Any reason not to get a plustek 7600i?

[kgb144]

Just bought one and tried my first scans yesterday evening.

Very easy to set up and use. Very happy with the scans but it does show up poor lens quality or focusing issues! However, with a sharp lens and good focus it can produce exceptional detail.

I am thinking of putting away my digital slr

ft

[menthel]

Originally Posted by mdruziak

I just talked to Ed today and he said that all of the issues should have been taken care of with the Jan 1 release.

He also mentioned that they are running a special deal for SilverFast users that don't want to upgrade to 8. Info is here: http://www.hamrick.com/sil.html

can I just check that this means that you don't need to do the silverfast workaround for lion anymore? Is it also the case for the 7400?

[jazzwave]

The Plustek 7600i SE has come,well suprise for me that the size no big as predict. This is good, I can bring this scaner in my bag.

Installation is easy, install the driver and Silverfast on Windows 7 64 bit quite fast.

But, put film on holder is not easy, especially when your film little bit curl. And I have to adjust the border between frame to be matched to holder.


So far I'm happy with 7600i

Some shots from Contax G

[Green_Blue]

I've just been browsing the plustek site and there is mention of a 8200 model, but it looks like it has exactly the same specs as the old model. I was just going to buy a 7400 but I'm just wondering if the new ones are worth the wait.

[mfunnell]

Originally Posted by Green_Blue

I've just been browsing the plustek site and there is mention of a 8200 model, but it looks like it has exactly the same specs as the old model. I was just going to buy a 7400 but I'm just wondering if the new ones are worth the wait.

I don't know from model numbers, but they are due to release a scanner which will take medium-format (eg. 120) film as well as 35mm. If that is, or might be, important to you it might be worth waiting. Of course, the model which will take medium-format I'm sure will be more expensive. So if you won't use it for that, you might not care for it's price. (Me, I have a 35mm scanner. I only care because they say they will release a medium-format scanner.)

...Mike

[mijosc]

Originally Posted by Green_Blue

I've just been browsing the plustek site and there is mention of a 8200 model, but it looks like it has exactly the same specs as the old model. I was just going to buy a 7400 but I'm just wondering if the new ones are worth the wait.

I think they're just different model numbers for a different part of the world. Hardware and software looks the same to me.

+1 on waiting for the OpticFilm 120 though.

[Green_Blue]

Yeah it's really strange that all the models are listed together, maybe it's a placeholder judging by the spelling mistake in the description.

http://plustek.com/southeast-asia/pr...icfilm-series/

I'm also looking forward to the 120 scanner although it is dependent on price because I don't shoot much 120 film.

[Jobin33]

I own one, it is surprisingly easy to use. I recommend it.

[leobloom]

I am very happy with my Plustek.

The one single drawback to PlusTek 7600 is that it is manual feed. ie. you need to sit beside the scanner, and push the frame into the scanner frame by frame. Whether this is acceptable to you depends entirely on your workflow.

Personally, I do not mind at all, because my workflow involves multitasking: I am photoshopping / Lightrooming a picture whilst another one is being scanned.

However, if you are the kind of person that expects that the scanner will scan by itself, then PlusTek 7600 is not for you. For a similar price point, the Epson v700 (flatbed scanner) will take multiple frames and you can leave it to scan by itself, but the Epson is a flatbed not a dedicated scanner.

[Anders_]

I just saw this on plusteks site: http://plustek.com/oeu/products/opticfilm-series/

Two new scanners, 8100i and 8200i. Anyone heard anything about them?

Strangely the scanners are not listed on the US site only on the european.

[Green_Blue]

Ok I can come up with a reason not to buy a Plustek 7600i, I purchased one from BHphoto last week turns out that the CD that installs silverfast is not recognised by any of my Macs - iMac and macbook air with external disc drive. Indeed judging from the manual it looks like this is a known problem. Even whilst using disk utility and trying to manually mount the CD nothing happens it just ends up with a rainbow beachball. So I tried to register my serial number on the website bearing in mind I had version 6.6 which is entitled to a free upgrade to version 8. Everything went quite well and I even go to download Version 8 from the website. However once I tried to start scanning it required the original installation CD to be inserted, and of course that wasn't going to work. So now I am left with a scanner that is utterly useless unless I purchase Vuescan or pray that the support at Silverfast is more timely.

Anyone experienced this?

[crispy12]

My copy of silverfast doesn't even run on Mac OS X Lion after installation, so I had no choice but to get Vuescan.

[Roscoe]

I had zero issues installing Silverfast to my MB pro running 10.6.8. Just didn't care much for it.

[Harry Lime]

Silverfast is a two edged sword.

The interface is something of a train wreck and Lasersoft will try to rob the eyeballs out of your head at any given opportunity.

But the HDR multi exposure feature is hard to beat. I ran the SF8 demo with my 9000ED and the amount of DR that it was able to pull off the negative was staggering. Also very low noise.

My advice if you are scanning b/w with SF? Turn off all the bells and whistles and make a linear scan with multi exposure.

[NLewis]

I chose a V700 instead of a Plustek, mostly because I also do medium format.

If I was scanning only 135 film, I would have gone with the Plustek, which has better scans for 135 film than the V700.

I would think about workflow if you use the Plustek. The V700 does batch scans beautifully, but I wouldn't scan every frame on a Plustek. I would have some other way of proofing and selecting a few frames per roll for hi-res scanning.

One easy way is to lay your negative film on a light table and take a picture of it with a digital camera. Invert with something like Photoshop Elements. You can "proof" a whole roll like this with one shot, leaving the film in a plastic archival holder, and end up with images of about 200x300 pixels per frame. This you can view at 100% on your computer. This is a lot more of a view than people ever got with the traditional 8x10 proof sheet, viewed with a loupe. With transparency film, you could proof on a light table with a loupe.

Either way, you end up with maybe 3-6 frames per roll for hi-res scanning.

Another option, especially if you are doing color film processed by someone like Dwayne's, is to get cheapie lo-res scans from your film processor. This might cost about $3 per roll. Use these lo-res scans to choose your best frames, and just scan those on the Plustek.

The last thing I would suggest, if you want to do 12x18 prints from 135 film, is to send it out to someone like North Coast Photo, who will put it in their Noritsu and scan it at 16+ megapixels for $2.50 a frame. Precision Camera might offer a similar service, with 26+mp resolution. 12x18 is really pushing it for 135, and you would only do a few frames, so this might make more sense than trying to squeeze every last bit of resolution from a sub-$1000 scanner.

[umcelinho]

Great, just got my brand new Plustek 7600i, installed Silverfast SE and when I try to launch it, it just quits while loading. OS X 10.5.8, I've had a 7500i before and had Silverfast AI installed, deleted it after I sold the scanner. Bugger.

Maybe it's a sign I should just get Vuescan instead and be happy with it...

[useless generation]

Silverfast is rubbish, Im running OSX Lion and i got the free upgrade to silver fast 8 and it constantly crashed and had bugs so i switched to vuescan and everything is smooth sailing! +1 for vuescan!

[umcelinho]

SO I just downloaded Vuescan and installed it, downloaded the 32bit driver from the Plustek website, tried opening Vuescan using Rosetta but it crashes, I've searched for Rosetta on spotlight but got no matches, it's a bundled software for Leopard, I don't get how it can't be found...

I'm thinking about just formatting my macbook pro, getting everything from scratch and see if it works out, but man, is this frustrating or what..

[pvg]

Hi. I also have an inoperable plustek 7600i. Silverfast stopped working and Vuescan does not see the scanner.

Vuescan is giving the following error: "VueScan found a Plustek 7600i, but wasn't able to find a 64-bit Intel plugin for this scanner. Try downloading a 64-bit Intel driver for this scanner from www.plustek.com. To try to use the 32-bit Intel plugin, click on the VueScan icon while holding the control key, choose 'Get Info' and check the 'Open in 32-bit mode' box."

I do not find the driver in the plustek website and I have tried the 32-bit mode but it does not work either. I am running lion on a macbook air but it has happened also in another portable mac which is not a macbook air. Am I missing something?

Thanks for any help.

[twitch]

Originally Posted by pvg

Am I missing something?

Thanks for any help.

Are you running SilverFast 8? If not, download the demo and install it, then Vuescan will work.

[umcelinho]

update: still running 10.5.8, but formatted my macbook and reinstalled everything. followed the tip of installing the silverfast 8 demo, then vuescan 64bit and it worked like a charm!

must say vuescan blows silverfast away, i was never satisfied with the tones i would get with silverfast ai... vuescan is lighter, easier to use and i'm getting much better scans. VERY satisfied!!!

[mdruziak]

Originally Posted by Green_Blue

Ok I can come up with a reason not to buy a Plustek 7600i, I purchased one from BHphoto last week turns out that the CD that installs silverfast is not recognised by any of my Macs - iMac and macbook air with external disc drive. Indeed judging from the manual it looks like this is a known problem. Even whilst using disk utility and trying to manually mount the CD nothing happens it just ends up with a rainbow beachball. So I tried to register my serial number on the website bearing in mind I had version 6.6 which is entitled to a free upgrade to version 8. Everything went quite well and I even go to download Version 8 from the website. However once I tried to start scanning it required the original installation CD to be inserted, and of course that wasn't going to work. So now I am left with a scanner that is utterly useless unless I purchase Vuescan or pray that the support at Silverfast is more timely.

Anyone experienced this?

Did you ever get your problem resolved? If not, drop me a note: markdruziak at plustek.com

Mark

[dogbunny]

I was looking at the 8200i model, and it appears to have a built-in infrared channel to aid in dust correction. Am I correct in thinking this is the only difference between the 7600i and the 8200i?

Cheers,

db

[randomm]

Originally Posted by dogbunny

I was looking at the 8200i model, and it appears to have a built-in infrared channel to aid in dust correction. Am I correct in thinking this is the only difference between the 7600i and the 8200i?

Cheers,

db

The IR channel is there since 7500i, which is what I've got..

[dogbunny]

Thanks, weird how they explicitly mention it in the 8200i description, but not the other. Looks like the price tag will be the determining factor. Cool.

db