Any reviews for the new PacImage 120 scanner?

[imush]

I am surprised there are no recent threads in sight. Has anyone here bought the animal yet? How does it compare to the old Nikon scanners?

It will take me a while yet to buy such a thing, but the flatbed MF scanning is just too cumbersome for me.

I do have a 5000ED with the roll adapter for 35mm, and regret not going all the way for the 9000 back then. It's all my fault, I was warned that MF is addictive, and still bought the GF670 🙂

 

[imush]

and still nobody?

 

[Mrbessar4a]

I think once people found out it costs the same as the Nikon any excitement was tempered.

 

[Lance]

never heard of it and googling it does not bring up anything. Can we have a link?

 

[htimsdj]

http://www.scanace.com/product/pf_120.html

Since they have no competition, I would imagine they could charge whatever they want.

 

[imush]

I think once people found out it costs the same as the Nikon any excitement was tempered.

Unfortunately, Nikon is no longer offering scanners and used prices are insane.

 

[imush]

Vuescan does not yet support it. If PacImage is serious, they should send one to Hamrick.
Neither does Silverfast, the other popular scanning package.
Nor do they have open source drivers for the do it yourself open source crowd.

All of this casts doubt on PacImage's knowledge of what they are doing. They cannot expect me to part with $2k until they address these concerns.

Still, I wonder if anyone here can testify whether the hardware is any good.

 

[brbo]

Review of this scanner (in German):

http://www.filmscanner.info/ReflectaMF5000.html

 

[thegman]

$2k is a lot of money, it's obviously a little unfair to compare to used scanner, but if I was spending that on a scanner, I'd be looking at a used Imacon.

 

[imush]

Review of this scanner (in German):

http://www.filmscanner.info/ReflectaMF5000.html

As I said, no conventional software supports it. The same questions apply to Reflecta. Anybody who knows the market would have sent the first few scanners to developers of Silverfast and Vuescan. These people are 20 years behind in time if they think that they can sell it with exclusive proprietary software.

 

[imush]

If I were Nikon, I would revive their scanner business. I understand it is too small for them, but a little niche spin-off or subsidiary could perhaps take over the Coolscan production and support and still be profitable.

They clearly have a monopoly on LED film scanner expertise, and although the market is small, I think the size has stabilized for years to come (just as b&w film sales did), with a slight potential to improve.

 

[Matus]

A short summary from the review linked above: they liked the scanner (rare, actually). The measured that at 3200 ppi setting the true resolution was around 3050. It takes 3 - 4 minutes to scan 6x6 in full resolution. Effective D-Max is somewhere between Coolscan 9000 and Epson V750. The dust reduction feature is not really useful. The film transport is manual. Software provided is rather basic, but works (has issue that preview and the final scan have an offset).

So - they say it is quite OK. Not Coolscan 9000 though. But better than V750.

I agree with what was said above - unless there is a software from Vueascan or SilverFast I would pass unless I really need one. The manual film transport is really a negative point for me.

EDIT: The price in Germany is cca 1400 €

EDIT2: Real suckers, they ask 2200 € for Coolscan V and 5600 € for Coolscan 9000. I mean - how much is gently used Hasselblad X1 ?