I've just acquired a brand new iSisXL, the REV E model, which according to the label on the base is manufactured in August 2014.
I noticed that the rollers, the orange rubber bands, are causing roller marks on paper that I feed to the iSis. I see pressure dents and also scuffing from the rollers. Please see the attached pictures.
I am now cleaning the iSis rollers after every sheet of paper I feed to it but the marks still remain. Is this normal operation for this instrument?
I also notice that the iSis status LED pollutes the insides of the measuring chamber - it is blue when the measurement is ongoing, and does not turn off. I have an i1 Pro 2 and the status LEDs turn off when the instrument is measuring patches.
This is what the glow looks like from the front slit of the iSis while it is measuring a sheet:
I shielded the LED source with some
ProtoStar flocking material and remeasured the sheet.
Despite the scuff marks and the LED now shielded, the biggest difference is just 0.41dE2000, in a very dark patch, 6,0,0. This seems normal to me. I'm actually surprised that the scuffing, which looks quite severe now that the chart has passed through the iSis twice, has not thrown off the measurement data by more.
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dE Report
Number of Samples: 3042
Delta-E Formula dE2000
Overall - (3042 colors)
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Average dE: 0.05
Max dE: 0.41
Min dE: 0.00
StdDev dE: 0.03
Best 90% - (2737 colors)
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Average dE: 0.04
Max dE: 0.08
Min dE: 0.00
StdDev dE: 0.02
Worst 10% - (305 colors)
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Average dE: 0.12
Max dE: 0.41
Min dE: 0.08
StdDev dE: 0.05
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And a short rant about build quality - the aluminium chassis is very solid, no complaints. But the plastic bits are atrocious. The front bits are two pieces, instead of one. The white backing for measurements is also two separate pieces, instead of one. I suspect this is due to some cost saving measures - since a smaller iSis model is also manufactured.