back to
> the 70's and that was a 1 k by 1 k (1 megapixel) monochromic CCD. That
> sucker was expensive - so expensive that no one but the US DOD could
> afford it. At that time the 1 k one dimensional CCD was still
> expensive.  The amount of progress we have made in this area has not
> been anywhere near the progress technoloy has made in other areas. They
> can be produced today for a heck of a lot less money but they haven't
> improved that much in capability - except maybe much better dynamic
> range. Compare this to semiconductor memory. At the same time this CCD
> was being developed the PC was someone's wet dream. In the early 80, 64
> k of memory was a big deal. Now most have at least a half a gig in them
> and you can buy a 250 meg simm for about 100 bucks.  One of the problems
> is the physics behind the CCD.  It was thought CMOS sensors would solve
> this but they come with their own set of problems.
>
> Of course if you really want to see a jump in scanner technology all
> that has to happen is for me to go out and buy a new one to upgrade the
> one I have. Then within a week the next generation will be released :-).
>
> Truman