Plustek 7300 and Olympus XA2

[Gradskater]

A lot has been opined about the Plustek 7300, but from someone who actually has one, I am happy with the results. Sure, the dmax isn't the biggest, and it may not be the fastest, but it works reliably, and can return some very nice scans. This picture below isn't the best composition, but was taken to see what the scanner and lens could do. Olympus XA2 Arista Premium 100 film in Diafine.

 

[morback]

I'm happy with my 7500 as well. If I ever need a professional scan, I'll send it to a drumscanner.
It's god enough for flicker and printing on epson 3800.

It's one of the few (only?) still supported scanners that run on OS X...

 

[Gradskater]

I run mine on a mac, so the 7300 and the 7500 will work with OSX.

 

[cam]

any tips or tricks you want to share for getting such a nice looking scan? (mac here,too, btw)

 

[morback]

I scan as flat as possible (maximum info everywhere) and post process in photoshop.
No big secret there!

 

[Gradskater]

That one was scanned pretty much flat. I think I played with the contrast slider a bit and that was all. scanned in color, with no sharpening masks or anything else. negafix was checked and set in the middle. film type and exposure was "other" "other" "standard". no iSRD used. scanned at 3000dpi to tiff, then converted to jpeg with preview.

I bumped up the sharpness and desaturated it in iphoto. I find the biggest thing affecting my scans is whether or not I got the exposure right when I took it. All of the recent black and white pictures on my flickr page were scanned with the plustek. I think they look nearly as good as scans from much more expensive scanners.

 

[Gradskater]

one more just because...

 

[marke]

I have the 7200, and for web use you don't need anything better.

 

[arthur sadowsky]

...I just wanna say that I absolutely love your first pic (in fact I've checked your Flickr gallery and I like your all work, especially your collor pics!).

Thanks for sharing your Plustek experience with us (I'm thinking buying one) and please, upload some more color once!

All the best!!

 

[shadowfox]

Good to hear.

Plustek may be the only game in town when all the Nikon Coolscan died or became so rare and expensive. I really don't relish the thought of using flatbed to scan 35mm.

I hope they get enough revenue to continue improving the quality.

 

[DRabbit]

I've just STARTED using the plustek 7300 and found SilverFast very clunky and buggy (it crashed on me 3 times). I ended up using VueScan and got good results but had to play with the settings to get it right (I posted images here).

I'm also using Arista Premium 400 (and now shooting with 100) developed in Diafine.

I know you mentioned some settings... mind including a step-by-step on the first one? Like you, I'd like "flat" results and then I'll use photoshop to bump up contrast and such. How do you feel about the SilverFast software?

 

[tarullifoto]

Gradskater, that is a beautiful composition and a great scan. What resolution did you use?

I've got a V-ED, and find that at 4000dpi, grain becomes very exaggerated, especially on 400 film.

 

[barefoot]

I'm with DRabbit - not really happy with silverfast. Specifically, when I tell it I'm scanning a negative, it forces me to choose a film type/speed, but it doesn't include what I'm using (fuji neopan 100 - B&W) and all the film types I try look crappy. Any hints in that area?