Pakon Scanner

[Bruno Gracia]

David, Thanks for your kind comments, I must say that no all is sharpness, for an A4 I have more than enough and for web issues.

Anyway I sold my M9 so many times, my MM three of them... always returning to film, why? I don't know, maybe is just the process or maybe is the inimitable colours and black and white which produces it.

So here I am scanning a roll of ektar, with my coolscan V, and is a real pain, if the Pakon can save me lots of time, I will embrace it with all my love.

Edge: Thanks for your opinion, I think I'm gonna search for one, where can I find in Europe? Any suggestions?

Cheers.

Bruno

 

[David_Manning]

Bruno,

I think you'd be very pleased with the operation of the Pakon. It's fast, the ICE works great on C41 film, and makes scanning the way you'd hope it would be...easier.

My particular Pakon is having some sharpness issues. I agree sharpness isn't everything at all, but Pakon scans I've seen are grain sharp at 2000x3000 pixels size, and mine aren't. I may have a bad copy...I'm communicating with the seller now.

I don't know if they sell and ship to Europe, but AAA Imaging in California told me on the phone yesterday that they still have "hundreds" of Pakon F135+'s to sell.

Best,

David.

 

[Bruno Gracia]

Well,

I've finally ordered one 🙂

I will show You the results in a few weeks!

Greetings from South Spain.

 

[Harry Lime]

Bruno,

Honestly, (this is for me only), I like the IDEA of the Pakon, kind of a magical, fast scanner for volume.

I ended up getting the Pakon after one too many beatings trying to sort through dozens of rolls from a heavy shoot. I followed a band around for about a week and had to go through 68 rolls on my Nikon scanner and was ready to shoot myself. The Pakon gives me a digital contact sheet / proofs in no time at all and then I can scan my picks on the Nikon or send them out for a hires scan.

 

[David_Manning]

My replacement scanner arrived. I complained to AAA Imaging, where I bought mine, about soft scans. They shipped another device.

It works perfectly...grain-sharp at 16-bit and 3000x2000 pixels. The colors are phenomenal.

Very happy. Also, it's very fast. Tested two uncut rolls, 16-bit, highest resolution, with digital ICE...about 6 or 7 minutes...without me being in the room except to change rolls.

 

[ChrisPlatt]

Like the scanner the included software looks very convenient to use.
An email reply from AAA states it works only in Windows XP. Is this true?
Is anyone running this thing in Windows 7 XP mode? If so any feedback?

TIA,
Chris

 

[rolfe]

According to other users, you can run under Windows 7 using Virtual PC and XP Mode.

I'm running on a Mac using Parallels and it works fine.

The software was made to be used by minilab operators working quickly, so it is pretty basic but also reasonably comprehensive. It is easy to get great scans right out of the box. Worst case, they need a minor tweak or sharpening in Lightroom.

 

[mrak]

I heard that it doesn't scan slide film. Why that? Is it still possible somehow?

Also how do you think the scanner compares to something like a Plustek 7600i? I know that Pakons main selling point is speed and automation but does it actually produce better results? I really like how contrasty and saturated the scans are.

 

[Tijmendal]

Mrak, it does scan slides (unmounted, of course) if you scan as B/W and save as RAW. However, the Dmax of the Pakon isn't high enough for the density of slides, so don't expect much from it.

 

[Paul Jonathan]

Tijmendal could you expand on this? I am looking to buy a F135 and if it could scan slides, I'd be sold on it. What post-processing is necessary after scanning in Raw? Haven't been able to find much info elsewhere.

Thanks

 

[edge100]

Tijmendal could you expand on this? I am looking to buy a F135 and if it could scan slides, I'd be sold on it. What post-processing is necessary after scanning in Raw? Haven't been able to find much info elsewhere.

Thanks

To scan slides, you just output the raw scan. After that, you've got to restore the correct Gamma to the files (I use ColorPos to do that).

The issue is that the shadows are completely lost to black; the DMax just isn't there. It's fine to proof (though so is a light box), but not for anything important.

 

[Paul Jonathan]

Thanks for the answer edge! Would you (or anybody else) happen to have some examples so I could get an impression of how bad it is? I'm really just looking to do slightly better proofs.

 

[edge100]

Thanks for the answer edge! Would you (or anybody else) happen to have some examples so I could get an impression of how bad it is? I'm really just looking to do slightly better proofs.

Yep.

This is Provia 100F. Total breakdown of detail in the hair on the right. It's more or less complete black and/or posterized shadow. On a light table, or scanned with my SprintScan 120, there's plenty of detail there.

 

[f16sunshine]

Could someone please explain the steps for using this machine for traditional B+W film?
(I'm using a Mac so would need some sort of Virtual set up I guess).

Yes... I know there is a Facebook group. It took me a year to extract FB out of my life I would dearly like to not go back !

Thanks in advance!

 

[edge100]

Could someone please explain the steps for using this machine for traditional B+W film?
(I'm using a Mac so would need some sort of Virtual set up I guess).

Yes... I know there is a Facebook group. It took me a year to extract FB out of my life I would dearly like to not go back !

Thanks in advance!

You need the v3 software which, AFAIK, is only widely available on the FB group. I can get you a copy from there. It runs in Parallels or VMWare without issue.

Once that's installed, you just scan it as a C41 B&W, with Digital ICE turned off. Done.

 

[f16sunshine]

Thank you !

Does not get easier. My understanding is that it now ships with v3 SW from AAA.
I'll go check stock there and order one up.
I use a CS50 and although it's a superb grain level scanner this Pakon will pair nicely for proofing.

 

[edge100]

Thank you !

Does not get easier. My understanding is that it now ships with v3 SW from AAA.
I'll go check stock there and order one up.
I use a CS50 and although it's a superb grain level scanner this Pakon will pair nicely for proofing.

Fortunately, once the Pakon is set up, it's quite painless to use.

 

[Paul Jonathan]

My understanding is that it now ships with v3 SW from AAA.

Yeah thats what I heard too. But in any case, someone already posted the dropbox link a few pages back (I don't have a fb account either anymore thank God).

Hi David,
here's a link to v3.0:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/o7hyo3uh3y6av4r/PakonUpdate.zip
https://www.facebook.com/groups/PakonF135/

This is Provia 100F. Total breakdown of detail in the hair on the right. It's more or less complete black and/or posterized shadow. On a light table, or scanned with my SprintScan 120, there's plenty of detail there.

Thanks for posting this. Looks usable to me for proofs. I was wondering, since none of the highlights look even close to clipping, would it be possible to reduce the contrast and shift the exposure in the scanner settings up and gain more range in the shadows? Or is that not how dynamic range works with scanners?

 

[Paul Jonathan]

Another question I had is how the scanner handles overlapping frames? As I understand it the scanner only does one aspect ratio.

 

[edge100]

Thanks for posting this. Looks usable to me for proofs. I was wondering, since none of the highlights look even close to clipping, would it be possible to reduce the contrast and shift the exposure in the scanner settings up and gain more range in the shadows? Or is that not how dynamic range works with scanners?

You have to export a raw file, and the software gives you no control over scanner settings, except for editing the output image (i.e. post-Raw). So, no I don't think this is possible (what you describe is precisely what I would have done with Vuescan and my SprintScan 120, for example).

If you have slides that don't have the same degree of shadow as this one, then my experience is that the Pakon is ok with them; but if you've got a contrasty scene, you're going to lose shadow detail, quickly.