I’m trying to use my high quality Polaroid SprintScan 4000 but it is SCSI. I’ve spent many hours trying to get an Adaptec scsi card to work with no success. Now I‘m going to try to get an adapter to go from SCSI (25 and 50 are on the scanner) to UBS or Firewire, whichever is better.
According to many sources it's easy to just get an adapter but I've found the few that were available are no longer available. One adapter I've found is Cables to Go UBS Serial DB25 adapter. Cables to Go said it would fit the scanner when I sent them a photo of the back. Will I be able to connect to software? What scanning software can I use with OS 10.5 on a MacPro? Is there a freeware or inexpensive software I can get? I just want to get good images I can bring into Photoshop without waiting two hours for a scan.
I also have a G4 with OS 10.3.9 I can run SilverFast with that OS? LaserSoft, makers of SilverFast were not very helpful other than they do not support OS 10.5.
http://www.cablestogo.com/product.asp?cat_id=1529&sku=22429#
Thanks so much for helping.
LG Smith
You will not be able to use the USB adapter from Cables-To-Go. it is a serial adapter not a scsi adapter. you need to find a scsi card that is PCI and OSX compatible. tough... very tough from what i remember. good luck to you my friend.
LG,
Can you take a pic of the scanner connector to show us what it looks like?
Thanks,
Steven
I don´t know which Adaptec interface you tried to integrate - but the only one up to my experience that really fits into any Mac system without problems is the Adaptec 2906 - because its driver really operates in every mac and every OS up to 10.5 without pain !
I had several Macs from the IISE up to the G4 with OS 10.5 and every one was equipped with that controller and it operated everything from external drives like the syquest up to any SCSI-drive in external casing and various kinds of scanners and optical drives like modern DVD-Burner operated with toast.....
so my best advice would be not to give up but get the proper adaptec 2906 with the correct driver....
to my experience too another remark: the driver is best integrated in OS 9.1 and thereafter the Mac is to be upgaded step by step to 10.5 ... that ensures that the driver is updated correct by ths OS-Software....
another experience made by friends of mine: most adapters lack of correct drivers to OS and software forced to access SCSI devices by passing through port-adaptor to other portsystems like USB or similar will fail...
I don't see an Adaptec .kext file in the Leopard extensions. I think there used to be one up through Tiger (?). I found with SCSI it still worked fine up through the first G4's, but then I had no success with SCSI with the Quicksilvers. I've still got an Adaptec 29160n in an old G4-upgraded Blue and White and it still works great with a couple of 10k SCSI drives. I think I'm running Tiger in that, but it may just be Panther, I can't remember, but I use that computer primarily to run old kids software in OS 9. SCSI in 9 is very reliable and very clean and fast on that Adaptec card. That card has a 50 pin external port, so that would be the optimal card for you.
There IS still an ATTO Express PCI Plus .kext file in my Leopard extensions. That was a decent card. The G3's and the first G4's had an ATTO SCSI card setup option to buy. I think I had more problems with that card in X than with the Adaptec, but I was using them to hook up hard drives. That card has a 68 pin external. There was another ATTO card for the G4's that had a VHDCI 68 pin connector. I don't think you'd want that one. I had an Epson SCSI scanner I used up through Panther. It was nice and fast, but USB 2 seems equally as fast now with a USB 2 scanner, and then, software will be so much better with a USB scanner. I'd dump the SCSI and go with a USB card and scanner and use it all in Leopard.
Another Adaptec card for Mac, bundled with scanners, is the AHA-2930CU. That one has a 50 pin external.
I was planning on getting rid of my SCSI stuff piled up in my garage soon. Where do you live? You should be able to buy any kind of SCSI on eBay for pennies at this point, though.
I'll tell you a simple idea. I've got a bunch of USB scanner printer AOI's. I've got three in the house that I use, and a few in the garage. I found ALL of them on the side of the road waiting for the trash man. I haven't bought a printer or scanner in fifteen years. People typically throw them away because of the printer, and sometimes it seems, simply because they don't want to buy the expensive inks, although many times there is a genuine problem with the printer, but I have never picked up one that the scanner didn't work fine. I don't pick up Epsons because their printer heads dry up and are useless. HP's don't have that problem. I pick up unopened inks at Goodwill for a couple of bucks, and when one of the printers I'm using runs out of ink, I might just chuck it and use another one from the garage that I picked up inks for. What can I say, I like living cheaply about some things.
SCSI-to-USB adapters have limited support under OS X - and they only support SCSI hard drives (and CD drives etc.). They do not work with scanners.
Just throwing out another option. In the past some of the USB/Firewire model of the same scanner (sees this is the 'plus' model?) sold on ebay (I believe it was missing some pieces that I assume you have?) for $100
ex: http://www.ebay.com/itm/380403792266.
No idea if there'd be software to support it however. I know it's different, but I have a similar Nikon scanner, which Nikon stopped supporting, and have an old computer around to use with it. I wasn't able to find any 3rd party software would work with it.
Some untested or broken ones sold for $50, you might be able to swap parts around. Unfortunately, nothing is listed right now except an expensive full setup.
The USB to SCSI adapters were notorious for not working well with scanners and other peripherals.
Silverfast works very well under OS X. We're using it on a Digital Audio G4/466 with an Epson large format scanner through an Adaptec scsi card (I'd have to check, but I'm pretty sure it's a 2906 card).
When we upgraded our scanning room to G5s, there was an attempt made to use the scsi-based Epsons with scsi-firewire adapters. It didn't work. Best to figure out why your scsi card isn't working. Does the card show up properly under the System Profiler?
Haha, somehow I missed your adjectives "high quality" about your scanner, and now I see it's a film scanner. I thought you were talking about an old SCSI consumer flatbed.
Reading the first article that pops up on google when I do a search for the scanner, I find this cryptic conjunction of statements at the end under cons:
"Major negative factor is that SilverFast scanner software is not available for the Polaroid. SilverFast (from LaserSoft) is the best scanner software available for the normal user. SilverFast is readily available for the Nikon and is now available for the Polaroid as well. "
Huh?
http://www.flatbed-scanner-review.org/35mm_slide_film_scanners/Polaroid_SprintScan4000.html
IIRC, it was the transition from OS 10.2 to 10.3 when it seemed that Apple really dumped support for SCSI.
I was afraid that serial is not scsi. Thanks.
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I have a photo of the back of the scanner. How do I attach it here?
I have had many Macs, too. Started with Mac II which was the first color Mac. I've used Syquest and many other SCSI periferals. My G4 can run OS9 but OS 10.3.9 is the main OS. When I say I spent hours trying to get the Adaptec card to work, I mean I tried OS9 and OSX. Card would not mount. Tried using SCSI mounter and all those old things but gave up. This was a couple of years ago. Now I have renewed interest in getting thousands of my old negs into digital form. I'm going to look into that SprintScan 4000 on ebay. Also, maybe the Adaptec card I was trying was defective.
Any more thoughts?
Thanks for your help.
It was buried at the end of my post, so I'll ask again:
Does the Adaptec card show up under the System Profiler?
The would help determine whether your Mac is not seeing the card, or if the card is working and it's not seeing any attached devices.
Just again the points from above:
The Adaptec 2906 works without pain....
No problems up to last version of 10.4 .....
among the used items i had also a Nikon Coolsscan III ( also scanner for 35mm Negatives.... )
G3 with 10.4. did the job perfect...
only one issue:
the driver for the Adaptec 2906 still availiable in the archives at adaptec is for the OS 9.2
so the path must be :
setup mac with the card inside at 9.2 and then upgrade step by step to 10.4
and at each step startup the scanner once to make sure that the driver was activated at least one time after the upgrade-step to show up and start the software -
and then proceed to the next upgrade step till you arrive at 10.4....
and then start scanning the negatives and saving the images to disk.....
Maybe the first question to ask is, is it a Mac Adaptec SCSI card? There are PC versions also. So which G4 model do you have? I had no problems with SCSI cards in my PCI Graphics G4 and my Digital Audio, and I've pulled a SCSI card out of a used Sawtooth, but like I said earlier, I had no luck with SCSI in any of my Quicksilvers.
HI. First time posting.
I have need to scan slides with my old Poloroid Sprint scan 4000. I used to use it on my Mac G4 mirrored drive with the advantsys 3922 scsi card. I'm trying to do this but the mac is running OS 10.5.8 and I'm not sure the card will work with that OS. I could go back and load os 9 if need be but I don't have any software for the scanner so I can't check if the scanner is working. Does anyone have a copy of the original poloroid sprint scan software? I just need a way to operate the scanner. I can work the images in photoshop after scanning. I can't find my original poloroid disks. Any suggeations for 3 rd party software or a twain plug in for photoshop? I have old versions of photoshop too.
The scanner used to work fine with the scsi card but without any scanning software I have no way of seeing if the systewm is working.
Thanks