scanner review...

[mysteryscribe]

As anyone who knows me already knows, I am a dedicated film user. I closed my studio several years ago after I was told by doctors not to make any long range plans. I have recently decided they were full of bull, so now I am getting back into it. While I was gone digital swept the country which might not be great for photographers in general, but it was great for me.

I bought two complete film camera systems. When I say complete. I mean each system has two camera with zoom lenses and a bunch of prime lenses as well. I bought all four cameras and the box of lenses both auto and manual focus systems for under 200 bucks. I had sold the same amount of equipment a few years ago for well over a grand. So the one thing I needed was a high resolution scanner.

I was all set to spend a bunch of money but then I saw the plustek 7200 advertisements. I did my home work. I had one of their flatbeds, I use to scan large format negs and was happy with it. (I thought). I bought a used film scanner just to see if there was a difference as least as much as I had been told there was.

Trust me there is a huge difference so I was determined to get a newer higher resolution and easier to use scanner. I bought the plustek and have nothing but good things to say about it. It is sharp and the silver fast software that comes even with the cheapest one is more than up to the task. I use some additional software but the silverfast that is bundled works darn well. You can scan six negs without removing the negative holder. Yeah you do have to advance them by hand but it is much faster than my old scanner that required me to remove the holder to advance it.

So I know you are wondering about the downside. There is no digital ice and that can be a problem on high resolution scans. I plan to scan them directly from the processor and then archive the negs. I think that will give me the least amount of dust. No auto feed which I really wish I had. Once owned a pacific image scanner with auto load and I liked that part a lot. Not much else about it that I found good, but that really was nice.

Would I recommend the Plustek 7200 you bet I would. I can scan a roll of twenty four at 11x14 resolution which for them is over 10mega pix in about 45 minutes. This is the only product I ever recommended.

I don't work for them or get anything for this. I'm just hoping more people keep film alive this is a nice way to have the best of both worlds in my opinion.

[cyclohexane]

Do you have a sample scan to share? Feel free to downsize for web-viewing.

Thanks for the review; covered the important aspects quickly and clearly. =)

I took a quick look at the unit online; besides the lack of digital ICE it also seems to be incompatible with Macs. The price is nice though; looks like it's time to get those PCs running again instead of being lazy (they just need new hard drives and assorted bits)... =)

[mysteryscribe]

Originally Posted by cyclohexane

Do you have a sample scan to share? Feel free to downsize for web-viewing.

Thanks for the review; covered the important aspects quickly and clearly. =)

I took a quick look at the unit online; besides the lack of digital ICE it also seems to be incompatible with Macs. The price is nice though; looks like it's time to get those PCs running again instead of being lazy (they just need new hard drives and assorted bits)... =)

This is an old negative but scanned with the plustek..... http://www.photocamel.com/forum/blac...-old-days.html

[cyclohexane]

Mmm... a heck of a lot better than the flatbeds I've tried. Thanks for the quick response. =)

[mysteryscribe]

Originally Posted by cyclohexane

Mmm... a heck of a lot better than the flatbeds I've tried. Thanks for the quick response. =)

I have a flat bed and an older minolta film scanner and nothing comes close to this scanner. I have no idea what all it has but i wish it auto scanned and had ice... but for the money it is a dream.

[Douglas]

Actually glad to read this. I still have a great film camera in my Nikon N90S and really dont want to spend another $1000+ on a compareable digital. (Although I probably will eventually, sigh....)
But at least I now know there is a good negative scanner and can scan in all my negatives without pay astronomical prices.

[walter23]

I'm not sure if it's just your particular image or what, but that shot you linked to looks like it's lacking a lot of tonal subtlety - there are these sort of dominant tones but no subtle gradations between them.

The other thing with a cheaper scanner is the "Dmax" - the maximum film density it can scan detail in (shadows on slide film, or highlights of negative film (ie, the dark parts of the negative)). I have a pretty high end flatbed (Epson V750) and I'm still not totally satisfied with its Dmax, especially on colour slide scans. It's really hard to pick up subtle shadow detail, e.g. on velvia, which is kind of annoying as slides are already pretty low in their dynamic range capabilities. Negatives are a bit easier to work with, though underexposed negs scan better than overexposed ones.

In scanning you pretty much get what you pay for. A cheap scanner can give you images for web display and do a decent job for small prints, but you will lose out in quality. This is more pronounced in 35mm and even medium format than in larger formats, though the Dmax issue still rears its ugly head.

You can often pick up the discontinued Epson 4990 (or 4490 if you don't need 4x5" large format) on epson.com in the refurb section of their store for a good price. These do a really good job of 35mm and medium format, for the price.

[Chrisl]

For the money you can get into a used Nikon 4000 or Minolta unit that will provide better resolution, sharper and better Dmax. Cheap scanners = cheap results, not saying your choice was bad but as Walter pointed out your scan is lacking tonal range that a different unit could easily pick up. There is a reason this scanner is priced were it is.

[DigiFilm]

I'm glad I ran across this thread, as I am looking at scanners atm. I have a trunk full of negs (35mm and 120/220) and 35mm slides that I would love to scan myself, and although I shoot mostly digital atm, I am not anywhere near ready to give up on film.

Thanks!! ** wanders off now to look for more scanner threads **

[blumesan]

I have never used this scanner. However from my experience usings several other scanner I can make the following observations: Almost any film scanner, properly used, will produce better results than almost any flat bed scanner. Second, the price is certainly right. On the other hand, you do get what you pay for. I would wager that a second hand Minolta or Nikon film scanner with nominal resolution in the 2200 - 4000 ppi range will outperform this scanner. The downside is that they will probably cost 2x to 4x what they are getting for a new Plustek.

Cheers/Mike