[LargeFormat] Microtek scanners.

[Les Newcomer]

With the new computer I've lost the inate ability to use scsi. My impression
is that USB while faster than the old serial port isn't anywhere near as
fast as scsi, firewire on the other hand is the replacement for scsi. Or at
least fighting it out swith scsi fast, scsi wide, etc.


I looked at B&H Photo. It looks like the ScanMaker 8700 is the
cheapest/only(?) firewire they offer.  I've also found that there are two
marketing packages out there.  Base model  and Design Pro  with Silverfast
Ai5 and Genuine Fractals which I've also heard great things about.
 A sherlock shearch came up with only a couple of sites for the design pro,
the cheapest place that actually has one was $946.00  YIKES!

A look at Silverfast's site shows they didn't bundle silverfast with the
ScanMaker 4 here in North America.  Assuming I could find one on this
continent I'd have to buy a scsi card and Silverfast.

A quick search at mac mall came up  with an $80 scsi card that is actually
fast scsi and it would allow me to save my zip drive and my very expensive
internal scsi Microtek flash card reader from the old computer.

But Silverfast for the ScanMaker 4 is $349.00.(direct from Silverfast)  Plus
another $180 for the templates to do multiples from my "minature"camera.
Means that At the very minimum a ScanMaker 4 will cost in excess of $610.

Man I didnt know how good my HP scanjet 4c was at $200!