So I just bought a loupe....

TheTimeChamber

TheTimeChamber

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....and come to the conclusion that my scanner, or scanning technique, is atrocious!

Time to save for a new scanner, what are people's opinions on the plustek negative scanners?
 
Good. The 8xxx is just the 7xxx with newer software, although I'd imagine the 7xxx series is being phased out. They take some learning, especially depending on what choice of scanning software.

Significantly better than the Epson Vxxx for scanning 35mm, but that's all they do - if you ever want to jump up to medium format, make sure the Plustek really is for you (y)
 
I cannot imagine I will ever jump to MF in the near future, I have too many plans with my dSLR to afford it!

Good to hear about the plusteks, I have the v330 at the moment and it has never pleased me. It seems to produce soft scans...
 
What scanner do you currently have? I considered a loupe but decided I didn't want to know!
 
I went for the Reflecta Proscan 7200 instead of a Plustek, their RRP is about £350 but they sell for about £300 (I managed to get a fantastic deal on mine though and paid only £220!). Based on reviews I went for one because: unlike the Plustek you don't have to scan at 7200 DPI to get the best performance out of it (which obviously makes scan times excessive and bloats the files with worthless excess data; although the Reflecta may say 7200 on the product name it only actually goes up to 3600), the ICE seemed much more effective on the Reflecta (it does do a great job on my one) and the dynamic range looked fantastic in comparison (Plustek claim 4.8 dmax but in reality its nowhere near that, its just marketing; Reflecta claimed 3.8 which according to tests is pretty accurate and multiexposure scanning increases that further).

The reviews that I based my decision on were these two, they really intensively review scanners at this place:

Reflecta Proscan 7200: http://www.filmscanner.info/en/ReflectaProScan7200.html

Plustek 8200i: http://www.filmscanner.info/en/PlustekOpticFilm8200i.html

Hope you find this helpful
 
Slides are dead easy to load, just slide them in the holder, the holder advances very easily in the feeder and you just have to remember to keep it straight because it is possible to vary the angle of the holder ever so slightly (although this can be useful if you have a slide which is slightly wonky in the mount).

Negatives are a little harder to load, but once you've got the technique for getting them in the holder then their dead easy as well, just fold the holder to 45 degrees put it on a suitable surface with the ridged part facing up towards you on the angled bit and then balance the negative on the ridges (lining up the negative frames inbetween the frames on the holder) and then carefully pick up the holder and bring the hinge shut, then clamp it. Really curly negatives can be a little difficult but their still fairly easy to get in.

Its quite quick when scanning at the maximum 3600 dpi and multiexposure obviously doubles the time taken but increases the dynamic range further which is extremely useful on slides (it has no use on negatives). I would highly recommend getting Vuescan though if you don't have it as the Cyberview software that comes with it is basic to say the least.

If you want an auto-loader then the Reflecta RPS 7200 professional may be of interest although it only does it on negatives (you just slide slides into the slot every time) and is about £100 more, I did consider waiting and getting one of them but decided the Proscan 7200 was good enough for me.

Sam
 
Cheers Sam, I was just looking at the difference between Vuescan and Silverfast, and the consensus is that Vuescan is much easy to use (although positive's have to be worked a bit).

I think I have made my mind up!
 
And you can also use Vuescan with any scanner, you don't have to pay for an individual licence like with Silverfast (which I tried and didn't like too much).

I've found slides very easy to scan in Vuescan, if you want to make it much easier though then pick up an IT-8.7 calibration target, it'll get the colours looking pretty much exactly like the original slide, all you need to do then is levels and sharpening in Photoshop etc (The Reflecta comes with Photoshop Elements 8 if you don't have anything). If you search for IT-8.7 profiling on TP the a thread by me should come up, you can plainly see the difference there.

Sam
 
Sectionate said:
....and come to the conclusion that my scanner, or scanning technique, is atrocious!

Time to save for a new scanner, what are people's opinions on the plustek negative scanners?
Click to expand...

Absolutely pants!

I bought one and the greys were all blue, they were all soft and poorly defined. The machine cannot automate each cell so you have to do them manually. I was in contact with the main developer who sent me about 4 pre-release versions but still it was rubbish...

In the end I sent it back for a full refund and bought an Epson V500 which was half the price, scanned 4 negs at a time, does medium format and normal A4 etc as well plus the colours and definition are FAR better.
 
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