ArtixScan 4000tf

Trust 20 years of scanning experience. Gain peace of mind for your piece of art.
4000 dpi optical resolution using high-quality Sony 5,300-element tri-linear CCD array for superior detail in every scan Dual interface: FireWire (IEEE 1394) for blazing-fast speed and USB for universal connectivity EXCLUSIVE Auto Focus / Auto Advance Carriage System (US patent pending) keeps lens position fixed for flawless focus EXCLUSIVE Motion Correction Control Technology (US patent pending) for precise mechanical steps during scanning Multiple Sampling options reduce image noise and yield the highest optical density 4.3 Dynamic Range for amazing shadow & highlight details Integrated Kodak color management with IT-8 target for the most consistent color matching across monitors, printers and the Web 40% faster than Nikon Super Coolscan 4000ED (see back) Professional negative scanning capabilities & custom profiling NEW! APS panoramic scanning (with optional adapter) Increase productivity with auto advancing batch cartridges, including 6-frame filmstrip holder and 4-frame slide holder Includes FULL versions of SilverFast Ai 5.5 with NegaFix, ScanWizard Pro TX & Genuine Fractals PrintPro professional software packages for RGB or CMYK scanning

Scanner Type

Single-pass, 35mm and APS film scanner 35mm and Advanced Photo System (APS) film (with optional APS adapter) positive, negative, color or monochrome 35mm slide 26mm x 38mm (4094 x 5984 pixels) 35mm filmstrip 25mm x 36mm (3937 x 5669 pixels) APS C (optional) 16mm x 24mm (2519 x 3779 pixels) APS H (optional) 16mm x 28mm (2519 x 4409 pixels) APS P Panoramic (optional) 9.8mm x 28mm (1593 x 4409 pixels) 4,000 dpi (5300 pixel Sony tri-linear CCD array) 4.3 dynamic range 14-bits per color channel 16-bits, 8-bits per channel (user selectable) 2, 4, 8, 16 times (user selectable) Built-in Kodak color management; uses standard ICC profiles; includes 139 profiles; Apple ColorSync and Microsoft ICM compatible Auto focus (user selectable, on/off) Auto and manual exposure control Power, ready and busy status indicated by two front LEDs Multi-wave cold cathode fluorescent / 5,000 hours continuous use Proprietary, custom built lens with anti-reflective coating FireWire (IEEE 1394 standard) and USB 14.2" L x 5.9" W x 3.9" H (360mm L x 150mm W x 100mm H) 8 lbs (3.6kg) Power Supply Power Consumption Temperature Humidity Max Operating Alt. Auto-switching universal, 100-240 VAC, 1.2A max, 47/63Hz 49 Watts max, Energy Star compliant 50 - 95F (10 - 35C) 20% to 85% RH 30,000 ft. (9,090m) batch up to 4 frames batch up to 6 frames batch up to 40 frames batch up to 40 frames batch up to 40 frames
Includes FULL versions of 3 professional RGB and CMYK imaging software titles
SilverFast Ai 5.5 with NegaFix Real-time negative film optimization with 120 profiles Intelligent image type preselection ColorSync 3 compatible Genuine Fractals PrintPro Enlarge images up to 800% with no loss in quality Lossless file compression ScanWizard Pro TX Scan in CMYK, RGB or LCH Intelligent image categories Integrated Kodak CMS plus ICC Profiler and IT-8 target
Film Type Scanning Area & Batch Scanning
Optical Resolution Optical Density A/D Conversion Output Data Multiple Data Sampling Color Management Focus Exposure Panel Indicators Light Source / Life Optics Interface

ScanWizardPro TX

The Microtek ArtixScan 4000tf is 40% faster than the Nikon Super Coolscan 4000ED

Dimensions Weight Power Environment
Microtek ArtixScan 4000tf
Nikon Super Coolscan 4000ED
Regulatory Certification Package Contents
Safety: CE, ELT/ENT-CN, TUV EN60950; Emissions: FCC Part 15 Class B; Europe/Japan: CISPR 22 EN55022 Class B; Taiwan: BCIQ ArtixScan 4000tf scanner, 35mm slide holder (4 slides), 35mm filmstrip holder (6 frames), 1394 card(PC), 6-pin 1394 cable, USB cable, Kodak 35mm Q60 target, dust cover, Adobe Photoshop Elements, Altamira Genuine Fractals Print Pro, Lasersoft SilverFast Ai 5.5 with NegaFix, Microtek Scanner ICC Profiler, ScanWizard Pro TX APS film cartridge 546-05-170000 CD-ROM drive (for installing software), color monitor with 24-bit color capability 64MB RAM (128MB or more recommended) USB Pentium PC or later with USB port Microsoft Windows 98/2000/Me/XP FireWire (IEEE 1394) Pentium PC or later with FireWire port or available PCI slot Microsoft Windows 98 SE/Me/2000/XP USB Connection iMac, Mac G3/G4 with built-in USB port Mac OS 8.6 to 9.x, Mac OS X classic environment FireWire (IEEE 1394) iMac, Mac G3/G4 with built-in FireWire port Mac OS 9.x
Optional Accessory System Requirements PC & Compatibles

600 dpi

1200 dpi

4000 dpi

Macintosh
Speed comparison performed in Microtek test lab using: 35mm positive slide scanned in RGB color with CMS off on a PC with AMD K6-400 processor, 256MB RAM running Windows 98 SE and using FireWire connection. Scanning speeds will vary with different scanning options and system configurations.
Microtek Lab, Inc. 16941 Keegan Avenue, Carson, CA 90746 www.microtek.com
2002 Microtek Lab, Inc. M7 camera provided by Leica America. The following are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies: Microtek, ArtixScan, ScanWizard of Microtek Lab, Inc. All other trademarks or registered trademarks are the property of their respective holders. Specifications, software and hardware bundles are subject to change without notice. Not responsible for typographical errors. MLISS-AS4000TF-0502
The ArtixScan family of professional scanners

ArtixScan 4000t

ArtixScan 1800f ArtixScan 2500f

test report

ELECTRONICALLY REPRINTED FROM MARCH 2003
ArtixScan 4000tf/ SilverFast Ai 6.0

by David B. Brooks

The Microtek ArtixScan 4000tf 35mm and APS film scanner.
Microtek & LaserSoft Offer The Latest Advances In Film Scanning
ll I need do is look at my oldest archive files from 35mm scans going back over a decade to realize how much scanners and their software drivers have progressed. The first 35mm film scanner I tested cost as much as a new car, was half the resolution of todays, and was slow. The software was bare and basic with just a few crude slider controls. But for this report I will refer back not to those early days but to the original Microtek ArtixScan 4000t and LaserSoft SilverFast Ai 5.0 I have been using ever since December, 1999. That combination was highlighted by a new resolution plateau of 4000dpi, sufficient motivation for me to begin re-scanning much of my 35mm film library. Today, with this latest ArtixScan 4000tf and SilverFast 6.0, I am compelled by the improvements in scan quality to begin to rescan many of my film images yet again.
the 5300 pixel Sony trilinear CCD, which now captures at a color depth of 14 bits per RGB channel (42 bit) and has an optical density range of 4.3, plus outputs through its A/D converter either 24 bit or user selectable 48-bit RGB. Equally significant, in a different way, is that the 4000tf provides two easy, fast connection interface options: FireWire (IEEE 1394), and USB. Besides enhancing the efficiency of data transfer to the host computer, the scanner can be connected and turned on without having to reboot your computer.
The software support provided with the scanner is now diverse and comprehensive, including Microteks own ScanWizard Pro TX, LaserSofts SilverFast Ai 6.0, Kodak/Microtek Scanner Profiler, including a Kodak slide Q60 target, LizardTech Genuine Fractals, and Adobe Photoshop Elements.
New LaserSoft SilverFast Ai 6.0 Features
There are three entirely new functions that are the leading features in LaserSofts upgrade of
New Microtek ArtixScan 4000tf Features
Although the appearance of the ArtixScan 4000tf is little changed from the original 4000t, some key elements are new. Most significant is
Until a short while ago my most frequently used film was Fuji Reala 100. My enthusiasm fading for the film was not due to its qualities, which remain excellent, but I found it to be difficult to scan and the advantages of the film were diminished by mediocre scan results. Now SilverFasts NegaFix has literally fixed that problem with a very effective profile. This time I obtained scans equal in superiority to the analog results which first attracted me to Fuji Reala.
2002, David B. Brooks, All Rights Reserved

March 2003 Shutterbug

Photos 2002, David B. Brooks, All Rights Reserved
Even less common films like Ferrania/3M are supported with profiles in SilverFast 6.0. This shot of the ancient Castillo in Milan, Italy, with its subtle range of earth tones is advantaged producing a scan that preserves the neutral values cleanly and renders variations in similar values with acute separation and richness of hue.
I had attempted scanning this series of flower images on a preproduction sample of Kodak Royal Gold previously and obtained very strange crossover color casts. With the 4000tf and SilverFast 6.0 I tried again using NegaFix and the Royal Gold profile. What a difference! Now I have excellent digital files with the colors that look just like the flowers appeared originally when I photographed them.

SilverFast to Version 6.0. The first of these is SRD (Smart Removal of Defects) that offers dust and scratch removal from a scan as part of the scan process. ACR (Adaptive Color Restoration) is a part of the Selective Color Correction function, and is intended to provide recovery of color intensity in faded film originals. And GANE (Grain And Noise Elimination) is a variable filter, before and after perceptual control to remove a grain or a noise pattern as part of the scan process. Another entirely new capability included with Version 6.0 is an applet facility to run SilverFast as a stand-alone application in addition to running it as a Photoshop plug-in or TWAIN driver from within an image-editing application. This is a potential advantage if a user is running a large application such as Quark XPress concurrently, as the stand-alone requires little RAM and outputs scans directly to file. In addition to the new features, many of SilverFasts functions have been added to and refined. The performance of NegaFix has been enhanced by added and more refined profiles for color negative and black and white films. The Selective Color adjustment capability has been extended by the addition of multi-layers and multi-masking capabilities, supporting the individual adjustment of similar, as well as different color areas within an image. Converting or scanning color to result in gray scale is a unique new feature that makes it possible to control gray tone separations of different colors in the original. SilverFasts already powerful color cast removal has been enhanced to accommodate correction of casts resulting from mixed light or other differentiated casts within an image by being able to select up to four points that can be edited in a special dialog box.
operating systems. And, of course, I had to try running SilverFast 6.0 as a stand-alone as well. After just a short time I had the ArtixScan running on both a PC and a Mac G4, using both the Microtek ScanWizard driver and LaserSoft SilverFast 6.0 both as a plug-in from Photoshop and a stand-alone, also running SilverFast in both OS 10.2 and Classic OS 9.2. As I intimated up front, it was logical for the purpose of evaluation to re-scan images I had scanned with the original ArtixScan 4000t and earlier versions of SilverFast for comparison. There were, of course, a lot of images I could choose from, but I narrowed the selection to films that were difficult to scan in the past, like several color negative and black and white films, in addition to some challenging images on Kodachrome. The latter choice was in part to test SRD dust and scratch removal, as well as to evaluate the advantages, if any, of the 4000tfs greater dynamic range and color depth. And, I also must admit a personal interest in these choices because much of my earlier work was on Kodachrome and black and white (both of which cannot be scanned with Digital ICE dust and scratch removal), while a lot of my more recent photography has been done with color negative films that have not been easy to scan or have not provided entirely satisfying results.

software solution by providing user interaction with a visual identification of what it is recognizing. These functions can be adjusted via three dimensions of control with sliders: Detection, Defect Size, and Intensity. This allows you to adjust the SRD function so that it selects what you can see as defects in an enlarged view of the pre-scan image and ignores everything else. The advantage of this over any other software dust and scratch removal methods is that it does not soften the overall image. I found that it works sufficiently well with most film images to substantially reduce manual cleanup with the Rubber Stamp tool in Photoshop. However, with grainier films, SRD is less adept at distinguishing between dust and grain, and its advantage is lessened.

Color Restoration

Although applicable to a much smaller portion of images that may be scanned, ACR (Adaptive Color Restoration) can be an effective tool used sparingly on more than just faded

Dust And Scratch Removal

Right at the outset I tried LaserSofts new SRD feature. The SRD dust and scratch removal is purely software, unlike Digital ICE, and will function with all films and even reflective scans. It will also work with all scanners supported by LaserSoft in addition to the 4000tf. It is similar in one respect to Digital ICE because it involves a means of recognizing defects and distinguishing them from the underlying image information. SRD is also different beyond being a purely
Although I did not expect much improvement from previous scans of my first tests of Kodaks Supra 100 color negative films, I was pleasantly surprised. First of all with the 4000tf and SilverFast 6.0, the Supra negatives were easier to adjust for an accurate color reproduction of the subjects, resulting in cleaner, more brilliant scanned images. The use of SRD defect removal functioned quite effectively eliminating more than half the dirt and scratches requiring little post-scan use of the Rubber Stamp tool in Photoshop.
Scanning With The ArtixScan 4000tf And SilverFast 6.0
With the scanner unpacked and the software installed, if youve experienced older 35mm scanners, youll notice and appreciate the FireWire/USB interface for being a no hassle, direct access to your scanner by just turning it on and starting the driver. This was the case after installing the software on a Sony Vaio Digital Studio PC and a Mac G4, including putting SilverFast in both the OS 10.2 and Classic 9.2
ArtixScan 4000tf/SilverFast Ai 6.0
LaserSoft SilverFast 6.0 supports all versions of Microsoft Windows and both Apple Macintosh operating systems. Here it is shown running as a stand-alone application on the Mac OS 10.2 system.

This Kodachrome image made in a daylight studio I had years ago was published several times in the days of analog color separations. So besides having a long range of tones from the pure white walls of my studio to the black of Mariannes blouse, it had a lot of dirt and flaws acquired from handling, making it a real test of both the 4000tf and SilverFast and its SRD defect removal feature. The results were more than I could hope for. The scan produced a clean, sharp image with brilliant and accurate colors, and its the best the image has ever looked.
slides. As an example, I made a sizable collection of colorful water reflection photos over time, and in hindsight I should have used a polarizing filter to reduce the overhead influence of the sky to enhance the intensity of the subject being reflected, but did not. ACR produced a result that is quite like the effect of using a polarizing filter with a camera.
Grain And Noise Elimination
Because I have always had a penchant for grainy pictures made on very high-speed films, I first tried GANE (Grain And Noise Elimination) with some of those images. Sorry LaserSoft, but it just turns really grainy images into mushy images. However, with finer grained films, GANE can virtually eliminate grain, which in some kinds of photography, like commercial illustration of products, can be a distinct advantage. It provides very pristine-looking results, particularly when small formatsize cameras like 35mm are used for this work.
One of the most valuable new features of SilverFast 6.0 is SRD (Smart Removal of Defects) dust and scratch elimination providing user interaction to control the selection of defects to be removed (red) and leaving those non-defects and the remainder of the image area unaffected by the process. This keeps detail and grain as sharply defined as a normal scan. SRD also has the advantage of functioning with all kinds of film images including Kodachrome and silver-based black and white.
NegaFix For Color And B&W Negs
The most significant advantage I found with SilverFast 6.0, however, were the improvements in NegaFix with more and better profiles for color negative and black and white films. Even with what I have come to consider definitely the best color negative film for scanning, Kodak Supra 100, NegaFix in SilverFast 6.0 provided just about the best overall scan results I have obtained from any film. Possibly of more value overall, the results I obtained with SilverFast 6.0s NegaFix with previously difficult films to scan, like Fuji Reala 100, Agfa Optima, and even Ferrania/3M, as well as significant improvements scanning Kodak Royal Gold for instance, really boosted my enthusiasm to see what gems Id previously passed over in my film archives. In the past the inability of any scanner software to do a good job of interpreting silver-based black and white prompted me to write a recently published article on scanning black and white manually for the best results. With SilverFast Version 6.0 I found I obtained very good results and in some cases ideal scans with NegaFix. However, this was only after trying profiles for films not related to the actual film I was scanning until, by the process of elimination of the entire black and white profile choice, I discovered the one that worked best. This worked

(Left) Another useful new feature in SilverFast 6.0 is ACR (Adaptive Color Restoration) which can be used to both restore colors in faded film images, but can also be used to advantage with images with poor color due to atmospheric conditions, flare, flat lighting, and surface reflections, as in this example of a shot of water reflections.
Silver-based black and white film scanning has been the forgotten stepchild of the scanning industry, that is until now with SilverFast 6.0 and NegaFix. Now you can find a black and white film profile that will provide an effective translation of the image without any posterization, highlight blocking, or dropped out shadow detail, at least with medium speed, (ISO 100-400) finer grained films. SilverFast 6.0 SRD dust and scratch removal also functions quite well with most images to reduce the amount of spotting that must be done with a clone brush in post-scan editing. However, LaserSoft has yet to provide a profile I could find that will function effectively with slow-speed, very fine-grained films. Maybe in the next upgrade it will be added.
well with a number of film/developer combinations I have used, with one exception: slow speed, fine-grain films like Kodak Panatomic-X, Agfapan 25, and Ilford Pan-F. LaserSoft needs to develop a profile for these films that accommodate the contrast buildup produced by the scanners optics, which from my experience is like going from a diffusion to a condenser enlarger in wet darkroom printing. All of these tests of the functions of SilverFast also revealed the practical advantages provided by the physical improvements in the ArtixScan 4000tf over the previous model. Most dramatic in what I obtained were scans with superior detail in highlights and shadows from slides, particularly Kodachromes. I am sure that some of the quality improvements in scans from color negative filmincluding smooth tone transitions, better detail definition and separation of tones were due to the scanners increased capabilities. And I should mention that
better success with scanning black and white is also somewhat attributable to factors like the 4000tfs greater dynamic range and color depth specifications.
Evaluation And Recommendation
Both of the upgrades in the specifications for the ArtixScan 4000tf from the previous model and of SilverFast from 5.5 to 6.0 may not seem dramatic compared to some of the progress recently shown in digital cameras. But on closer inspection, considering the very definite refinement in performance of both hardware and software, the upgrades are more than worthwhile. Looking at the Microtek ArtixScan 4000tf from a first-time buyers

perspective and considering that the software bundle now includes LaserSoft SilverFast Ai 6.0, the advertised price (on the web) of from $1066 to $916 offers a lot of scanning power and quality at a very modest cost. Compare those prices to the original 4000t price, which did not include the cost of the SilverFast software, at just under $1800, and youll understand why this is a substantial gain for photographers. For more information visit the Microtek web site at www.microtekusa.com, and LaserSoft at www.silverfast.com. For a full listing of specifications go to the Shutterbug web site at www.shutterbug.net and type SB#DI0303.
Posted with permission from the March 2003 issue of Shutterbug Copyright 2003, PRIMEDIA Inc. All rights reserved.
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