Plus Tek OpticFilm 7200 film scanner

T

tedwhite

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I've got one. It's about the size of a loaf of bread. I can't quite figure out how to use it correctly. The instructions are a bit baffling. I've gotten a few astonishingly good scans from TriX negs, but I can't always do the same thing twice.

Mostly I intend to scan b/w negs. If anyone has a Plus Tek and knows how to use it I'd appreciate learning what you already know.

Ted
 
You're only the second person I've heard of who actually has a Plustek. If you browse hard you'll find the other person...he praises it...maybe he can give you some tips. You can be a fraternity!

I did just check to see if it was compatible with Vuescan...it is. You can download a free test copy (watermarked) of Vuescan...if you learn Vuescan you'll have something under your belt to discuss with others, since it works pretty much the same on all scanners. I use the same copy of Vuescan on my Epson 3200 flatbed and my Nikon V film scanner.
 
Plustek Taiwan

Plustek Taiwan

says so on their website
Plustek is made in Taiwan

but i cant find ANY review of their scanners anywhere
???
 
Sorry, Taiwan it is. I had read some positive reviews of the Plus Tek which caused me to buy it. Possibly on the Pentax UK forum. At any rate, a few scans of negs, printed on Epson Premium Glossy paper with my old Epson 820 printer, are virtually indistinguishable from their wet darkroom counterparts from the same negs. We're talking 8X10s here, which is the limit of the printer. I'll look again and see if I can find these reviews.

Ted
 
Well, I haven't timed them, but using the best scan mode seems to take about 1 minute.
 
If you have not timed it, it's reasonable to assume you've never seen one. Right?

Minolta 5400 (I) takes less than a minute for the scan, another several minutes for Ice.
Nikon V (mine) takes 1.75 min for scan without Ice, 2.5 min for scan with Ice.

Obviously Europeans are not idiots, despite their seeming comfort with Great Britain. If I'm correct that Europeans aren't idiots, why is it that they don't buy Plustek scanners and brag about them?

You can get a wonderful Minolta or Nikon (with Ice) at KEH photo for $250 or so. Why would you spend $189 on something nobody on the planet has actually used, and come back to brag about?
'
If you want an online source for Plustek, other than bogus 'bay sources, visit www.tigerdirect.com. I know for a fact that they've been around for several years, and taht although they're not the best source for anything, they're a solid #4.
 
I'm not sure about the first line of your post. I have seen one. I own one. It never occured to me to time the scan process, so I'm guessing. About a minute, perhaps a bit longer. And I'm certainly not "bragging" about it. If there's a problem with it I'm reasonably certain the problem can, for the most part, be traced directly to me. Simply put, I haven't figured it out yet. And thank you for the Vuescan tip.

Ted
 
Ted, sorry, I came across too aggressively there. I don't think I suggested that you were bragging, I hope I was suggesting that if these were owned by experienced users, and if they did perform well, they would have been bragging about their success with this inexpensive scanner...since it's been around for a year or two.

Plustek advertises 7200ppi as if it was a significant piece of information so it'd be interesting to hear your experience with extreme enlargement Vs the same section of film, scanned some lower ppi scanner...eg minilab.
 
Hey Ted,

I was going to buy one of those and found couple of magazine reviews that were very positive. Basically, the conclusion was that Plustek was better value than Dual Scan IV with scan results very close to each other and Minolta having a slight advantage in dynamic range. Every one of those reviews recommended not scanning past 3600dpi and using Vuescan.

I ended up getting Nikon Super Cool Scan 2000 for free from a friend so I passed on Plustek.
 
AP magazine reveiwed them a while back, review was ok but with a caveat about not a great DMAX compared to other film scanners I think...
 
I have one, and could not get very good results with the provided software (Silverfast SE) however with Vuescan I get consistently very good results, even with slides.
I bought it after reading AP review, It is definitely good enough for me, and excellent value for money.
 
keeds said:
AP magazine reveiwed them a while back, review was ok but with a caveat about not a great DMAX compared to other film scanners I think...
Click to expand...
Yes the DMAX is good for Negatives, but a bit short for slides compared to more expensive film scanners.
Hoewer with Vuescan I get pretty decent results with slides as well.
Even chromes, that were hopeless with Silverfast, are ok with vuescan.
 
OK, I'm sold. How do I get Vuescan and how much does it cost? Also, can you upload directly to it from the Plus Tek Scanner? Clearly, I'm not sure how it interfaces (God! I just realized that's the first time I ever used that word.)

Ted
 
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tedwhite said:
OK, I'm sold. How do I get Vuescan and how much does it cost? Also, can you upload directly to it from the Plus Tek Scanner? Clearly, I'm not sure how it interfaces (God! I just realized that's the first time I ever used that word.)

Ted
Click to expand...

http://www.hamrick.com/

$89.95 for the pro edition (I would not consider the standard edition)

You need to have the plustek drives installed, and then vescan recognizes the scanner automatically.

You can download a free trial and see how it works before buying.
 
Thank you, Francesco. I downloaded the trial version, took a Trix neg I'd been having great trouble with using the Plus Tek software, and got a beautiful scan with Vuescan. Now If I can just figure out to print it. When I do a Print Preview it comes up as a 4X6, instead of a 7X9 or 8X10. I'll keep working on it.

One question: Why would you only get the pro edition rather than the regular $49.95) edition? Just curious.

Ted
 
tedwhite said:
One question: Why would you only get the pro edition rather than the regular $49.95) edition? Just curious.

Ted
Click to expand...

I think free upgrades for life is good reason enoug to pay $40 more, also I plan in the future to play with ICC profiles, also I am thinking of buying an IT8 target to calibrate the scanner, but I could not find one on 35mm slide for less than $50
 
Thanks. You must realize by now that I a card-carrying computer doofus. I finally figured out that Vuescan was sending files to My Pictures and that I could then transfer them to Adobe PhotoShop (I have the primitive 2.0 version), resize, etc., and make a rather decent b/w print to 8/x10.

The SilverFast is, indeed, junk. And I think I'll buy the pro version of VueScan, although I've heard of something called Capture One. Anyone have that?

Ted
 
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