[Arpe]

I'm vaguely thinking of getting a scanner to scan my old negatives and my father's slides (hundreds). I think the rest of my family could also use it and then it may also have some residual sale value . The cost of proffesional scanning is very high.

Anyway, I've just come across the Plustek OpticFilm 7200i, it seems extremely good value for money. What others should I look at? I wouldn't want to spend any more than this one costs. And what resolution is required to scan the film at to acheive decent results, sya, equivalent to a 6mp dslr?

Like I say, I'm just thinking about this out loud, as it were, not definitely going to buy.

[slip]

Hi Arpe

I read the review and it doesn't seem to be a bad scanner for the price. The only thing that bothered me was this

There is no facility to adjust the position of the film once it is placed in the scanner apart from removing the film and starting again. This can be quite frustrating, especially when scanning unmounted strips of film

what this tells me is that there is no way to tell if the frame of the negative is in properly, and the only way to adjust it is to start all over again.

I have a Canon Cannoscan FS4000US and once I feed the film/slide in, it automatically adjusts to the size of the frame.

I did pay more then what you are looking at paying, but I think they have droped in price to around 800 american dollars.

If your slides/negatives don't have a lot of dust and scratches on them (my canon gets rid of all the scratches and dust without ever knowing anything was there) then this less expensive scanner in the review you are looking to buy is a great value, at least in comparison to a flat bed scanner.

If you can over look the small short commings, then I would say go for it.... unless you are really fussy... then look at a more expensive option like the Canon or Nikon.

good luck with your decision

let us know how you make out!

cheers

randy

[Arpe]

Thanks Randy. What dpi do you use?

[-=JoN=-]

i had a konica/minolta sometime back, it was a good scanner. did the job well.
get something with ICE. helps w/ the dust and what not...

if I remember the model name, i'll post it up again

[slip]

Thanks Randy. What dpi do you use?

My scanner can go up to 4000x4000 dpi at 42bit color.... over a 60 MB file, which is plenty big enough. should get you a 11x14" or possibly a 12x18'" from a slide (never got one made that big, but an 8x12" looks really good)
The Canon canoscan I have does have a version of ICE that JoN is talking about, but Canon calls it FAIR
what ICE and FAIR does is use infared to scan the surfice of the poslitive/negative.... that way it can detect and clean dust and scratchs without taking away any quality of the scan.
hope this helps
The main reason I bought a Canon over the Nikon is the Nikon was x2 the price.... but it scans faster.... not fast enough to justify the extra cost, IMHO


randy