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The Epson Perfection 3200 Photo scanner

Up to now I did all my scanning using a many years-old Epson 636 scanner, a SCSI connection, and the CFM TWAIN software package under Warp 4, Warp 4.5, and more recently eCS 1.xx - all excellent combinations! However, all these years I was looking for a scanner with a resolution comparable to that of standard film (24x36 slide and negative material), which I could afford. Of course, at the same time, I wanted to use the scanner for letter-size scanning, to replace my old Epson (which, incidentally, still works flawlessly as designed).

Recently, the Epson Perfection 3200 Photo caught my eye. It has a resolution of 3200 dpi and has some size-limited (4"x9" ) transparency feature built in which, however, would serve my needs well. It sells for about $400 USD on the web. Trouble is, that model connects through a USB port, but not a SCSI port, and the TWAIN capability was not loudly advertised so that originally I did not think that I could use that model at all.

Then the scanner software Tame /2 appeared, which is an OS/2 frontend of the (remarkable!) *nix scanning software SANE. When I discovered that the README included with the Tame /2 package lists a similar USB scanner, the Epson Perfection 3200 (without the "Photo") as a supported unit, I was ready to try my luck. It is noteworthy that SANE and therefore Tame/2 support several other Epson USB scanners - but probably not yet other brands USB scanners; I hear that support for other USB scanners is under development.

Installation

1. the IBM USB basic device support package (dated: 7/7/2003);
   
2. the IBM USB mass storage driver (dated: 3/28/2003); and
   
3. the OS/2 Loader package (dated: 6/28/2003) which is required for installing the basic support package above. Then I installed these drivers and activated loading by unREMming the lines:
   

   BASEDEV=USBD.sys /R...
   BASEDEV=USBHID.sys
   BASEDEV=USBMSD.sys
   DEVICE=x:\OS2\boot\USBRESMG.sys
   

   in the config.sys of my computer (a Thinkpad A31p running eCS v.1.13). I don't know if all these things are really necessary; I just tried these things and apparently was lucky.
   

I then unzipped Tame /2 to what was supposed to be a temporary directory and typed "Tame Inst" while in that directory. Barely a minute later the installation was completed. I was never asked what directory I wanted the installation to go to; the temporary directory became the installation directory. (I accepted that at that point.) I shut down the computer again, readied and connected for the first time the new scanner to the computer. After powering up the scanner and rebooting, I was at once happily scanning slides and negatives (24x36 mm and 6x6 cm), and also letter-sized opaque documents, with the expected (excellent!) results.

The whole installation barely took fifteen minutes and was problem-free, a most pleasant experience altogether. PMView, which was previously installed on my computer, was automatically integrated with the Tame/SANE package during installation for displaying the scans, without further ado on my part. The SANE/Tame/OS2 group has done a marvelous job. It is worth noting that many SCSI scanners are likewise currently supported by Tame/2, along with several other Epson USB models; see the very detailed list of supported scanners at os2world or Hobbes.

References: Other links referenced:   eComStation: http://www.ecomstation.com   Tame/2 Home Page: http://www.os2world.com/goran/tame.htm   Tame/2 on Hobbes: http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/cgi-bin/h-search?key=tame

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