WE HAVE A CHANCE: A new film scanner for panorama negatives

[rfepson]

Did you see that PACIFIC IMAGE is bringing a new medium-format-film-scanner to the market? The PRIMEFILM 120 is supposed to be released still in July - have a look at http://www.scanace.com/product/pf_120.html.
I found a first price quote in Germany as Reflecta Mittelformatscanner MF 5000 for EUR 1.499,-.

This is good news! Or I thought so, before my mail to support@scanace.com:
Subject : PrimeFilm 120 - does it support 35mm Panorama-negatives from the Hasselblad XPAN
Question : Hello, you will know, that some 35mm panorama-cameras use a 35x62mm negative format.
Will your interesting new Medium Format scanner support this negative size and will there be a negative holder for this type of film?

Answer:
Hello, Unfortunately, this unit supports only standard 35 mm frame sized films 36.5 x 24.3 mm only, Panorama is not supported.
Wendy

my 2nd mail:
Then I think you will miss a lot of market potential for your scanner, as there is a considerably large community of film users for this type of panoramic photos. Can't you work on that for improving the usability of this new scanner?

and Wendy's 2nd answer:
Hello, You are the first to even suggest a panoramic scanner to us here is the USA, I will inform the project manager for this product to see if something can be done to make it work.
Wendy

This can't be true - we all are longing to have a good pano-scanner at an affordable price and they say they never heard about it!

So let us take some ACTION,
dear fellow pano-film-negative-friends!

Switch to your email and tell PACIFIC IMAGE how many we are to look for a good MF-pano-scanner (after Nikon stopped producing them).
And spread this news to pano-friends and -forums you know, so that they can act too.

Don't you think we can move them in the right direction?
I'm sure there is quite some demand and that should allow Pacific Image to make money with us, when they produce a nice negative holder and integrate the XPAN/WIDELUX7NOBLEX etc. formats in their software.

Tell me what YOU think!

 

[shadowfox]

How about that.
I wonder what the pricing would look like.

I hope it's not a $1500 scanner, for that money, I'd go for a Coolscan 9000 instead.

As for xpan negatives, the scanner should support that just fine, it claims to handle 6x12 (that's cm) negatives, so it already have to be able to scan continuously up to 12cm.

You may have to make a DIY mask, but that's far from impossible.

 

[ChipMcD]

How about that.
I wonder what the pricing would look like.

I hope it's not a $1500 scanner, for that money, I'd go for a Coolscan 9000 instead.

As for xpan negatives, the scanner should support that just fine, it claims to handle 6x12 (that's cm) negatives, so it already have to be able to scan continuously up to 12cm.

You may have to make a DIY mask, but that's far from impossible.

The good news is, it's not a $1,500 scanner. The bad news is that it's even more expensive: http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produ...FILM_120_PrimeFilm_120_Multi_Format_Film.html On the positive side, it is being made now, and presumably will be supported with drivers as OSes update.

 

[gdi]

The good news is, it's not a $1,500 scanner. The bad news is that it's even more expensive: http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produ...FILM_120_PrimeFilm_120_Multi_Format_Film.html On the positive side, it is being made now, and presumably will be supported with drivers as OSes update.

Whooaaa! That price makes the 9000 look great - I just hope mine doesn't crap out. But at least it is hitting the market, that is good.

BTW, the 9000 does Panos well and only takes a mask cut to fit, it seems like you could do that with this thing as well. It may not automatically adjust the crop, but surely you'll be able to do it manually prior to scanning...

 

[Harold Gough]

http://www.photo-i.co.uk/Reviews/interactive/Epson%20V750/page_1.htm

 

[architorture]

I just noticed this on the b&h website a couple days ago. it is very exciting that somebody is releasing a new 120 film scanner in 2011!

Does anybody have experience with scanners from this company? How good do you think it will be? Hopefully better quality than my epson v700 considering the huge price difference...

 

[Harold Gough]

Hopefully better quality than my epson v700 considering the huge price difference...

The 700 has quite a good reputation. What filmstock/ISO are you using?

 

[gdi]

I just noticed this on the b&h website a couple days ago. it is very exciting that somebody is releasing a new 120 film scanner in 2011!

Does anybody have experience with scanners from this company? How good do you think it will be? Hopefully better quality than my epson v700 considering the huge price difference...

If the new scanner can approach the Nikon 9000 in performance your results should be significantly better than the Epson. Yes, there is a particular review that shows some incredibly inept Nikon scans compared with to Epson that usually gets referenced. But, if you do more research and you'll find that there is no comparison if the scans are properly executed.

The flatbed Epsons just don't have the real resolution to compete with proper dedicated scans in my experience. BTW, I do use both an Epson flatbed and the Nikon (never used a Primefilm) and the only reason I have the Epson is for 4x5 and reflective scanning.

But for now, I think we have to wait for reliable reviews to see what the scanner is capable of - hopefully it will be impressive!

 

[Harold Gough]

This may be of general interest:

http://www.photo-i.co.uk/Reviews/scanners_page.htm

 

[architorture]

What filmstock/ISO are you using?

lots of combinations 🙂
from rollei atp 1.1 to fuji 800z and everything in between.
i'm using the epson holder with the feet at the + position and two layers of gaffer's tape as well.

i'm not saying i think the v700 isn't good (i've printed my 120 images from the plaubel up to 24"x30" with the scans). I just accept that there is more in the negatives than i'm getting (and i hope the $1800 that the pacific image scanner costs would get me noticeably closer) - there's a certain glow to flatbed scans.

I've also used Imacon 949 and X5... but that is way more expensive than the nikon or this pro-image.

This may be of general interest:

http://www.photo-i.co.uk/Reviews/scanners_page.htm

Yes, i have spent many hours reading those reviews. great resource.

I'd say this would probably also be of general interest, if people have not discovered it:
http://www.largeformatphotography.info/scan-comparison/
(take a look at the results from the Heidelberg Tango (Ernst Vegt). Yikes!

as well as this one which i only discovered very recently:
http://www.terrapinphoto.com/jmdavis/
about 2/3 or 3/4 of the way down there's a section "Epson V700 v. Epson 4990 v. Nikon LS-8000 (Same Negative)" that is most relevant.

so who's gonna order one and test it for us?😉