Digital BW, The Print

I was in this dilemma and I bought a used Umax Mirage IISE off ebay.  The
seller did not pack it well, didn't lock the carriages, so it was wrecked in
shipment.  However it seems he had a whole pallet load of them, and sent me
another which was better packed, it worked fine after cleaning.  Now I have
a parts unit too.  Bid was $75, shipping $40.

I tried the Mustek, it was so bad I threw it away.  Absolutely unuseable.

I was thinking of a new Microtek, i have an Artixscan already and it is
decent.  Factory support is non-existent for out of warranty units, after 12
months your only option is to exchange for about half of list price plus
shipping.  They will not sell parts and they will not repair.

In a way, I am glad that I had to learn how to fix my own scanner.  The
image has to go through two glass surfaces and three mirrors before it gets
to the lens.  Over a relatively short period of time these get dirty, you
can look into your scanner and probably see the haze forming on the glass.
I dismantled my Artixscan to fix the problem, a line in scan, caused by dirt
on mirror in the carriage.  I used tissue and denatured alcohol for cleaning
the mirrors, this is what I was told to do by an expert camera repairman and
is how he cleans mirrors on SLR cameras.

So when i got the Umax A3 I took it apart and completely cleaned everything.
It is SCSI, so I bought an old G3 for $50 to drive it, and put on an old
version of Vuescan.  For $115, it is the best bang for the buck, I saved
thousands of dollars compared to buying a Microtek or Epson.  I hear that
Epson has stopped support of non-warranty scanners but I don't know.  I
don't think there is any value in buying a new scanner, the warranty is only
12 months, so if it breaks on its 14th month, like mine did, you are
screwed.  I'll do a little extra work and keep the savings.  You have to
learn to maintain the scanner anyway, no matter what you buy.
-- 
Thomas Robinson
http://www.historicphotoarchive.com