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Plustek
OpticFilm 7200i 35mm Film Scanner
System Requirements:
- IBM Compatible PC, with Pentium II or faster CPU
- 128 MB RAM (256MB recommended)
- 160 MB free HDD space (300 MB recommended)
- Microsoft Windows XP, Me, 98 SE, 2000
At £150, the more cynical among you may be a little suspicious of the manufacturer's claims.
What's In The Box?
Holders
As with all domestic film scanners, there has to be a flimsy strip of plastic in which to place your negatives and slides. Though, In the case of the Opticfilm 7200i the holders are not too flimsy at all. Compared with many, more famous, manufacturers' holders they are quite sturdy; and while I wouldn't recommend trying to knock a nail into a wall with one of them; they are, nevertheless, above average in build quality.
The 35mm negative carrier can hold up to six negatives
The 35mm transparency carrier can hold up to four slides.
Loading the 7200
There's no fancy auto advance that would enable you to scan a full holder of negs while your off watching the football. You scan one negative, and then push the holder through until it clicks into place ready to scan the next one. For the money you're paying, it's hardly surprising.
This low-tech approach is also more reliable and less prone to failure, unless you break your arm or something.
Once your negs/slides are loaded into the carrier, you would be wise to give them a blast from your compressed air canister; if you don't have one, then a very soft brush would have to do. Using a brush, though, can often do more harm than good by introducing static electricity or dust from the bristles themselves.
This low-tech approach is also more reliable and less prone to failure, unless you break your arm or something.
Once your negs/slides are loaded into the carrier, you would be wise to give them a blast from your compressed air canister; if you don't have one, then a very soft brush would have to do. Using a brush, though, can often do more harm than good by introducing static electricity or dust from the bristles themselves.
Bits and Pieces
The scanner comes with a USB lead, power transformer and a nifty soft carry-case with compartments for your holders, leads and discs.
The compact design of the scanner coupled with the case allows it to be utilised as a portable device that can be be easily transported from one site to another. The case is large enough to accommodate the software discs and documentation should you need to install the machine on different computer to your own workstation.
A flatbed scanner could never be as portable as a dedicated film scanner as it is a prerequisite of a flatbed scanner to accommodate A4 sized material.
The compact design of the scanner coupled with the case allows it to be utilised as a portable device that can be be easily transported from one site to another. The case is large enough to accommodate the software discs and documentation should you need to install the machine on different computer to your own workstation.
A flatbed scanner could never be as portable as a dedicated film scanner as it is a prerequisite of a flatbed scanner to accommodate A4 sized material.
Software
The software provided with the scanner is remarkably good considering the overall price of the package.
Quick Scan
A quick and easy way to scan your negatives or transparences.
Page Manager
Manage your images (and other types of files). If you don't have lightroom, bridge or ACDsee then why not use this, it's free with your scanner.
Image Folio
Image editing application. Not exactly photoshop, but you can do many of photoshop's basic functions.
Mr. Photo
Mr. Photo allows you to browse for files, open them with various linked applications, print, create slideshows (and save them as mpegs), create html galleries, and play movies and sound files.
SilverFast Ai
SilverFast is, of course, the jewel in the crown. If you're buying a scanner, this is the software that you'll want bundled with it. SilverFast has long been the 'must have' application with which to scan films, documents and photographs. If you know how to use SilverFast then you know how to use a scanner.
QuickScan
QuickScan is a quick and easy way to scan your films, but you have very little control over the results. The colour is going to be arbitrary due to the inability to specify the type of film you're scanning, while the levels are determined by an automatic levels correction based on the range of the pixels within the selected area of the frame.
If you're in a hurry and the quality obtained by using quickscan is sufficient then it can save you a lot of time.
You could scan in 48bit and then fix the colour at a later stage, though the increased scanning and processing time will heavily cut into any time that you might have saved by using the simpler software.
If you're in a hurry and the quality obtained by using quickscan is sufficient then it can save you a lot of time.
You could scan in 48bit and then fix the colour at a later stage, though the increased scanning and processing time will heavily cut into any time that you might have saved by using the simpler software.
SilverFast
The version we are looking at is SilverFast 6.5.
It may be the case that the version supplied with your scanner is 6.4; this is not a problem as you can download an upgrade (free of charge) from the SilverFast website.
The Interface
Many of the tasks that you'll need to perform can be achieved by clicking one of the buttons found to the left of the scan preview.
Although SilverFast is considered the best all-round scanning application, it suffers a little from having an interface that is often obscure and cryptic. The function of some of the buttons is far from self-evident and you will have to learn their use by experience.
If you have never used SilverFast before, you may benefit from watching the movie files that are placed on your hard-drive by default when you install the software from the application disc supplied with your scanner. You can download these movies from the SilverFast website if you want to judge the software prior to purchase.
Indicates the version of the software and provides links to the SilverFast Website.
If you installed the documentation when you installed the application, clicking this will open a choice of pdf help files
Necessary if the frame you have scanned is portrait in its orientation.
If you've put your slide or negative into the holder upside down then click here to flip it - it's quicker than reloading it.
Guides you through SilverFast's recommended workflow.
This doesn't really benefit the 7200i user. If you have a flatbed scanner that can scan several individual items at once, then the job manager will allow you to manage all of them together facilitating consistency between all of your scans.
IT8 targets are slides, negs, or prints that depict a colour chart that is read by your scanner. Any deviation from the scanned colour and the colour that is represented in the chart is then compensated for,and thus your scanner is calibrated.
The i in 7200i stands for infrared. Along with the usual RGB scan the 7200i will also scan an infrared channel which will see though the emulsion of the film and show any contaminants such as dirt on the surface.
This relates to the job manager, and allows you to delete frames from your job.
This will rotate through the various frames in your job - not relevant to the 7200i.
Clicking here shows you the lightest and darkest pixels within your scan.
As you might expect, this allows you to print your image.
Plays an introductory movie - a guide to using silverfast.
SilverFast is considered to be the best all-round scanning application which is why it comes bundled with most of the good scanners coming on the market these days. If you're used to scanning with twain or similar then you'll get the gist of the interface from the start. Though once you delve into the settings you come across histograms, curves, gradients, densitometers, profiles and so on... These are things that are more familiar to photoshop users, and although it's not rocket science, it may be a steep learning curve for anyone new to working with digital images.
Dust & Scratch Removal
By clicking twice on the SRD button you will reveal a second button beneath that will give you access to the SRD settings. This feature is not readily apparent from the display and it can be easily overlooked.
The Two Methods
There are two ways of eliminating dust and scratches from your scan - iSRD and Dust And Scratch Removal.iSRD is the best way to eliminate dust as it utilises the infrared channel of your scan and therefore works on removing only artifacts that are evident on that channel. This method will preserve the important detail, namely the information stored within the emulsion of your film.
The detection slider determines how much of the infrared data will be treated, while the defect size slider sets the pixel size of the channel's elements to be recognized as defects.
By using layers and working on the smaller defects on your initial layer and larger elements in subsequent layers, you can accurately eliminate all of the artifacts detected in your infrared channel.
Dust And Scratch Removal will be familiar to anyone who has used photoshop; it corresponds directly with photoshop's own dust and scratch removal (like it or not).
Photoshop's dust and scratch removal has always had a bad reputation because, by itself, it does a very poor job of removing dust and scratches; you will often have to use masks, layers and blend modes to make reasonably good use of this filter.
Silverfast's dust and scratch removal is actually a little better than photoshop's; it allows you to chose between white and black artifacts, determine the intensity of the correction and extent the field of the detected artifacts by a few pixels in order to ensure that you have encapsulated the unwanted pixels in their entirety.
There is also a method for removing scratches referred to,mellifluously, as 'Longish Scratch Removal', the results obtain by it's use are negligible and you may have to remove larger scratches by hand via photoshop rather than run the risk of degrading the entire image by increasing the degree of detection and defect size.
The Settings on the left panel show two iSRD layers and one Dust And Scratch Removal layer.
The two images below show the results of those settings.
The two images below show the results of those settings.
Before
After
SilverFast Bug
Occasionally, you might experience an error in alignment when applying iSRD. As you can see from the image on the left, SilverFast has detected the scratches, but has failed to apply the fix in the correct position. This doesn't occur every time, but when it does it means a potentially lengthy re-scan.
Lasersoft, are attributing the discrepancy to variations in the scanner bios. Though this explanation doesn't address the fact that other scanning applications don't suffer the same problem. To avoid this bug you could always use an application called Vuescan.
Vuescan is available as an alternative to SilverFast and it supports hundreds of different scanners. It allows you to manipulate many of the same settings that you can with Silverfast, though not all of them and not with the same degree of control. Vuescan's iSRD is not quite sufficient to deal with the heavier jobs yet, but the software is being updated constantly and improvements are being made in all areas. It's not quite Silverfast yet, but some people prefer it - especially those people who didn't receive a copy of Silverfast bundled with their scanner and therefore see Viewscan as a much cheaper alternative.
Version 8.4.41 of viewscan has improved colour reproduction for this scanner and probably represents the definitive version for the plustek 7200.
Lasersoft, are attributing the discrepancy to variations in the scanner bios. Though this explanation doesn't address the fact that other scanning applications don't suffer the same problem. To avoid this bug you could always use an application called Vuescan.
Vuescan is available as an alternative to SilverFast and it supports hundreds of different scanners. It allows you to manipulate many of the same settings that you can with Silverfast, though not all of them and not with the same degree of control. Vuescan's iSRD is not quite sufficient to deal with the heavier jobs yet, but the software is being updated constantly and improvements are being made in all areas. It's not quite Silverfast yet, but some people prefer it - especially those people who didn't receive a copy of Silverfast bundled with their scanner and therefore see Viewscan as a much cheaper alternative.
Version 8.4.41 of viewscan has improved colour reproduction for this scanner and probably represents the definitive version for the plustek 7200.
- The dynamic range of the scan is sometimes cited as the 7200s weakest point, though I've found that, when set up correctly, Silverfast does a perfectly good job of obtaining a high quality scan , though Viewscan, in some respects, can deliver a better scan with less fuss
The dynamic range is determined ultimately by the sensitivity of the CCD, and of all the scans from slides and negatives that I have taken, I've rarely considered the CCD to be insufficient for the job. Though in the case of under/over exposed material, you may find it a challenge to coax any detail from the extreme ends of the material's tonal range. This problem will be apparent particularly when scanning poorly exposed slides as the limited tonal range of the transparency will further compound the effect.
One trick with Kodachrome is to use the infrared channel to acquire additional detail in the shadows. The infrared scan will pick-up the residual silver in the Kodachrome emulsion and provide you with information you wouldn't otherwise be aware of. Selectively applying this detail from a luminosity layer in photoshop is the best way to make use of these additional values. - Compared to photo lab or high street mini-lab scans, the 7200i is much superior.
- It's not the fastest scanner in the world; if you plan to scan your entire collection of slides you might want to book a week off work.
- The resolution of 7200ppi is extremely high by any standards and you probably won't scan as high as this, but the capability is there should you wish to scan a selective portion of a slide in order to print it to poster size. Film grain, particularly in negatives, would present more of a problem than would the resolution of the scanner as regards to obtaining a good image.
- The dimensions of the machine are 272 x 120 mm so it won't take up too much of your desk space - not really a criterion that will sway anyone's opinion of the machine greatly, but it's something to bare in mind.
- The remarkable thing about this scanner is the price.
Of course, you can get better scanners but you'll have to pay at least twice the price, and even then, for the majority of scans, you'll notice no difference in quality whatsoever. - I would recommend buying this scanner because, even if the worst criticisms concerning this machine were true, it's still a bargain.
Update (28-August-07)
The Plustek 7300 is now available.
The 7300 is fundamentally the same machine, though now it permits multi-exposure to combat some of the criticisms of the 7200.
