Pacific Image PrimeFilm 1800AFL Film Scanner (35 mm)
- Max. Resolution (Interpolated): 19200 x 19200 dpi
- Connectivity Technology: USB
- Scanner Type: Film Scanner (35 mm)
- Optical Resolution: 1800 dpi
- Max. Color Depth: 42-bit Color
- Max. Resolution (Hardware): 1800 x 1800 dpi
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Shutterbugs have a new toy they can afford to play with.
Pros
Very cost effective & comes with Photoshop!
Cons
Slower than Molasses at the north pole
Recommended it?
Yes
The Bottom Line:
If you're using it for small jobs or just for personal use it will serve you well. Not suggested for businesses unless they like paying overtime.
Software
>>Rating = 10
How many times have you bought a scanner to find the software is just barely enough to scan the images and your not able to do any editing/color correcting unless you use a second program that is not provided to edit? IMHO, too often, so when I saw this scanner had Photoshop in it, I thought it would be worth the risk, even if the hardware was not perfect I had already decided I'd keep it just for a half priced Photoshop. ;)
This negative scanner comes with a variant of Adobe Photoshop which; for my needs, works the same as the Full Version of Photoshop except you get it with a negative scanner and you pay 1/2 the regular price for Photoshop... A win-win scenario to me.
I'm sure there must be a few things this version of Photoshop are missing but with my basic scans of Kodak 200, 400 and Fuji 100 film I was able to do all the color correcting/filtering/scratch repair I needed.
Overall Scanning
>>Rating = 8
I have to admit I was not happy with about 1/2 of the raw scans I did with this scanner. Granted this is my first negative scanner but when I have a roll of film processed as "negative only" and take great care when loading and handling the film I'd hope the roll would not have as many scratches as it appears to with the raw-scanned image.
It's almost like the scanner is catching a reflection of micro scratches (undetectable to the eye and my eye's are quite good) and amplifying that micro scratch. Needless to say you will absolutely have to use the scratch/dust filter on any pictures you don't want scratches and spots to show up on.
I have yet to determine if the negatives were scratched prior to going through the scanner of if the scanner elements inside are scratching them (kinda like the old sheet feed scanners of old, that would leave scratches on your pictures as they scanned them - the whole reason I bough a flat bed scanner in the first place) but if I can determine it one way or another I'll post that here when I know. For the moment I'll just presume its not the scanner otherwise I'd have brought it back to the store already.
It should also be noted that my Kodak 200 and 400 film came out much, much cleaner and true than the Fuji 100 did – The scanner was a lot closer on the color and required about 1/10 the editing using Kodak film so I wont use anything else in my camera anymore since I intend to scan everything in (of course). I'll be running some black and white film in the next week or two, so I might be adding more here with that result unless there is nothing special to note. :)
Scanning DPI
>>Rating = 8
This scanner is the first I have ever had a problem with selecting what dpi I wanted to use. By default its on 1800 dpi and I have yet to ever be able to select another dpi - If this changes I'll update this portion of the review but its been stubborn. lol
Scanning Speed
>>Rating = -5
OH DEAR GOD!!!!!! This thing is slow... even on the lowest quality final picture its taking about 1.5 minutes per negative - not including a pre-scan of the negatives, if you had desired.
Last night I started scanning a 25 picture 35mm strip (one full strip) at 10pm. I was done with this roll some time near midnight because of pre-scanning and then scanning all to file. I think I'll pull my fingernails out and dip them in sea salts and bleach before doing an entire roll at once again!
The nicest thing about this scanner is its auto feeding – once you tell it to preview all or scan all/scan all to file it goes about its business without a hitch. If you run large strips through, expect to be sitting there a long time.
Price
>>Rating = 9
While the $280(+ tax) I paid for this scanner is a good price in it's own right - it's short comings with speed make me wonder if they should have charged another $20 bucks and put a faster motor in it.
Photoshop's inclusion in this package at all, makes it well worth the price tag I paid, so that said its like getting $600 software for $280 and includes a free scanner... Well worth the price with that in mind.
Appearance
>>Rating = 9
This is one of the nicest home negative scanners I have seen; however, I'd like to have the 35mm negatives feed through the front, like the slide negatives do but that's just a personal peeve.
Drivers
>>Rating = 9
The only reason this gets a 9 is because when Windows XP crapped out (not the scanners fault but anyway....) I had to completely uninstall the driver set and reinstall them before I could scan again - reinstalling without the uninstall did not work although I tried that about 3 times before I uninstalled it.... aargh! Very annoying but its Microsoft's fault and not the scanner imho.
The first time I'd installed this scanner it went without a hitch and I was up and running after one reboot. I was impressed with its ease of setup: Hook up scanner (da dum) XP beeps at me.. I put the cd-rom that came with it in and XP finished the install and had me reboot. I installed Photoshop and was scanning within roughly 10 minutes having passed after it's leaving the manufacturer's packaging.
USB
>>Rating = 9
Yep I was one of those people who hated the concept of USB but the more I find hardware that uses it and I can implement into my local network's pc's I'm finding its nice to have around - Definitely a plus to have on a scanner.
>>Rating = 10
How many times have you bought a scanner to find the software is just barely enough to scan the images and your not able to do any editing/color correcting unless you use a second program that is not provided to edit? IMHO, too often, so when I saw this scanner had Photoshop in it, I thought it would be worth the risk, even if the hardware was not perfect I had already decided I'd keep it just for a half priced Photoshop. ;)
This negative scanner comes with a variant of Adobe Photoshop which; for my needs, works the same as the Full Version of Photoshop except you get it with a negative scanner and you pay 1/2 the regular price for Photoshop... A win-win scenario to me.
I'm sure there must be a few things this version of Photoshop are missing but with my basic scans of Kodak 200, 400 and Fuji 100 film I was able to do all the color correcting/filtering/scratch repair I needed.
Overall Scanning
>>Rating = 8
I have to admit I was not happy with about 1/2 of the raw scans I did with this scanner. Granted this is my first negative scanner but when I have a roll of film processed as "negative only" and take great care when loading and handling the film I'd hope the roll would not have as many scratches as it appears to with the raw-scanned image.
It's almost like the scanner is catching a reflection of micro scratches (undetectable to the eye and my eye's are quite good) and amplifying that micro scratch. Needless to say you will absolutely have to use the scratch/dust filter on any pictures you don't want scratches and spots to show up on.
I have yet to determine if the negatives were scratched prior to going through the scanner of if the scanner elements inside are scratching them (kinda like the old sheet feed scanners of old, that would leave scratches on your pictures as they scanned them - the whole reason I bough a flat bed scanner in the first place) but if I can determine it one way or another I'll post that here when I know. For the moment I'll just presume its not the scanner otherwise I'd have brought it back to the store already.
It should also be noted that my Kodak 200 and 400 film came out much, much cleaner and true than the Fuji 100 did – The scanner was a lot closer on the color and required about 1/10 the editing using Kodak film so I wont use anything else in my camera anymore since I intend to scan everything in (of course). I'll be running some black and white film in the next week or two, so I might be adding more here with that result unless there is nothing special to note. :)
Scanning DPI
>>Rating = 8
This scanner is the first I have ever had a problem with selecting what dpi I wanted to use. By default its on 1800 dpi and I have yet to ever be able to select another dpi - If this changes I'll update this portion of the review but its been stubborn. lol
Scanning Speed
>>Rating = -5
OH DEAR GOD!!!!!! This thing is slow... even on the lowest quality final picture its taking about 1.5 minutes per negative - not including a pre-scan of the negatives, if you had desired.
Last night I started scanning a 25 picture 35mm strip (one full strip) at 10pm. I was done with this roll some time near midnight because of pre-scanning and then scanning all to file. I think I'll pull my fingernails out and dip them in sea salts and bleach before doing an entire roll at once again!
The nicest thing about this scanner is its auto feeding – once you tell it to preview all or scan all/scan all to file it goes about its business without a hitch. If you run large strips through, expect to be sitting there a long time.
Price
>>Rating = 9
While the $280(+ tax) I paid for this scanner is a good price in it's own right - it's short comings with speed make me wonder if they should have charged another $20 bucks and put a faster motor in it.
Photoshop's inclusion in this package at all, makes it well worth the price tag I paid, so that said its like getting $600 software for $280 and includes a free scanner... Well worth the price with that in mind.
Appearance
>>Rating = 9
This is one of the nicest home negative scanners I have seen; however, I'd like to have the 35mm negatives feed through the front, like the slide negatives do but that's just a personal peeve.
Drivers
>>Rating = 9
The only reason this gets a 9 is because when Windows XP crapped out (not the scanners fault but anyway....) I had to completely uninstall the driver set and reinstall them before I could scan again - reinstalling without the uninstall did not work although I tried that about 3 times before I uninstalled it.... aargh! Very annoying but its Microsoft's fault and not the scanner imho.
The first time I'd installed this scanner it went without a hitch and I was up and running after one reboot. I was impressed with its ease of setup: Hook up scanner (da dum) XP beeps at me.. I put the cd-rom that came with it in and XP finished the install and had me reboot. I installed Photoshop and was scanning within roughly 10 minutes having passed after it's leaving the manufacturer's packaging.
USB
>>Rating = 9
Yep I was one of those people who hated the concept of USB but the more I find hardware that uses it and I can implement into my local network's pc's I'm finding its nice to have around - Definitely a plus to have on a scanner.
