[IgorZ]

XA arrived about 5 days ago and I had some time to play with it, so I thought I'd share some initial thoughts. This is not really a comprehensive review, just my initial experience with XA and SilverFast.

The reason I picked the XA is so that I can scan my grandfather's archive without cutting film into strips. XA along with older Pacific Image scanners seem to be the only option (well, aside from the Coolscan) for scanning uncut film. So what do I think about XA? It's one infuriating piece of equipment!

First of all - the unit I got from B&H is clearly an open box item. The box had been opened before, the bag with the plug was ripped, and there was dust and pet hair on the bottom of the scanner. So that made me wonder if I should send it back. I have read that build quality varies across XA units, so I figure an open box item increases my chances of getting a lemon. In addition to paying a full price for an open box item.

I honestly had difficulty getting it to work. Either it would freeze, or it is sensitive to the sequence of actions. Can't remember how I used to do it in the beginning, but I think the sequence that works is to turn on the scanner, insert the film, then launch SilverFast then restart SilverFast because the film was inserted.

The scanner has trouble with old curvy film. I have to scan the film upside down because I cannot insert it the proper way. There might be some loss of sharpness because of that, but honestly, old Soviet film is so poor that loss of sharpness is the least of my concerns. Scanning film upside down means I have to flip the image. SilverFast makes it easy as it has an option for flipping the image, along with the usual rotation. The problem is that I got completely confused whether flipping the image affects only the current scan, or all subsequent scans as well. This is no doubt due to my lack of familiarity with SilverFast. It seems that the changes that I make to the current scan affect all subsequent scans until the software is closed, but not being sure, I couldn't figure out whether I should be flipping images or not anymore...

When film is inserted, one has to use forward and reverse buttons to set the beginning of the frame. After that one can use these buttons to skip from one frame to the next. Unfortunately, this very useful feature does not seem to work with curvy film. This meant that I had to press the forward button multiple times to move the film one millimeter at a time. Very frustrating.

I haven't tried batch processing. This might be the best way forward for me. My grandfather used to shoot film the way I shoot digital - his keeper rate is not that high. Scanning individual frames on an uncut film is frustrating because of not being able to "fast forward". Once in a while something happens and XA decides to eject the film, meaning the whole painfully slow process of looking for the right frame has to be started from the beginning. In this situation I might have to sacrifice disk space for sanity and just scan the whole film, then pick the scans I want.

It's not all doom and gloom with this scanner. I scanned some velvia with it and it worked great. The dust and scratch tool that SilverFast has is really good at picking and removing dust. The scans turned out nice and the whole process was fast and easy - in start contrast to scanning old curvy film. Fast forward option also works, which is great.

In short, if you have flat film the process is quick and enjoyable, much faster than my flatbed Canon scanner. If you have old curved up film... you still might have to suffer through it, as I don't know if there is an alternative...

[timw4mail]

Some of your difficulty does seem to be your copy of the scanner, but the troubles with curly film are probably unavoidable.

Negatives:
Curvy film is infuriating to scan regardless of the scanning method.

One of the reasons I now have an Epson flatbed photo scanner in addition to the XA is that getting certain kinds of film to scan is a nightmare on the XA. Too curled, too short of a strip, and too dark of a film frame can cause issues.

My experience scanning slide film is that you have to have 'bright' slides for all the detail to be scanned well. Anything dark will result in muddy noise. I've generally had better luck with the flatbed for scanning slides, in terms of dynamic range.

Now, for the positive:

Batch scanning generally works, especially for an uncut roll of developed film. The trick is making sure the first frame is aligned correctly, and that you don't have weird double-exposures that are bigger than one frame. That said, Silverfast insists on 'counting' the frames backward and forward before the scan, which can be a bit dull when you have a full uncut 36+ frame roll.

Color correction, and defect removal generally work surprisingly well.

[Alex645]

My experience with any film scanner has been there is a learning curve on my part for both the hardware and how the software works with that hardware. After you work out all the idiosyncrasies, it becomes much more efficient.

Of course if Apple or Epson or even Nikon made a film scanner, it would probably be a lot more user friendly than what is available cross platform today. Wolverine has seemed to cornered the market on ease, but the more capable scanners like the Pacific Image or Plustek, etc, are using third party drivers like VueScan and Silverfast, which is, as you've experienced, quirky.

Does anyone know if there is a Pentax mount for something like the following link, but for neg strips and not mounted slides? That could also save you for the curliest film strips. Most photo editing programs have some sort of color inversion for negs such as Command I on a Mac with Photoshop.

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/37453-REG/Nikon_3213_ES_1_Slide_Copying_Adapter.html

[timw4mail]

My experience with any film scanner has been there is a learning curve on my part for both the hardware and how the software works with that hardware. After you work out all the idiosyncrasies, it becomes much more efficient.

Of course if Apple or Epson or even Nikon made a film scanner, it would probably be a lot more user friendly than what is available cross platform today. Wolverine has seemed to cornered the market on ease, but the more capable scanners like the Pacific Image or Plustek, etc, are using third party drivers like VueScan and Silverfast, which is, as you've experienced, quirky.

Epson has flat-bed film scanners (I have one), with dedicated scanning hardware for transparencies. The software is a lot more straight-forward than Silverfast, and can do batch scanning of two strips of negatives at a time.

[stevebrot]

First of all - the unit I got from B&H is clearly an open box item. The box had been opened before, the bag with the plug was ripped, and there was dust and pet hair on the bottom of the scanner. So that made me wonder if I should send it back. I have read that build quality varies across XA units, so I figure an open box item increases my chances of getting a lemon. In addition to paying a full price for an open box item.

I would contact B&H and include whatever photo documentation you might have regarding the condition of the shipping box, item box and item on receipt. They will most likely replace and cover the shipping both ways.


Steve

[acoufap]

My experience with any film scanner has been there is a learning curve on my part for both the hardware and how the software works with that hardware. After you work out all the idiosyncrasies, it becomes much more efficient.

Of course if Apple or Epson or even Nikon made a film scanner, it would probably be a lot more user friendly than what is available cross platform today. Wolverine has seemed to cornered the market on ease, but the more capable scanners like the Pacific Image or Plustek, etc, are using third party drivers like VueScan and Silverfast, which is, as you've experienced, quirky.

Does anyone know if there is a Pentax mount for something like the following link, but for neg strips and not mounted slides? That could also save you for the curliest film strips. Most photo editing programs have some sort of color inversion for negs such as Command I on a Mac with Photoshop.

Nikon ES-1 Slide Copying Adapter 3213 B&H Photo Video

Infrared-based cleaning is invaluable IMO - a big plus for scanners / software that support it.

[dsmithhfx]

One solution for curvy negs on flatbeds that I've read about, but not tried, is "Anti-Newton Ring" (ANR) glass, though this introduces four more dust-magnet surfaces to the equation.

My bigger bug with scanning is microfibers -- very difficult to spot with the naked eye either on the negative or scanner. On the weekend, after carefully wiping down my scanner with windex + isopropyl solution, and blowing away any visible dust on negs so everything looked pristine, I put two rolls through with frames ranging from dead clean to it looked like I'd left the negs kicking around on the floor for a week, with about 75% requiring significant spotting efforts.

[IgorZ]

I would contact B&H and include whatever photo documentation you might have regarding the condition of the shipping box, item box and item on receipt. They will most likely replace and cover the shipping both ways.


Steve

Thanks! I did contact them and they offered to exchange it right away. Very nice!

---------- Post added 01-08-18 at 04:39 PM ----------

Some of your difficulty does seem to be your copy of the scanner, but the troubles with curly film are probably unavoidable.

Negatives:
Curvy film is infuriating to scan regardless of the scanning method.

One of the reasons I now have an Epson flatbed photo scanner in addition to the XA is that getting certain kinds of film to scan is a nightmare on the XA. Too curled, too short of a strip, and too dark of a film frame can cause issues.

My experience scanning slide film is that you have to have 'bright' slides for all the detail to be scanned well. Anything dark will result in muddy noise. I've generally had better luck with the flatbed for scanning slides, in terms of dynamic range.

Now, for the positive:

Batch scanning generally works, especially for an uncut roll of developed film. The trick is making sure the first frame is aligned correctly, and that you don't have weird double-exposures that are bigger than one frame. That said, Silverfast insists on 'counting' the frames backward and forward before the scan, which can be a bit dull when you have a full uncut 36+ frame roll.

Color correction, and defect removal generally work surprisingly well.

Thanks for the good summary. I asked B&H for exchange. I hope the new scanner won't have these issues

---------- Post added 01-08-18 at 04:42 PM ----------

My experience with any film scanner has been there is a learning curve on my part for both the hardware and how the software works with that hardware. After you work out all the idiosyncrasies, it becomes much more efficient.

Of course if Apple or Epson or even Nikon made a film scanner, it would probably be a lot more user friendly than what is available cross platform today. Wolverine has seemed to cornered the market on ease, but the more capable scanners like the Pacific Image or Plustek, etc, are using third party drivers like VueScan and Silverfast, which is, as you've experienced, quirky.

Does anyone know if there is a Pentax mount for something like the following link, but for neg strips and not mounted slides? That could also save you for the curliest film strips. Most photo editing programs have some sort of color inversion for negs such as Command I on a Mac with Photoshop.

Nikon ES-1 Slide Copying Adapter 3213 B&H Photo Video

Yes, no doubt there is a learning curve for sure. I've only seen slide copying adapters for mounted slides, but I haven't really researched this.

---------- Post added 01-08-18 at 04:44 PM ----------

One solution for curvy negs on flatbeds that I've read about, but not tried, is "Anti-Newton Ring" (ANR) glass, though this introduces four more dust-magnet surfaces to the equation.

My bigger bug with scanning is microfibers -- very difficult to spot with the naked eye either on the negative or scanner. On the weekend, after carefully wiping down my scanner with windex + isopropyl solution, and blowing away any visible dust on negs so everything looked pristine, I put two rolls through with frames ranging from dead clean to it looked like I'd left the negs kicking around on the floor for a week, with about 75% requiring significant spotting efforts.

Interesting, I haven't heard of this. One reason I can't use a flatbed scanner is that I can't really cut the film. If I cut it I won't be able to store it as it doesn't get flat even after I put weight on it.

[timw4mail]

Interesting, I haven't heard of this. One reason I can't use a flatbed scanner is that I can't really cut the film. If I cut it I won't be able to store it as it doesn't get flat even after I put weight on it.

Film can be flattened over time, and it's easier to flatten in standard negative holders. Granted, the timescale can be larger than you'd like...

[Alex645]

Epson has flat-bed film scanners (I have one), with dedicated scanning hardware for transparencies. The software is a lot more straight-forward than Silverfast, and can do batch scanning of two strips of negatives at a time.

True, but I was wishing for a film only scanner from Epson. The adapters they make for their flatbeds work well enough, but I have a friend that was scanning her 120 film with an Epson flatbed and film adapter. She was very happy with the results until I did a comparison test with a dedicated film scanner. If you don't compare, the flatbed is fine. If you do compare, one is clearly superior.

[timw4mail]

True, but I was wishing for a film only scanner from Epson. The adapters they make for their flatbeds work well enough, but I have a friend that was scanning her 120 film with an Epson flatbed and film adapter. She was very happy with the results until I did a comparison test with a dedicated film scanner. If you don't compare, the flatbed is fine. If you do compare, one is clearly superior.

You'd be surprised the results you can get from a Flatbed. Some of my slides have come out much better on the flatbed than on the XA.

[LSI_Horn]

Hi IgorZ.
In SilverFast Ai Studio for the PrimeFilm XA Scanner, you can use the "Overview" function to adjust the scanning of your film. This is where you select which images to scan and which to skip.
Add them to the JobManager, adjust one frame and copy your settings or parts of it to the other images on the strip.
The overview dialog is also where you can correct film offset for the entire film strip, if necessary.
It takes some time to get used to the process, but then it should work fine - no matter if you wish to have most settings done automatically or frame by frame manually.
Hope that helps to get your batch scanning started...

timw4mail, if you're looking for only very basic scanning, Epson Scan might be sufficient for you. It does seem simpler on first sight, I agree. Once you get accustomed to SilverFast however, you'll notice that you can get better results in the same time. SilverFast looks complicated at first, but you'll notice that it's just a lot of different tools from which you can pick the ones that you'll need for your particular image. You don't have to use all of them for every image. There are a lot of different issues that pictures might have and you'll be happy to have the tools to correct them at some point. It's better to have than to be in need of...

I haven't used the Wolverine so far, but isn't it a digitizer, not a scanner as such? It's more like a low-res digital camera, isn't it?

[timw4mail]

timw4mail, if you're looking for only very basic scanning, Epson Scan might be sufficient for you. It does seem simpler on first sight, I agree. Once you get accustomed to SilverFast however, you'll notice that you can get better results in the same time. SilverFast looks complicated at first, but you'll notice that it's just a lot of different tools from which you can pick the ones that you'll need for your particular image. You don't have to use all of them for every image. There are a lot of different issues that pictures might have and you'll be happy to have the tools to correct them at some point. It's better to have than to be in need of...

Epson Scan is pretty impressive, especially for bundled scanning software, and in comparision to the CyberView or whatever that other software that comes with the XA.
For what Epson scan can't handle, I have VueScan, which works well enough for my needs (for the flatbed scanning).

After having used both VueScan and Silverfast for the XA, though, I like Silverfast more for batch scanning.

[IgorZ]

Hi IgorZ.
In SilverFast Ai Studio for the PrimeFilm XA Scanner, you can use the "Overview" function to adjust the scanning of your film. This is where you select which images to scan and which to skip.
Add them to the JobManager, adjust one frame and copy your settings or parts of it to the other images on the strip.
The overview dialog is also where you can correct film offset for the entire film strip, if necessary.
It takes some time to get used to the process, but then it should work fine - no matter if you wish to have most settings done automatically or frame by frame manually.
Hope that helps to get your batch scanning started...

t

Thanks! I was wondering what that Overview was for. When I clicked on it nothing happened, but I guess it's because I have just SE 8. I just upgraded to SE 8 plus. Ai is a bit expensive, maybe in the future... Incidentally, I was also wondering what that JobManager was for, so thanks for explaining. Looks like a useful feature

[LSI_Horn]

I am glad I could help. Please let me know if you have any questions. The concepts behind the SilverFast software are not always self-explaining...