Plustek Opticfilm 7300
by Plustek
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List Price: Our Price: $250.00 You Save: $39.00 (13%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Category: CE See more product details |
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Customers in the UK,
Buy this product at amazon.co.uk
for British Pounds
Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Plustek Opticfilm 7300
Customer Review: impressive resolution for low price
Summary: 4 Stars
I've had other film scanners and most of them required a SCSI card, and a lengthy calibration process every few hours of on-time. The 7300 is a much smaller and more convenient product, with scratch removal and multi scans its a great extra for just [...]
pros:
usb2, carry case =). yes it serves it purpose
simple to use slide and film loader
hardware based scratch removal (worked well on some stepped on negs)
multi exposure and multiscan feature are awesome on burnt negs
silverfast software tool is well suited to the scanners capabilities
cons:
the source light doubles as a slide viewer and thus does not turn off, this likely will reduce the life of the light source over time.
matching sprockets to hold negatives in place in conjunction with the rails on the film loader would be a plus.
software bugs:
If you run vista make sure to install as administrator or saving files to your computer will fail.
large striped or dotted objects will confuse the rotation feature and give you a cropped scan with the top and bottom pixels 'streaking'. you have to use an external app (photoshop) to rotate the image manually in these cases.
Some people complained about the mediocre scan interface, i believe they were talking about the quick scan app, but silverfast works well, although not without its own bugs. and yes, scanning film in general is a time consuming process, but be happy wippersnappers...it used to take even longer than this to get a less decent scan..
Customer Review: Great Scanner, Steep Learning Curve
Summary: 4 Stars
I purchased this scanner to convert my parents' aged and deteriorating slides to electronic format. I did a lot of research before buying, and many reviewers commented that Plustek scanners were great. They're absolutely right... this scanner converts negatives and slides to a digital format in great detail. The software included (I use the PC version) allows you to straighten the image, edit color levels and brightness, and do almost anything you want. With all of the options, though, it comes with a lot of learning. The publishers have included videos to show you how certain features work; they're recorded by a gentleman with a European accent which may cause some problems understanding the first time through. I haven't yet had to read the manual (included only on the CD, not in print copy), but you should expect to spend at least an hour playing around with the various options and seeing what they do. The manufacturer quotes a scan time of approximately 35 seconds per slide - be aware that this is for single pass scanning, and does not include multiple passes (for better dust/dirt removal) or processing time for despeckling or sharpening.
All in all, a great device (even packed with its own padded carry bag - use it and toss the original box into storage if you like) that offers a myriad of options for making your scanned pictures as good as you want them. Just be prepared to trade some of your time for increased quality.
Customer Review: Plustek 7300 very adequate
Summary: 4 Stars
I was a professional photographer and photographic lab technician for a total of 17 years and find the Plustek 7300 a cost-effective and useful tool. I have approximately 8000, old slides and negatives to sort through, and I will probably only scan a small fraction of them, so a medium-priced,dedicated scanner like this Plustek makes sense for me.
It gives amazingly detailed scans of both slides and negatives, even at just 3600 dpi. You can go even higher if you like, but the files become huge, and unless you are going to print a 16x20, you don't need to go beyond making a 3600 dpi/50 megabyte TIFF (which will convert to an approximately 5 to 8 megabyte JPEG). You can send 4 or 5 JPEGs of this size via e-mail at one time, but if you go bigger, expect a lot of problems.
The Silverfast software that comes with it gives excellent control over color and contrast. Based on what I have read about flatbed film scanners, I doubt that I would have been satisfied with the resolution they offer as I have always been a high-definition hound. Neither am I worried about scanning every negative I ever shot, so I don't need the speed of a flatbed scanner. If you want to escape to your computer now and then to convert your best negatives and slides into a modern, useable format, this scanner will serve you well.
Customer Review: great product but no support
Summary: 4 Stars
the scanner comes with 2 software cd's. i installed the one that is for the 7300 and not the Silverfast which i was saving for later. after the software installation said Finish i finished but i did not think the software really installed correctly. i began to use the scanner. i have about a zillion slides i want to put on dvd. i scanned in 2 slides and got 2 itty bitty 9k images smaller than a thumbnail. i still suspected a software install problem as when following their procedure one screen display never appeared.i then tried to install Silverfast and it crashed my system. i uninstalled the first software and tried a reinstall. no go.
i went on plustek web site and submitted a tech support request.
four weeks later no answer.
eventually i found out my dvd player was crapola and had gone flakey on me right about the time i got my plustek. after installing a new dvd i got a good install from both softwares and i am up and running now!
product is great, both softwares similar and both are good.
so provided your dvd player is operative i recommend this product.
Customer Review: Good slide scanner
Summary: 4 Stars
The Silverfast software makes this a must purchase. Digitizing several thousand slides with all manner of color problems and uncleanable dirt is a problem that this scanner and software handles nicely. It takes time to remove specks and problems but really does a nice job. So far I've done several hundred and the instant scan (no warmup) works perfectly. I chose to scan at 300dpi jpg which results in perfect 4x6 prints with the downside being a cost of 6meg a scan. Tiff, while better, is just too large to consider for family snaps when talking about thousands to store. I do choose the highest scan rate for archival slides. Like anything there is a "getting used to it" learning curve, but it flows pretty fast. Initial prescan lower rez scan takes about 15 secs and the actual scan takes about 45secs. Of course you need to factor the time you might spend color correcting etc. Slides are really leftover dinosaurs... and this is perfect for bringing the pix into the digital age.