Pakon Scanner

[bence8810]

What a shame, I was ready to press the Buy it Now button a few days ago but then decided to ask a few questions and now its $50 more expensive. I'll still buy it I guess since it's a great little machine from what I can see and I guess the price increase indicates that stock is running low...

Ben

 

[bence8810]

Guys, I am ordering the Pakon scanner tomorrow but was just wondering how much you paid for "international" shipping? I seem to recall from this thread someone saying $40USD to Holland.

I am in Japan and on their Ebay site the shipping comes out to $74USD and on the aaaimaging site it is $83USD. Dropped them an email about the same but wanted to ask you guys how much you ended up forking out for the shipping?

Right now with the $300 pricetag and the 75 shipping, it isn't that cheap anymore. I got my V750 for $370 brand new in Japan.

Thanks,
Ben

 

[edge100]

A few users on the Pakon FB group have figured out how to scan slide film with it, without all of the horrible posterization and loss of shadow detail that those us who had tried to scan slides with the F135+ had seen previously.

I'm still testing the protocol, but it looks very promising.

 

[pbo]

I was about to pull the trigger on the aaimaging offering when the price suddenly went up!

Yesterday I noticed another listing popped up from another seller. His asking price is pretty low, but shipping is kind of high. I made an offer and he accepted, so soon I should be getting the scanner! I will post back when I get it and confirm whether it works or not - this seller makes no guarantees on the working condition, so it's a slight gamble. The post-offer price including shipping is lower than the old aaimaging pre-shipping price though!

 

[f16sunshine]

^^^^^

Too risky for me. He makes no claims that it works? You may get a brick.
AAA has a 90 warranty. That's long enough to debug the machine.
One of our members (David Manning Iirc) had to exchange the scanner he received.
AAA back it up completely after sale. That's worth a lot .
Anyway good luck! I hope it works out for you 🙂

 

[Byteside]

Guys, I am ordering the Pakon scanner tomorrow but was just wondering how much you paid for "international" shipping? I seem to recall from this thread someone saying $40USD to Holland.

I am in Japan and on their Ebay site the shipping comes out to $74USD and on the aaaimaging site it is $83USD. Dropped them an email about the same but wanted to ask you guys how much you ended up forking out for the shipping?

Right now with the $300 pricetag and the 75 shipping, it isn't that cheap anymore. I got my V750 for $370 brand new in Japan.

Thanks,
Ben

I bought the Pakon from aaaimagingsolutions on ebay for 250 dollars and 60 dollars for shipping to the Netherlands (on Jul 23, 2014). Do be warned, aaaimagingsolutions does not use ebay correctly, because I got after delivery around 70 dollars import charges/tax from FedEx. Other Ebay sellers show/have the option to pay import charges directly when buying the product. This way you see how much the import charges are and saves (possible) trouble (and might also be lower, because you save on administration costs of around 10 dollar from FedEx). The amount of import charges might be very different depending on country.

A few users on the Pakon FB group have figured out how to scan slide film with it, without all of the horrible posterization and loss of shadow detail that those us who had tried to scan slides with the F135+ had seen previously.

I'm still testing the protocol, but it looks very promising.

Do you perhaps know more about this group? Do they have a website with info and downloads? I tried to join, but did not get in. I would like more information on reverse engineering and memory locations. I tried IDA Pro (free) and Ollydbg, but got stuck on the dll the program uses, I have no experience with dll's (in theory should not be much different than exe).

 

[bence8810]

I bought the Pakon from aaaimagingsolutions on ebay for 250 dollars and 60 dollars for shipping to the Netherlands (on Jul 23, 2014). Do be warned, aaaimagingsolutions does not use ebay correctly, because I got after delivery around 70 dollars import charges/tax from FedEx. Other Ebay sellers show/have the option to pay import charges directly when buying the product. This way you see how much the import charges are and saves (possible) trouble (and might also be lower, because you save on administration costs of around 10 dollar from FedEx). The amount of import charges might be very different depending on country.

Thanks for that! I got a reply back from them this morning and they say shipping will be no matter what $85USD. If I also get charged import duties, this might just end up being an expensive rig after all...

On your other question, I don't know anything about programming but I was let in the FB group in a matter of a few hours. You might want to try again.

Thanks,
Ben

 

[rolfe]

These things cost $12,000 originally. Does it really matter whether it is $250 or $300? Either way it is a steal.

 

[bence8810]

These things cost $12,000 originally. Does it really matter whether it is $250 or $300? Either way it is a steal.

It is 10 years old after all and it isn't $300 but $450 with all included, but yes I am with you otherwise. It hasn't been replaced in 10 years so it's still the thing to get a full roll scanned at once.

I am buying it today.
Ben

 

[f16sunshine]

My First four rolls to run through the "new" Pakon are hanging to dry.
Thank you Taemo for offering me an old XP laptop at a great price. The Driver is loaded and I'm Hoping for the best.
These Kodak scanners are serious business. It's small but a tank with a heavy metal bottom case.
What about possible film Jambs? I don't see how the top pops off? Does it?

I hope you all don't mind the questions. I'm resisting creating a new FB acct just to get to that group! 😛
Any last minute tips for transferring files to a thumbie so I can then load them to my apple ecosystem by hand with and USB ?

 

[bence8810]

Guys, pulled the trigger and ordered via Ebay. I asked the seller to mark the box clearly as Used Scanner, we'll see how it goes. It was $369 USD all together, we'll see what customs will add on top of this.

What about possible film Jambs? I don't see how the top pops off? Does it?

I read somewhere or heard in a Youtube video that when you scan shorter strips than 4, you can do so by removing the lid and helping the film through to the place where the wheels will start taking it. This would mean that the top indeed comes off...

This also means I should scan my film before cutting it up as I normally use 135-24 films so it won't touch the ground while I am drying it and as I take a shot on "0" and "25" I end up with 26 frames. I cut them into strips of 6 which leaves me with a 5th strip of 2 frames only... Just thought of this. Might also be trouble scanning my archived negatives.

Ben

 

[ChrisPlatt]

There is a FB group that has multiple threads on this topic and the members are quite helpful troubleshooting

Thanks but I don't do Facebook; I had to think awhile what FB meant.

I pose the question again in hope someone here can answer:
Does the Pakon software work properly in Windows 7 XP mode?

TIA,
Chris

 

[android]

Chris, I picked up a two year old laptop running Windows 7. I first tried XP in VMware and then XP mode. Neither worked. The Pakon would begin scanning and then throw up an error. I reached out to AAA and they said that I should be using a desktop, so I took the plunge and bought a second hand machine - the Pakon now works flawlessly. I'm not technical but I felt that maybe the slow bus speed on the laptop was the issue.

 

[f16sunshine]

1st scan!
Man what a treat to be reminded of what XP was like 😛

I'm not allowed in the FB group yet. A new acct with no posts I guess is too suspicious.
So lacking further information on how to scan traditional film (if there is any)... I just scanned using the BW Chromogenic mode. I left some of the tone in rather than desaturating to grey.
Lots to learn but ... here is an image.

Miranda at Juanita park by Adnan W, on Flickr

Cheers!

 

[bence8810]

1st scan!
Man what a treat to be reminded of what XP was like 😛

I'm not allowed in the FB group yet. A new acct with no posts I guess is too suspicious.
So lacking further information on how to scan traditional film (if there is any)... I just scanned using the BW Chromogenic mode. I left some of the tone in rather than desaturating to grey.
Lots to learn but ... here is an image.

Hey, that's brilliant. I can't wait to get my hands on mine.

If you have a new FB account, it indeed might be suspicious. Drop me a PM with your FB details and I'll send a note to the admin to allow you in.

TIA,
Chris

TIA means something entirely different in Blood Diamond. If you haven't seen the movie, I recommend it as it's brilliant. Since I've seen it, TIA always reminds me of that.

Ben

 

[bence8810]

Thanks but I don't do Facebook; I had to think awhile what FB meant.

I pose the question again in hope someone here can answer:
Does the Pakon software work properly in Windows 7 XP mode?

TIA,
Chris

By the way I hear there's a flickr group too which you might want to look up since you don't do FaceBook. I haven't looked as FB is their main hangout and is a heck of a lot more user friendly.

Ben

EDIT: here, looked it up for you: https://www.flickr.com/groups/2426828@N22/discuss/

 

[Charles S]

Here is a public thread with lots of information:

http://www.filmwasters.com/forum/index.php?topic=6842.0

 

[bence8810]

Got so excited, went ahead and installed Parallels on my iMac and am already running Windows XP SP3 on it. Was a breeze installing it and the guest (XP) machine has full access to the mac's HDD so I can just move the images over once scanned.

Now I just need to hope that the scanner will actually work with the Virtual machine.

Ben

 

[wblynch]

Keep in mind that tons of these scanners hit the used market when CVS and other minilabs quit film and dumped them. Once the ones in stock at AAA and other resellers are gone, you will be left to fend on ebay.

When I got my F-235 there were lots available and the prices were cheap. No one knew what they were or how to get them working. But soon they seemed to disappear altogether and the prices went stupid high.

So get them while you can. Good luck,

 

[f16sunshine]

^^

I agree ... it's later than we think with these scanners. No time to dally if one can fund it and has a need... go for it!

A question for you... what is the biggest advantage / disadvantage of the 235 vs 135 ?
I could google it yes but... would like to hear from a user of both machines. You're in a unique position.
Cheers