Primefilm XA experiences?

[jkjod]

Anybody out there have any experience with the Primefilm XA (or the Reflecta version)? I have a Plustek 7600 now and love the scans I get, it is just a slow process. Having something that can do batch scans of whole rolls would be wonderful. There do not seem to be too many options out there in this market...nikon coolscan with SA-21, a Pakon 135 (kicking myself for not buying one of these a couple of years ago!!), or the Primefilm XA. I'm open to other suggestions and/or comments.

 

[V-12]

Anybody out there have any experience with the Primefilm XA (or the Reflecta version)? I have a Plustek 7600 now and love the scans I get, it is just a slow process. Having something that can do batch scans of whole rolls would be wonderful. There do not seem to be too many options out there in this market...nikon coolscan with SA-21, a Pakon 135 (kicking myself for not buying one of these a couple of years ago!!), or the Primefilm XA. I'm open to other suggestions and/or comments.

Ensure you've done your editing by reviewing thumbnail scans that are very fast to do before choosing the best to scan at full resolution. I mean, in the darkroom nobody ever defaulted to printing every frame from a roll of 36 at 10x12 just to see what was on it. I reckon a 2 out of 36 hit rate is good going.

V

 

[Jhausler]

i asked around here about a month back. i didn't get any responses as it doesn't seem a very popular scanner. i just ordered one... we'll see how it goes. it arrives Thursday.

I'm mostly curious on the best way to batch downsample the 10,000 photos to a more appropriate size after scanning.

On my crappy Epson v500, i've been turning off color correction and using negfix8 to reverse and trim the files. I'm really happy with the results I get. I'm hoping there's a negfix flag I can use to downsample as well.

 

[Jhausler]

Ok, i got my XA a few days ago.

It comes with Cyberview and Silverfast 8 SE (not plus), which means no multi exposure.

Scanning single frames at a time, it's great. Trying to batch scan, it's total crap.

I initially tried a roll of 36, but that was to much just to try and figure things out, so i spent more time with a strip of 6.

I can get Silverfast to pull up the 6 frames in the thumbnails just fine, but when it goes to scan it does something different every time.

- skip the 1st frame, scan the last frame twice
- skip the 5th frame, scan the 6th frame twice
- scan half of the 6th frame, half air..

There's no consistency at all and no successes. Just different fail states.

I'll probably give Vuescan a go and see if it can get the job done with this scanner... otherwise it's back to B&H.

I'll post a large res image later on from my single scan successes.

 

[Jhausler]

Gave Vuescan and CyberviewX a shot. Doesn't batch feed correctly there either.

It will do the pre scan just fine, but when it goes backwards and tries to scan the frames, it's way off. Half of this frame, half of the next.

I'm going to scan this roll one at a time and then send it back for an exchange. If the new one doesn't work i'll call it a bust and take a refund.

 

[jkjod]

Thanks for the update - I'm eager to hear how it turns out for you. It sounds as if my little Plustek will keep chugging along for the time being. Maybe someday the Plustek 120s will come down in cost some, at least here one is able to scan multiple images at a time.

 

[GarageBoy]

The whole point was the batch scan- is there any other new scanner that does so?

 

[Jhausler]

I got a replacement model from B&H and wow is this a world of difference. To begin with, the batch scanning works. It pulls exactly one frame at a time, and does a very good job of it.

I've mainly been using the included Silverfast, so I can only speak to that process for batch scanning.

To start with I hit the Overview button which will do a quick scan and get a count of how many frames are on the strip. It's interesting that it sends the film back and forth 4 times.

- Load the film, press overview.
- Film goes through one slide at a time from beginning to end.
- Film goes backwards from end to beginning, maybe for a recount.
- Film goes through again, beginning to end, this time doing a quick thumbnail scan
- Film goes back from beginning to end to get ready to scan
- First slide does a preview scan.

So if you want to do preview scans of each frame in a strip, you have to hit the Next button and then pre-scan each time.

I dont bother with that since I scan in HDR RAW and then use Negfix8 to apply gamma, etc and do the rest in LR.

My biggest issue with the scanner is that the film goes back and forth so much, but there's no where to put the film. If the roll is curly, great.. it just curls against the side of the machine. If it's flat, then it just kind of smashes up against everything on my desk. I try to roll it up, but then the sharp edges of the strip scratch up against the emulsion. Plus with all the back and forth, there's plenty of time for the film to pick up dust. I shoot b&w mainly, so it's a thing.

I may just put the scanner on a high stool or something so the film can hang off the sides.

The IQ is great.. certainly better than my old Epson v550, but that's not a surprise.


Here's an example from a roll of Delta 100 i just scanned at 5000dpi. Developed in Rodinal, 1+50, 14min.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/mangler/21750529626/

 

[Ko.Fe.]

I would not call Epson V500 as crappy one, but universal. Minimum PP in LR required if negs aren't very crappy ones.
Good luck with XA and 10K.
Cheers, Ko.