Plustek OpticFilm 8200i Ai Film Scanner
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Software needs work
The scanner works just fine, but, the software keeps freezing up and I have to quit it and restart every 5-6th picture I scan, not much fun either scanning slides.
Reviewed on B&H Photo Video
Worked Beautifully
I used the OpticFilm to download my families slides from as far back as the 1950s. I used it in conjunction with ViewScan as the included software didn't meet my needs. The process was a bit manual intensive as I had to load each slide separately but it got the job done. The slides show their age but are very viewable and I'm sure my family will enjoy the results.
Reviewed on B&H Photo Video
Excellent scanner. Bundle not so good.
I'm a retired software developer who spent a decade the film biz. I took a lot of pictures. I'm anything but a dark room pro; I'd never used Photoshop or any other sort of image manipulation software. I have a Dell Latitude running W7 and 16G of RAM. I purchased the Plustek 8200ai in March '13. I scanned a few hundred slides and negatives, both color and b&w, and was delighted with the results. The 8200ai seems like a very solid box. The bundled ... Show More
Reviewed on B&H Photo Video
Absolutely Love It!
I am using this scanner on a daily basis to scan in slides and negatives dating back to 1968 when I first started photography. The Plustek 8200i and Silverfast 8 software work flawlessly together and I have not experienced any of the problems I read about in some of the reviews before I ordered it. I use a Dell computer running Windows 7 and scan to an Iomega external hard drive. This scanner works for me because I like to prescan each negative o... Show More
Reviewed on B&H Photo Video
Fast scans and surprising quality
It's not a high-end Nikon film scanner, but then Nikon doesn't make film scanners any more and the Plustek scanner is far less expensive than the scanners Nikon made. It's surprisingly quiet and surprisingly fast, even with the funky respooled movie films that were sold in the 1970s. (I was worried about those.) Don't bother with Silverfast, although you will have to install it or the operating systetm will grumble when the Plustek drivers load. ... Show More
Reviewed on B&H Photo Video
Very capable of the work we needed to do
The scanner is very easy to use . The scan time is acceptable. WE have been very pleased . I turned the scanning procedure over to an intern after we found how easy it was to operate.
Reviewed on B&H Photo Video
Great hardware, just ditch Silverfast
If Plustek would bundle this scanner with a better software option, they would earn higher reviews. In fact, I could not even get Silverfast to install on my machine. I expected such, due to other documentation and reviews, and bought VueScan. The only gripe when operating the scanner this way is that the driver causes an error to display every time I start my machine because Silverfast is not present. Seriously, if they would ditch Silverfast, t... Show More
Reviewed on B&H Photo Video
Good but not as good as Nikon LS5000
This scanner looked interesting. The specs looked good for the price. I wanted to see how well it compared to one of the best 35mm film scanners - the Nikon LS5000, which I have. So I got this scanner and ran some comparison tests on Kodachrome and Fuji slides. I did not do any negative scanning comparisons. My Nikon scanner has been lightly used and was recently sent in for a tune up and is performing like it was new. I ran scans at each scanner... Show More
Reviewed on B&H Photo Video
White balance is inconsistent
This is a nice scanner but the software isn't perfect. I can never get consistent color. The white balance comes out different everytime, even with the settings they have. It is nice to have if you don't want to send your old photos to a lab to get scanned but if you are currently using film, I recommend sending your film to a lab to be processed and scanned. I also had problems with the software taking FOREVER with each click! It was SilverSlow!... Show More
Reviewed on B&H Photo Video
An Expensive Paperweight!
I'd give this zero stars if I could! After weeks of trying to solve the scanning and software problems I've given up. SilverFast bombs out 9 of 10 time I try Archive scans. Pre-scans work fine, but as soon as I go for a full scan I land up with overlapping images or only half the slide scanned.Archive quality scans always come out incredibly dark as well and are totally useless for anything other than trash. This scanner is simply one expensive paperweight! Its the first and Last Plustek / SilverFast I'm buying. Wouldn't recommend it to anyone.
Reviewed on B&H Photo Video
Opticfilm 8200 ai scanner
I bought this and have scanned several hundred B&W negatives so far. It is, at best, a medium priced and medium quality scanner. Does not do a good job of getting rid of dirt and scratches. The Nikon ICE product does a better job but they don't make scanners any longer. It is easy to use. Does not have an automatic feed system for their trays. I haven't really found anything to rave about it. Also doesn't have a good 35mm negative tray that is exact. Film slides up and down, and the dividers between negatives seem off as well.
Reviewed on B&H Photo Video
Good product at a fair price
A little cumbersome needing to load two different software programs, but fairly easy to use once you get use to it. I was making digital images from slides and 35mm negatives for my parents 60th anniversary. Image quality was surprisingly good. Does not work with other size negatives.
Reviewed on B&H Photo Video
Extremely good scans for the price
I've owned this scanner for a few weeks now. I have scanned hundreds of images consisting of Kodachrome slides, color negatives, and BW negatives as old as 68 years and as new as last week. At 3600dpi, the scans have the resolution of wet process enlargements. At 7200dpi, you can magnify the image and clearly see individual grains in the developed film. Though somewhat slow due to manual feeding (and the obligatory babysitting), it is capable of ... Show More
Reviewed on B&H Photo Video
Very good scanner
I bought the scanner mainly to scan years of B&W Tri-X negatives. I am very happy with the way it performs. In particular I like the multi-pass scanning mode that decreases the noise by using the second pass to scan the darker areas of the negative leading to less noise in the lighter areas. The scanner lighting also seems to minimize dust and scratch problems on the negatives. In general I spend only a few minutes in Photoshop to clean up each s... Show More
Reviewed on B&H Photo Video
Worth the Price, Great Scanner/Software
Have a ImageLab 9 Megapixel scanner and a was very disappointed. Bought this in hopes of getting a quantum improvement and have not been disappointed. Am presently scanning 33 year old Kodak Gold 200 ASA negatives with great results. Would recommend reading the pamphlet that comes with the scanner and downloading/watching the movies as well before getting started. Not impressed with Workflow Pilot. Recommend using software without it if you have any Photoshop/digital editing experience. Runs slow in 32 bit XP environment but should be better in 64 bit Windows environment.
Reviewed on B&H Photo Video
Manual slide/negative feed
I've just had this for a few hours and am very impressed by the qwuality of the scan and the Silverfast software's adjustability, though with Photoshop I'm not sure how much it adds other than the apparently very effective scratch reduction.. BUT - to my surprise the slide and negative holders have to be pushed through the machine manually - I had an old Minolta scanner that mysteriously disappeared (!) and I could feed a strip of 6 negs and it w... Show More
Reviewed on B&H Photo Video
A high performance product
The preview scan is useful for color fine tuning but a detail scaning is needed for scratch and duct removal. Thin line scratchs cannot be detected by different setting. 7200dpi scanning is not much practical for large file size and noisy gain even Strong Gane is set. I am very satisfy with 3600dpi scanning and 85% satisfy with scratch and duct removal function. Besides it works silently. With this price, it is valuabe to buy this product.
Reviewed on B&H Photo Video
good product, would buy it again
This is a great scanner for 35 mm Slides and negatives. the output quality is excellent and it is not as slow as I expected it to be, it does take some time to complete the scan depending on the resolution you select. the only dificulty i experienced was the installation and set up, in my opinion it is not friendly at all, it took some time to get the hang of the procedures. also the user guide comes in a CD, which is nice, but the installation guide is in a small booklet, about eight pages for for each of their many different languages, and in very small print to read.
Reviewed on B&H Photo Video
Very nice bang for my buck!
I've been looking for a scanning solution for my many 35 mm slides and negatives for a while now. Years ago I had my eye on the Nikon line of scanners but when I finally had the resources and started shopping, I discovered that Nikon no longer sold scanners. Instead I kept running into scanners by a company called Plustek and software called Silverfast. These weren't exactly household names which didn't give me confidence plus I kept hearing less... Show More
Reviewed on B&H Photo Video
The clear choice for slide scanners
If you're not going to spend tens of thousands for a very high end scanner, this is your obvious choice for quality scans. Packaged with Silverfast software, this is a complete solution for anyone facing digitizing their slides, as I was. It sets up easily, offers sharpening, dust removal, multi pass dynamic range increase and produces good, quality scans. If I have a complaint its with the Silverfast software manual being less than detailed in t... Show More
Reviewed on B&H Photo Video
Good scanner - Good software
For use with 35mm film and slides...Slow scanning but good results even with only 3.6 DMaxIf this scanner were at least 4.0 DMax then I would be thrilledSilverfast is wonderful, but there is a steep learning curve and it is worth buying the booklet advertised in Silverfast's website authored by a third party. The book is complex and suffers from a techie POV rather than a photographer's or an artist's point of view. Some techie language is necess... Show More
Reviewed on B&H Photo Video
Nice product, non-trivial learning curve
Now that I'm up on the usage learning curve it's doing just what I was looking for (a tad slower process that I was hoping for but nice quality). I do Photoshop stuff but not any pro/semi-pro image processing so it took a bit (one day of playing with just a single slide) to figure out all the buttons. A newbie step-by-step procedure/example with ample screen shots would have helped, I expect. Initial plumbing sequence of powering up/restarting co... Show More
Reviewed on B&H Photo Video
Fast & easy to Use
I'm not the most knowledgeable person when it comes to computers and digital photography, however, this scanner and its related software isn't too hard to use. Unfortunately the software didn't load correctly the first time and the documentation concerning the loading of the programs was not very forthcoming, however after several hours of tweeking and thinking I was able to get everything up and running. So far I've scanned B&W negatives and old... Show More
Reviewed on B&H Photo Video
Pretty good hardware I guess
I got this scanner to digitalize slides and color negatives. It comes with SilverFast Studio. The software alone is almost the price of the hardware! Silverfast is considered to be the Photoshop of scanning. Personally I prefer VueScan to digitalize. It's way faster and you can make flat profile pictures, with more latitude to correct in post. Hardware is solid. Unfortunately, although the trays insert easily, the scan images are always slanted, ... Show More
Reviewed on B&H Photo Video
