Re: filmscanners: Polaroid SS4000 Extended Service Contracts

[Dana Trout]

The replacement loaner scanner arrived Monday, 9:30am and is busily
scanning away.

The people at Polaroid have been responsive and helpful, but seem
overworked. It often takes 3-4 hours for them to return a call, and
sometimes that is well after their nominal quitting time (Polaroid
evidently has very dedicated employees).


Two things I have noticed now that I've had four of these SS4k scanners
pass through here:
  1. Polaroid's technique of determining what carrier is in the scanner
(6-frame filmstrip vs. 4-frame slide holder) is not very robust -- one
scanner absolutely would never recognize the slide carrier, and two
others often mistook the filmstrip carrier for a slide carrier.

  2. Two of the scanners had a lot of backlash in the system. It didn't
seem to affect the scans, but it makes a terrible racket as the carrier
is being pushed out to get to the index point. It sounds like the gears
are ready to fall off.