68k Macs for photographic work

[steve30]

I was wondering if anyone here had used 68k macs for working with photographs?

I was wondering this because I recently bought a Minolta Dimage Scan Dual film scanner to scan my photos into the computer as I tend to use film these days, rather than digital. This model, whilst doing a very good job of scanning, is quite old (probably around 1997). I have successfully had it running on my PowerBook 1400 via SCSI and now on my PC with a PCI SCSI card, but it says in the manual that it will run on a Macintosh with a 68040.

As I don't have a 68040 Mac, I can not test this, so i thought I'd see if anyone else has used similar devices on 68k Macs. I'm guessing it would be OK to use if you had a good graphics card with lots of colours and high resolution. When I used it on my PowerBook, the colours and screen size meant it wasn't as good as on the PC, which has a nice 21" Trinitron.

Thanks

Steve

 

[luddite]

I think it depends on where your photos are headed. I've used a Duo 280c and an LC475 for photoshopping images for the web, but I wouldn't use either for print work unless it was a matter of life and death.

 

[beachycove]

You can do interesting things with a 68040 machine with a nubus Charger dsp card, or a Radius Thunder IV GX card (with the dsp plug-on card), or an 040 accelerator with the similar dsp card (there were various models, but they are now v.v. hard to find), or indeed, an AV 040 Mac (which has a dsp on the logic board), but even then photo editing can be slow, as dsp acceleration is limited to certain filters. It can, however, be done, and it is pretty fast if you limit yourself to the supported software.

Scanning itself is certainly acceptably snappy on my Q650 with Quad 040 accelerator and Charger dsp card. It's no Mac Pro, but where's the fun in using one of those?

I did this (and following) on it, with a ColorOne 1200/30 - and no, I don't run the site.

 

[Charlieman]

Almost nobody wrote software that explicitly requires a 68040 processor. The 68040 requirement probably means that performance will be so bad with a 68030 that the manufacturers would not support it. As you've noted, a 24 bit graphics card is essential which more or less rules out a 68K PowerBook, but a stock 68030 IIci with decent graphics would no doubt work S L O W L Y.

If you can generate the scans on your PB 1400, why not use it for that purpose, then transfer the images to a more modern machine for manipulation?

 

[steve30]

The 1400 is more that suitable for scanning and manipulating images. It's screen just isn't the best for such work.

I don't need any other computer to scan pictures with now though as I have the scanner connected to my fast PC. I only used it on the PowerBook whilst I was sorting out a SCSI controller for the PC.

As the software for the scanner will run on a 68k Mac, I was just curious if anyone else had done so as I am unable to test this myself.

 

[Bunsen]

How about plugging a decent monitor into the 1400? You can find good quality CRTs for nothing these days

 

[steve30]

I have a nice 21" Trinitron sat in front of me now (just a shame it doesn't quite work properly). I could use it on my 1400 now I have a graphics card for it, but what I do intend to do eventually, is put a VGA connector on my Microvitec 1438 Multiscan monitor, then so I can connect that to all my computers, such as Macs, BBC, Amigas, PC.

 

[Bunsen]

What connector does it have on it at the moment? I have a monitor here with separate BNC plugs, and I just bought a VGA to 5x BNC cable off ebay

 

[steve30]

It currently has a 25 pin D connector, with two pins chopped off it to make a 23 pin connector, suitable for the Amiga. It did originally have a moulded connector but that started to have problems.

http://stevecoates.net/stuff/23pin1.jpg

http://stevecoates.net/stuff/23pin2.jpg

I would like to put a longer cable on it with a VGA connector on. Just have to find some video cable for it.

 

[Unknown_K]

I have used Photoshop 3 with a IIfx (32MB RAM, Thunder/24 video card + DSP board, DSP card) and a 950 (180MB RAM, Thunder/24 video, DSP card) with a Umax 1200S scanner taking high rez scans.

 

[Bunsen]

A search of these forums and the archive (both above) for the word DSP should provide you a wealth of useful information

 

[madcrow]

The DSP must be one of the most criminally underused bits of kit ever included in a 68K Mac...

 

[LCGuy]

How about plugging a decent monitor into the 1400? You can find good quality CRTs for nothing these days

Wouldn't make much difference...1400s require a video card for external video, of which there were only two models made - an Apple one (which I have) that supports up to 832x624 in 8 bit colour, and up to 1152x870 in 4 bit, and a NewerTech ViewPowr or something along those lines that supported I think 16 bit and 8 bit respectively. Even so, even the Newertech card was rather slow compared to anything else from the time, apparently.

 

[steve30]

Luckily, I have the ViewPowr card. I should be fine just for using the same settings as the built in display, but I used it at about 1024x768 or similar and it only did 256 colours.

 

[Bunsen]

As search here seems to be fairly useless at the moment, the following external search is brought to you by the letters D, S and P and the word Nubus and Photoshop

/edit/ and this discussion seems the most relevant result

 

[LCGuy]

Luckily, I have the ViewPowr card. I should be fine just for using the same settings as the built in display, but I used it at about 1024x768 or similar and it only did 256 colours.

You're lucky...I've got the Apple one, which only supports resolutions above 832x624 at 16 colours. With your ViewPowr, if you pick a lower resolution (832x624 or below), you should be able to run an external display at Thousands of colours.

 

[steve30]

The lower resolutions do allow all the thousands of colours. I find 800x600 (and similar) to be a bit on the small side for my 21" trinitron though. Should be fine on a smaller monitor though.

I only got the video card because it was a reasonable prince and was being sold by the same person that sold me the G3 upgrade. He was local so I went to collect them both.