Re: HP Photoscan

Pkirchg (Pkirchg@aol.com)
Sun, 10 May 1998 15:10:06 EDT

In an eMail dated 07.05.1998 19:06:40, you wrote:

>
> I'm just curious if anyone has attempted, or thought about attempting,
> the writing of a driver for the new 'HP Photoscan' negative, slide,
> and print scanner.
>

I am just working on an extended HP backend, which should give better
support for the Photoscanner (calibration, mirroring, gamma correction).

> The reason I ask is that as far as I know, there is no other scanner
> which can scan negatives or slides at 2400dpi, 30 bit color, in its
> price range ($399).
>

Currently the backend supports only 24 bits. I am not quite sure if SANE
is able to handle 30 bits. The PNM-files generated by the backends are only
24 bit.

> It looks like HP only provides a driver for win95, but the device is
> SCSI-II, and the box says it's twain compliant.
>

The scanner uses SCL, a scanner control language used by HP.

> How has HP cooperated in the past with SANE development efforts? Would
> they be likely to provide any sort of information or even devices to
> be used in the development of a driver?
>

I asked HP for information about the scanner, but they told me there
is no information available. Moreover they did not know (?) that it
supports SCL. So I asked for the SCL-toolkit and they sent me
CD-ROMs for free. The new version 8.0 of the toolkit is available
over the net, after you fill in the registration form at

http://www.dmo.hp.com/devexchange/nam/toolkit_reg.html

The Photoscanner is not mentioned in that documentation. But you can find
a list of supported commands at

ftp://members.aol.com/pkirchg/pub/sane

There is also the xhp backend for SANE V0.71 available in source.
With SANE V0.72 it crashes sometimes when using the custom gamma table
(just like other backends ?)

> I have not used the device, so I can't really judge its quality.

It is quite good. But the quality of the backend which I am just working
on is not as good as the Win95 Software you will get with the scanner
(missing automatic contrast settings, color inversion for negatives,
scanning slides/negatives slower by a factor of 2 at 2400 dpi).

> I'm just excited about the specifications and price. I'm used to using a
> Nikon SuperCoolscan at work, and am interested in the idea of scanning
> negatives for less money at home.

Maybe there are problems scanning strips of negatives with 4/5 images.
It seems that you cant scan in the whole strip. You must scan it from both
ends.

>
> Thanks for any information.
>
> -Zach Fine
> czyz@u.washington.edu

Sincerely

Peter Kirchgessner

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