The M1 is finally here ... that is Microtek has a production on display and operating at Photo Plus Expo. There is a whole load of the machines in the warehouse in California and they are expected to start arriving on dealers shelves in two weeks.

I should have one for testing at about the same time. The results I saw today on the show floor were impressive but I want to know a lot more and try it myself before commenting.

Thanks for keeping up with this.

Any thoughts on this machine yet? I went looking and noone has them in stock yet, let alone any reviews.

It's hard to say "patience grasshopper" at this point ..... but I am expecting one for review in the next 10 days.

Wow, this is one really huge delay. Did they say what it taking so long? I'm familiar with their software and I thought it was fairly complete so I find it difficult to believe that it's a software issue.

Greg, the problem is that they had to do a major rewrite of the software to incorporate the autofocus capabilities of the new scanner. This is the first of the consumer scanners that offers variable focus of any knid and Microtek has been working to be sure that the software gets the maximum utility out of this feature. That is absolutely all I know.

OK, thanks for confirming that they have a focus, that in and of itself may make them better than competeing flatbeds. I truly hope they allowed for manual focus too. And wet scanning ability even if it takes some strange adaptor to accomplish it. The information on the Microtek site is very sparse. I really hope that they do not force users to get the Silverfast software to be able to take advantage of all the features.

The scanner is going to be sold in two packages. The pro package with Silverfast Studio and two sets of film holders and the straight package without the extras. My understanding is that you will be able to access all the features with the Microtek software but Studio is excellent software.

As for wet mounting, it is easy. I started to do an instructional video on wet mounting in the 1800f and then they discontinued it but the M1 loads the same way and you can easily wet mount on the removable glass tray.

OK, thanks. As long as the opening is large enough to fit the glass I'm sure Scan Science can make me an adapter http://www.scanscience.com/

FYI:

Some of Ted's first thoughts

http://www.largeformatphotography.info/forum/showthread.php?t=27341&page=9&highlight=microtek