Microtek Scanmaker 5900 & B&W Transparencies

Greetings!

I just bought a Microtek 5900 scanner and scanned a few color prints. The
quality is really quite good!

However, I am having trouble making the settings for scanning b&w transparents,
line art, halftones, etc. I am not finding any detailed documentation on the
program that came with it. I've been all thru the CD that came with it and all
over www.microtek.com and nothing but a 16-page "sales brochure disguised as a
manual."

I'm fairly knowledgable with computers and have been using another scanner,
cameras, etc. for several years, but for the life of me I can't figure out some
of the simplest things with this one. Is there anywhere to get something that
describes all the controls on each of the Advanced panel menus?

I sure hate to take it back to the store because of the lack of instructions,
but I have a Monday am deadline. If I can't figure it out by tonight, it's back
to the store.

Anyway, enough rambling. I would appreciate any advice that you might offer.
Copy me with email if you have some good suggestions.

Thanks in advance,

Fred

This is a followup to my post.

Although this scanner does the nicest job I've seen on color prints, it does a
lousy job with line negs, and a real mediocre job with line art.

No doubt it probably will do a fine job, but the "help" menu is pretty bad.
Such a nice scanner without a decent manual or even acrobat pdf.

Now I see what all the ones in the store had been returned.

It's back to the store in the morning for this one.

I wrote
The art work is passable. The negs are really lousy. No help menu on these.

Wayne replied
Not sure what you are actually looking for, but I'd easily call it one of the
best I have ever seen.

I agree. The scans I got for color prints were unbelievable.

The scanner no doubt will perform well on line negatives as well, but there are
a fair amount of settings and controls in the advanced menu.

By the way, I did manage to get a little better scan of a line negs last night.
(FYI, line negs are those used to make offset printing plates. They show only
black and white with no grays, as opposed to the continuous negs used in
cameras.)

The concept of scanner manuals is much like the manuals that come with
automobiles.. the manual tells you how to set the radio push buttons, but it
doesn't explain music theory. g

My fault. I guess I didn't state the problem clearly --

I would sure like to see something called "How to Scan Black and White
Negatives". Something like this would be nice:

Step 1 - Put the negative on the scanner.
Step 2 - Click on Preview Scan.
Step 3 - Go to the Advanced menu and set the contrast and brightness by .... ??

See what I mean? I was expecting some kind of basic instructions like this.

If anyone has a Microtek scanner and uses is to scan Black & White negatives,
I'd sure like to hear from them.

For line art, try http://www.scantips.com/basics04.html

Thanks! Good general info. This is the kind of thing they need in the Microtek
documentation, and add procedures specific to their product.

For negatives, "lousy" is not a description... This may be a losing cause, but
what seems to be the actual problem? What are you trying to do, what are you
actually doing, and what actually happens?

You probably have the idea by now. I'm sure the scanner will do a fine job. If
you have experience using the Microtek Scan Wizard, I would really appreciate
learning how to do these with Black & White negatives:

1 - Set the constrast
2 - Set the brightness

And if anyone has a 5900 or similar Microtek scanner, I would sure like to hear
from you, either here or by email.
Otherwise, thanks to all for your help. I'm going to hang on to this scanner
at least for another day or two.

If the "fumbling in the dark" method pays off, I'll write up some short
instructions on how to scan black & white negatives and post it.