Any news on the new Plustek 120 scanner?

[Keith]

So what are Plustek showing people at photokina? And are these negatives loaded into the holders the ones that aren't good enough?

Come to think of it if they came out of that Lubitel possibly not. 😀

 

[sleepyhead]

Yes, seems strange not to have released any sample scans by this point in time.

Even if they are not head-to-head comparisons with another scanner.

It does make one wonder if "somethings up" (in a not good way) over at Plustek.

It's all very sad and frustrating for us film users.

 

[JianL]

This is ridiculous.

You have kept us all waiting for months with promises that you would reveal all in Septemeber/ at Photokina; yet you can't even confirm the price or produce a sample scan!

Are you seriously telling us that nobody in your company has the ability to mount a film camera on a tripod and just shoot a scene? It needn't win photograph of the year award - we just want to see how the machine scans.

If it isn't ready then just say so.

I'm fast losing interest in this item.

Film will be obsolete by the time you release this item.

 

[I Love Film]

Maybe the Photokina sample is just a dummy. It's a plastic shell filled with crushed newspapers or something.

 

[cabbiinc]

Is there nobody in the NY area that can loan a few sample negatives? Seems pretty simple if that's all is required.

 

[MSUSpartan]

The outside of the scanner sure does look pretty though right?

Is there nobody from the company that is creating a film scanner have any negatives to scan? How do they know that the scanner they are developing is working as intended? Asking users for negatives so that they can present samples is a bit odd.

 

[kdemas]

I agree with a previous poster that this is starting to feel like vaporware. The clock is ticking on "affordable" film and this incredibly long ramp up time will definitely hurt the sales of this bad boy as the digital transition marches forward. Not to say people should switch or that it's even a good idea but with every passing day more hobbyists and some pro's make the move.

I too am very interested in this scanner but it needs to get out the door. If there's a delay due to performance issues then there has been a bad job done by the marketing department in setting expectations with potential customers. Silence and unexplained delays were mastered by Contax (Kyocera) and you can certainly see where that got them in spite of having some outstanding products.

Let's hope for some samples and/or straight talk soon about the true status of this product.

 

[Keith]

I was going back through this thread and noticed that Mark did say that the release was predicted to be late September.

So I won't panic just yet then.


Post # 525:

Originally Posted by MSUSpartan View Post
Let's say it's announced at Photokina, any idea on when we can actually buy one?

Right now the target is the end of September.

 

[Bob Parsons]

The lack of sample files is certainly worrying, especially since Photokina is now under way.


A small amount of additional information if you haven't already seen it: http://www.slideshare.net/mdruziak/plustek-opticfilm-120-product-introduction



Bob.

 

[shimokita]

Not sure when we will see it in the local (Japan) market and when we do most likely it will only have the Japanese version of what ever software is bundled and no support in English.

English version of the software to be purchased separately as it's not included in the bundle seems to be the norm. License key issues... a whole other story...

Not complaining as MF photographers are patient by nature ;-), just commenting on global product release strategy in general.

Casey

 

[George Bonanno]

Bing ! You've all been hoodwinked.

 

[thegman]

I think there is a remarkable amount of hysteria about this, OK, so there are no sample files yet, no-one is making you buy it, so wait for samples if you want.

If you don't want to go on waiting, buy something else, for MF, a V700 will do just fine.

Nobody is being hoodwinked, sometimes in product development, things take longer than expected, it's a fact of life. Plustek are working to serve a small niche, they're not Sony, they don't have hundreds of millions in R&D money.

Schedules at most companies cannot be adjusted to meet the needs of RFF. Calm down, wait, it's just a scanner.

</rant>

 

[Keith]

I think there is a remarkable amount of hysteria about this, OK, so there are no sample files yet, no-one is making you buy it, so wait for samples if you want.

If you don't want to go on waiting, buy something else, for MF, a V700 will do just fine.

Nobody is being hoodwinked, sometimes in product development, things take longer than expected, it's a fact of life. Plustek are working to serve a small niche, they're not Sony, they don't have hundreds of millions in R&D money.

Schedules at most companies cannot be adjusted to meet the needs of RFF. Calm down, wait, it's just a scanner.

</rant>

You're right ... it is just a scanner.

But with Nikon baling out of the market some time ago it's the only real scanner on the horizon that may offer high quality scans for 135 film.

As DCSang would say ... "Time to cool our jets!" 😛

 

[k__43]

guys .. calm down.
I'm an electronic engineer and can tell you: the one most annoying and unhelpful thing is an demanding and pushing customer on an unfinished product. It mostly leads to buggy software/hardware.

That scanner will be so expensive that one can wait for another month or two. How many of you are actually on the edge to buy a 9000ED instead?

Also film will not disappear this year or the next. If you really need to get rid of money I'll share my paypal address.


One thing that makes me really really want that thing is the 120 format holder .. scanning 3 6x7 frames at once? yes I want that!!

 

[Jamie123]

I'm an electronic engineer and can tell you: the one most annoying and unhelpful thing is an demanding and pushing customer on an unfinished product. It mostly leads to buggy software/hardware.

Fair enough, if it is unfinished. But the weird thing is that they say the product is finished, ready to go on sale, on display at a number of fairs, but somehow they still haven't had the chance to do any decent scans. If they're having any issues and the product really isn't ready yet they should just say so and people would stop asking for samples.

 

[shimokita]

"Plustek 120 High-End Scanner" (tentative name)
as **shown/reported** at CP+ Yokohama February 2011 (...Feb-2011)

http://dc.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/news/20110211_426498.html

no panic... it's a timing issue...

Casey

 

[hanskerensky]

Lasersoft Imaging themselves seems present on the Plustek stand on the Photokina :

Hall 3.1
Plustek will present a real highlight at the photokona – its brand-new medium-format scanner OpticFilm 120. It is a slide and film scanner unmatched in its class regarding image output. The employees of Plustek and LaserSoft Imaging are looking forward to demonstrate this joint product to you.

http://www.silverfast.com/show/photokina2012/en.html

So anybody going there should be able to return home with a superscan 🙂

 

[mdruziak]

Guys, lets be civil about this. I realize that people are disappointed that the scanner isn't available right now. No one is trying to deceive anyone. What would the benefit of that be?

Those of you that are or have been involved with manufacturing understand that there can be things as simple as the wrong color paint that cause delays. So launch timing isn't an exact science.

Regarding the images. We have a lot of good engineers on staff but not so many good photographers. The product manager for the OpticFiilm scanners is a good photographer, but she is busy getting this thing out the door. So what good would it be to post an out of focus photo of a wall or an unexposed photo of a lamp?

I do have decent negatives that I can scan but I was trying to get some involvement from you guys here if you were interested.

 

[Dan]

Something still makes no sense and lack of decent negatives isn't an explanation because at some point Plustek HAD to have actually scanned something just to see if the dang thing worked or not.

 

[ernstk]

Guys, lets be civil about this. I realize that people are disappointed that the scanner isn't available right now. No one is trying to deceive anyone. What would the benefit of that be?

Those of you that are or have been involved with manufacturing understand that there can be things as simple as the wrong color paint that cause delays. So launch timing isn't an exact science.

Regarding the images. We have a lot of good engineers on staff but not so many good photographers. The product manager for the OpticFiilm scanners is a good photographer, but she is busy getting this thing out the door. So what good would it be to post an out of focus photo of a wall or an unexposed photo of a lamp?

I do have decent negatives that I can scan but I was trying to get some involvement from you guys here if you were interested.

I find this reply slightly ludicrous, to be honest. What youre saying is that the product manager for the film scanner is so busy launching her film scanner that she has no time to adequately demonstrate how it actually scans film? Really?