New Pacific Image scanner?

froyd

froyd

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Just saw this automatic 35mm scanner pop up on Amazon. A bit costly at $999, but if it performs well it could be interesting.

I'm sure there will be parallels drawn to the Pakon and its great color algorithms. Not sure how this PI scanner stacks up, but the increased resolution and lack of dependence on XP are welcome. Of course, in terms of speed, this thing is nowhere close to the Pacman.

Here are the bullet point from Amazon:

- Automatic batch filmstrip scanning You can walk away while it works. The max. number of frames per batch scan is 60 frames (10 film strips per batch each strip has a max. of 6 frames)
- 24 MP image quality Comparable to high-end DSLR camera, with 24M resolution you can output a print size of 20.0 x 13.3 inches at 300 dpi
- Better image quality than scanning photo prints Photo prints are very low resolution, scanning them even with a high end photo scanner will still not provide you with a high quality digital image like scanning the original film will. Photo prints offer only about 260 dpi, whereas scanning a film you can capture the full 2000+dpi per inch using this film scanner
- Fast and efficient, saves time! High speed scanning: 24 sec./frame @ 6MP, fast scan speeds makes quick work of boxes of old negatives, The 6MP fast scan setup is great for print reproductions up to 10.0 x 6.7 inches at 300dpi.
- Makes scanning easy & relaxing. The most convenient and easy to use 35mm batch film scanner, simply load the films, set up the software with your particulars and select scan, now you are free to do other things instead of being tied to the computer


I'm happy with a Coolscan for now, but when it gives up its ghost, it's good to now we have some new options.
 
I'm not sure I found the manual for this particular model. However the Power Film series supports flat TIFFs.

Any comments on how well the inversion software option works?

If the film feeding is reliable this could be a game changer.

All I have to do is figure out how to keep the cat away.
 
I'm surprised this manufacturer is still around. I had thier scanner once and get rid of it with full disclosure.
 
Hmmmm ... Looks like you can just feed in a whole roll and it does the rest!

No more futzing around with negative carriers.

I wonder how it does with mounted slides?
 
The premium for not having to manually advance to the next frame seems high. My volume is not high enough to warrant the cost, but yours may be. I'm glad there is a choice though.
 
ptpdprinter said:
The premium for not having to manually advance to the next frame seems high.
Click to expand...

Thats not really the exciting news, the possibilty to put in 10 filmstrips at once make the big difference for people like me with a huge archiv and around 10-20 films a month.


Juergen
 
First review on Amazon is not encouraging:

Stay away from this scanner until the firmware is sorted out. It crashed and jammed constantly. Returned.

Curious to hear if the built in color algorithms are any good. Don't think we can hope for commercial quality color, but I'd love to be surprised.
 
froyd said:
- Better image quality than scanning photo prints.
Click to expand...

I find this disturbing. If you want to sell a serious scanner, why would you even mention any comparison with scanning from a print? Whatever the merits of the scanner, this just looks unserious.
 
Love the idea, but the price is way too high, and 2000 DPI is a little low, especially at this price. If I was still scanning film it would make more sense to buy a Minolta Scan Dual or Nikon scanner and put up with manually scanning the film. One can usually look at the film w/ a loupe on a light box and determine which frames are keepers, so it's not like you need to scan every frame on a roll.

The company's scanning sizes are bogus too. There is no way you are going to get a quality 20x13 print from a scanner that is limited to 2000 DPI. If you read down the page below you can see that such a scan is good for perhaps an 8x10 print before the quality starts to drop off.

http://www.digitalmemoriesonline.net/scan/scan_processing/resolving_scanning_resolution.htm
 
Steve M. said:
Love the idea, but the price is way too high, and 2000 DPI is a little low,
Click to expand...

The scanner has obviously more than 2000 dpi, just the times they listed for fast scanning (6MP) are at this setting. According to their website it can scan up to 24MP. On the other hand, they don't show any other scan resolution in dpi, maybe they get 24MP via upscaling which would be a joke.

Steve M. said:
One can usually look at the film w/ a loupe on a light box and determine which frames are keepers, so it's not like you need to scan every frame on a roll.
Click to expand...

Not working in my case, tried quite often, don't like it, besides, I often 'revisit' my photos in LR as I did with the good old contact print and find quite often 'silent' keepers which I didn't recognize in the first place.

Anyhow, based on my past experience with PacificImage scanners (Reflecta in Europe) I'm not really surprised about the bad review. Sad.

Juergen
 
I have used two different Pacific Image scanners and have mixed feelings about them. Three years ago I spent a frustrating several months with a Powerslide 5000. My brother bought it and sent it to me to scan Dad's old slides. The results were fine but getting there was difficult. Customer service back then was wonderful, it would never feed the first slide right and they told me to just leave that slot empty. They helped me get it up and running and I learned a lot. Dad's slides were a mixed lot and they would not always feed right so there was a lot of going back and scanning slides it missed.Two years later I bought one of their little manual scanners, load six negs in and push the button. That was OK until the warranty ran out and it started making very strange colors. That time customer service was less helpful and the cost of repair was the price of a new one. I'm not sure I would buy another Pacific Image product. Joe
 
Has anyone ended up using this scanner? I am considering it, at $499 it's still a pretty hefty investment, but superior scanning with a bit less babysitting would be very nice.
 
Thanks, I just watched that, he seems fairly impressed. Literally all I want a scanner to do is make sharp, detailed 35mm scans without a lot of fiddling with negative holders or touchups afterwards. That seems like what this one is promising, but some of the reviews from users sound like they're being used as beta testers. I wonder if they've ironed out the kinks yet.
 
yes i'm having a bit of trouble finding the perfect scanning set up as well. I have a nikon ls-50, and while it gives me great scans, better than my lab in fact, it sometimes takes more than an hour to scan just one roll. i don't want to have to invest in a dslr setup, i just want a good, dedicated scanner. nikon and canon should invest some time into this, there's definitely a market.
 
There is a market, but you'll notice that the market as all of these scanner manufacturers see it, is still digitization of older negatives. Notice how the marketing for this scanner talks about how much better the negative scan is than scanning a print? They still see family photo digitization as the main use case for the product.

I suspect it'll take a few NEW film camera models hitting the market (and selling well) before manufacturers decide to see currently-active film photographers as a worthwhile market in themselves.
 
If only we could join slide/negatives strips then it would be cheap scan on highend scanner used for cine film (16bit, 16K, HDR). Of course film size limited to scanner gate.
 
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