Plustek 8200i (ft. Silverfast SE) - Film scanner - Review and Quick-Start Guide
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- Опубліковано 31 тра 2024
- Link to uncompressed image - jonathannotley.com/blog-conte...
I've been using this for a couple of week and it's been a big step up from the Epson V850 I was using previously. This video is a quick run through of what you can expect from an 8200i, as well as a demonstration of Silverfast settings and a final image.
I'm sure to have forgotten something so please leave a comment if something isn't clear! - Навчання та стиль
So glad a photographer finally reviewed this. Thank you.
Just bought one of these, can't wait to try it out. Thanks so much for making this video!
Was thinking of what scanners I will be getting if I am going to do film photography full time. You just helped me decide. Thanks for the recommendation. Will save up for this one, hopefully next year.
Thank you for your videos! You made me buy the cheaper SE version! I was thinking about the Ai one but after I read the comments you convinced me that it might not be worth the money. I was looking for a scanner that would not be as big as flat bed for some time now and your reviews really convinced me that this little fella is worth it !!
Thank you for the review. It has helped me get my 8200 up and running.
Hey Jonathan! It's a very useful video for 35mm film scanner. I have had the Plustek 8200i Ai for nearly 2 years.
When I use the ME(multiple exposure) function for the slide film scanning, there is a problem that the color of finial image would differ from the color of preview image.The entire color of finial image seems to be more blue and violet than preview image. So do you have same condition when using the ME function?
Thank you so much for making the video and sharing your experience!
thank you. great presentation. been waiting for the right equipment to come along. thanks.
Thanks for the review ... just ordered this Plustek 8200i SE. Do you recommend I get the color perfect plugin?
Thanks for the video. How do you edit color negatives?
Thanks for reviewing this ... I just bought it..waiting on delivery...question: Do I need photoshop or is the silverfast enough? Or is Siliverfast just the scanning software, and I will need some other type of editing software?
Thank you for your video!
I tried using two different mirrorless cameras with macro lenses, but was not satisfied. I then tried the EPSON V600, but the slide holders were not very good. I had to pick the slides off the scanner’s glass after every use. I looked at the online reviews for the Pacific Image Powerslide X and PlusTek 8200i AI’s and SE. I want the best output results possible without worrying if the software works or constantly cleaning hardware or clearing jams. I was leaning towards the EPSON V850 until I looked at your video.
Did you look at the Canon Canoscan 9000 or the Powerslide X?
Hey Jonathon. Any idea if any new dedicated 35mm film scanners might be coming out soon. I had been using a Minolta elite 5400 that had been working quite well but it's gone on the fritz. All the scans come out black now. Was hoping for something a little more advanced than the Plustek. Thanks!
Thank you for the video, great job. On a side note, get a microphone.
Thank you, Jonathan. Very helpful introduction. Here we are almost 3 years later, and I am looking seriously at the Plustek 8200i. Would you change anything, now that you have all this experience? Thank you. Very best for 2021!
How do you think this compares to the plustek 120 for 35mm scanning?
Do you need the color perfect plugin. Wont it scan and do the reversal for you?
Do you find yourself using the IR dust and speckle removal function of the scanner?
Hello
Thanks for your video. Witch side of the negativ should be up?
Hi Jonathan, nicely done video. I'm new to scanning, I have this unit, and am wondering why you chose to scan at 16bit RAW instead of 32, 48, or 64 bit? What is the advantage to one or the other? Many thanks!
Actually, for B&W it looks like your only RAW options are 16bit or 32bit. Why not 32 bit?
Hi, just wondering if you have managed to get the front buttons to work?
Hey - good vid! Quick question - could you scan an over exposed version (to capture shadow detail) and an under exposed version (to capture highlight detail) and then create an HDR in Photoshop (I guess you could also layer mask) in order to get more detail overall?
There is a multiple pass function built into Silverfast but to be perfectly honest the dynamic range of a film is mostly pegged to the density of the slide/negative. In instances like underexposed shadows in black and white or blown highlights in slides it’s not the Dmax of the scanner but a total lack of information in the neg/tranny that holds you back. That being said drum scanners can pull a little bit further into the shadows on dense slides.
How does this unit compare to the
Plustek OpticFilm 135i?
Thank You! Very helpful review!
question, do i have to plug it into my mac to use the plustek
In terms of scanning performance, how does the 8200 SE compared to the 135i?
Had a Plustek scanner for several years now. But I use Vuescan software rather than SE, and it works with my other scanners too. Worth pointing out that for another £100 or so you can get the automated version which feeds the film strips through automatically to do a whole strip at a time (I think it also has ICE dust removal)
which model specifically?
Hey Jonathan, the link to the uncompressed image doesn't seem to be working, and I can't find the pic on your website.
You wouldn't mind pointing me in the right direction?
jonathannotley.com/blog-content/2018/1/25/flatbed-scanning-and-35mm-film
Do you recommend epson 850 pro or plustek 8200i ai ?
so my doubt is about... should I put the negative emulsion down? Because Im doing it this way and getting an inverted image.. am I always supposed to inverted again in Lightroom?
You’re able to flip it in the software as well! The text on the film rebate to should read left to right when you place it into the holder
Hey john, great vid. just sold my v600 and about to pull the trigger on one of these (I'm only shooting 35mm these days)
how has you long term experience been? worth the buy in your mind if your just a 35mm shooter?
Shootswithcoops It’s a big step up from flatbeds, I actually made a direct comparison video between this and a V850 so check that out for a side-by-side
You have to load one frame at a time but that’s not too much of a worry because I never scan the whole roll anyway
Definitely worth a buy just for 35mm - other ones to look at are the reflects 7200 and the Minolta dimage 5400
Flatbed scanning and 35mm ua-cam.com/video/fmC5U5aiclw/v-deo.html
@Jonathan you are right, Minolta Dimage 5400 (1or 2) is worth to buy, scans grain sharper than Nikon Coolscan
any option to export the scan as DNG rather than tif file? Gives you the option of NR if you so wish to do so.
Dude, what’s the main reason to go from the V850 to this one again?
is there any way to scan film borders too?
Wich is better the 135 or 8200?? Thanks
would you reccomend this over the v550? I have the v550 but ive found it a bit lacking for 35mm
I run an 8200i for 35mm alongside a v850 for everything else
Gave up looking for a Minolta 5400 so may have to get the Plustek instead. I already have Silverfast 8 for use with my Epson V800...just wondering if Silverfast will be able to differentiate between two different scanners and what's involved in getting it to do so.
Are you in the UK? I’m thinking of selling mine
@@JonathanNotley No, the US. But thanks anyway, Jonathan. Still researching how to get Silverfast to recognize two different scanners before I make a decision.
I'm thinking of getting this scanner but can't decide between the SE or Ai studio software version. Most of my work is B&W with a few colour negs. You think the AI version is worth the extra money for what I'm doing? All my negs exposed correctly.
Hi Lohanette, good timing with that question! I've actually recently been in contact with Silverfast and I'm going to be making a few videos with them going over the software with regards to colourneg/bnw/slide etc. I'd recommend SE plus for 95% of users, the AI costs a lot more for a very incremental upgrade and might not be worth it. Stay tuned for a much more in depth walk through the features in some of my next videos though.
Jonathan Notley well I got the 8200i ai and wow! The detail it gets beats canon 9000f mkii and even the labs scans. I shoot with a Leica and always wondered why people say the lenses are sharp as my canon 1d mkiii with L lenses seemed much sharper. Not now. Thanks for video.
OK, wait, I think you glossed over something. You briefly used a color reversal plugin in PS to invert the colours to make the pic useable. Do you have to do this for EVERY pic you export as TIF?
Hi Jonathan, thanks for this video. I am confused by the model line up and wonder if you have any ideas on this. The base model seems to be the 8100 which is currently only £170. So far as I can tell it comes packaged with the same software. The only difference I can identify is that the 8200i has "an infrared channel to detect dust and scratches". Is this relevant if I scan a raw file to process in photoshop the way you demonstrate? Obviously it is tempting to buy the cheaper model. Any recommendation/thoughts would be greatly appreciated.
Hi Jay, if you’re scanning in the RAW mode and inverting yourself you really don’t need the iSRD function. Bear in mind even in normal (non-raw) use the iSRD doesn’t work for black and white anyway. I’d recommend looking for a version that comes bundled with SilverFast SE though. There are different tiers of the software with Ai being crazy-expensive for not a lot more and the basic “SilverFast 8” being moderately handicapped.
Best way to get round the iSRD thing is to get a rocket blower and keep your negatives away from airflow whilst they dry
Thanks Jonathan. I went for the 8100 and so far I am very pleased with the performance. Even though this is the cheaper base model it came supplied with the SE software. I am exclusively scanning B&W so I think this was the right choice.
JayFilm Are you managing to get scans with detail in the shadows/highlights? I’m considering the 8100 and looking primarily for fairly ‘flat’ scans that are easy to work with.
Looks great how big of a print could you get from the biggest file scan on one of these?
NickFury I’m happy to print up to A4 borderless at 300 dpi
I originally purchased the Plustek OpticFilm 7300 a few years ago. It came with the Silverfast SE Plus 6.5 software. Unfortunately, my computer was stolen in a burglary and I have only just got around to using the scanner again. I know I will have to obtain new software for the device because I have changed my OS but do you know if the 7300 is basically the same as the 8200. It looks the same, just a different colour. I have tried contacting both Plustek and Silverfast for advice but although I gave my original serial number, Silverfast didn’t accept it because they don’t recognise my email address which has also changed. Ideally, I hope to upgrade the software for the 7300 model but if the 8200 version is better I might actually buy the whole package again. What would you advise?
Geraldine Goode use Vuescan
Really interesting!!!
thanks for the video. They do 2 different but very similar model the Plustek OpticFilm 8200i SE and the Plustek OpticFilm 8200i Ai . the second price is a bit higher. Do you know the difference? - Thanks - Mauro
The difference is the software that comes with it, id suggest the SE version
thanks for taking time to reply - All the best. Now I have only to verify if compatible with with OS10.14@@JonathanNotley
Thanks for this. Was wondering whether to scan at 7200 dpi and downsize in Photoshop rather than scan at a lower rate. This seems to back that up.
Maybe if you're scanning only a few frames for making large prints, it's worth to scan at 7200 dpi and no downsizing, otherwise I'd scan everything at 3600 dpi. I looked up and it seems to be an effective 2600 dpi at 3600, and 3250 dpi at 7200.
@@Ryan-lu9km Yeah, I ended up doing just that - scanning at 3600. Could see no appreciable difference at 7200 and the scans took forever.
@@VoiceofFox
Thanks for trying out.
May I ask how long are the scan times at 3600 dpi ? Do you find the colors are right, or is there any color cast ?
I'm considering buying the scanner, but I'm not sure if it's worth for scanning an entire roll of 36 exp, just for archiving.
How is your workflow with Silverfast, do you think it works well or the scans need treatment in Lightroom or Photoshop ?
@@Ryan-lu9km Scans take a couple of mins at that resolution. I was scanning with the multi-pass feature on, which is supposed to get more shadow detail but I find it makes very little difference in most images plus it increases scan times a lot. I’ve also started turning off the infra red scan for new negatives. Any dust removal is easy to do in Photoshop or Lightroom.
Silverfast does have a colour correction checkbox, which works well depending on the film. I’ve been shooting Portra lately and the colours are better to me with this off. I also use the neutral pipette to pick the neutral point to keep colours consistent between frames. Any final corrections I do in PS/Lr.
Silverfast has everything you need to avoid using Photoshop or Lightroom. But I’m very comfortable with those, so I do the minimum in Silverfast, then sharpening, dust/scratch removal and colour tweaks in PS, then finally import into Lr for anything else and exporting to JPG. But like I said, you can mostly everything in Silverfast.
I only bought the scanner to archive old negatives but actually it got me to shoot film again because the results are so good. I only shoot digital on iPhone now and don’t use my DSLR. 35mm for everything else.
Forgot to say, you will need to remove colour noise from scans. You will need to use either PS or Lr for that. Around 45% is a good value. It’s only really noticeable when pixel-peeping though.
I have one new in the box , I will scan firstly after that video ,
How does this compare to the former version or a flatbed scanner(canon 9000 for example)?
Grover F.I I think that dedicated 35mm scanners will always beat canon/Epson flatbeds. The next video will be a comparison between this and a V850
Jonathan Notley wow Thank so much!
Just clicked upload on a 14 minute comparison to an Epson V850 - check back this afternoon!
Thanks so much!!! I'm new to film photography and I think that having a scanner will be a great motivator to shoot and develop more. I didn't even know about bulk loading so I'll be checking your channel often :D
if anyone knows im debating between this or the Pacific Image Prime Film XAs super edition Film Scanner ( prices are about same) which would you prefer? for scanning 35mm
wanting a dedicated 35mm scanner instead of scanning on flatbed
what did you end up choosing?
@@huzizach I actually went with the Plustek since 1/10 ppl seem to have issues with the XA prime pacific for film not spooling correctly, I'm making a video sometime soon.... :)
@@RM.TokyoPhotographer ah cool! Thanks for replying and so quickly. Would be keen to see your video on it too! (:
I made a video on the XAs 2 days ago and a video comparing it to DSLR scanning yesterday. Check my channel page and sort by new if you want to see it.
PS. I scanned the same neg as this video for comparison
I'm having a lot of trouble simply installing the software needed and getting my Mac to recognize the Plustek, do you have any advice on getting the scanner and software up and running on Mac OS 10.13?
Try downloading it from their website if the supplied disc isn't working. depending on when it shipped the disc might be out of date since high sierra is quite new. fwiw I'm using 10.13.3 and Silverfast works for me
It's funny that most scanner reviews do not use color film
How much difference does it make to just scan at 3800dpi insteed of 7200dpi in quality?
I'm not 100% sure because I've never tried it but if you're worried about file size then bear in mind the first thing you can do when you open photoshop is resample it to 4000px long side which kills most of the extra data
This is a very good video ! Thank you! I really appreciate it!
Maybe improving the sound could level up your content!
I see that like all things to do with film, there has been a significant price increase in the last 2 years. Now over £300
Yeah, what the heccckkk
Does iSRD work for B&W negatives?
No. The silver content blocks the IR.
🙏 thank you
What is the highest resolution you can get in terms of Pixels? I'm having a hard time understanding it...basically I d'like to print my own zines (300dpi requirred). Not sure if this scanner would do the trick
3000-ish. Times that by the dimensions of your zine (a5 is 148mmx210mm) and you’re set. I printed a zine last month using scans from a Plustek so I’m confident it’ll work out.
@@JonathanNotley 🙏🏿
Thanks - very useful. Might be worth mentioning that the named product is a film-scanner in the title (or blurb), though?
I added dedicated 35mm film scanner to the title, thanks
Jonathan - I promise I'm not trolling, but it may be useful to know that the title on the thumbnail on the "Subscription" page of UA-cam now shows: "Plustek 8200i (ft. Silverfast SE) - Dedicated 35mm film". i.e. it's too long to show the word "scanner" which is crucial to the title. I don't know what the limit is, and I can't find out with a quick glance at Google. but I suspect it is around 60 characters. Most of the very experienced vloggers seem to know this and keep their titles short(er) to avoid cropping...I hope this helps.
I’m new to this and appreciating the advice - I took out ‘dedicated 35mm’ and it seems to have fixed it
Hey Jonathan!
A silly question. I have found lots of negatives from my grandpa who used to take pictures in the 60's from my home town and I want to scan them.
Is it safe to cut the whole negative into a few pieces so it should fit in the holder? Otherwise I think it is impossible to scan them.
Kordovaner Balint should be fine! Just be careful not to accidentally cut an image ;)
Sergio is right, you're fine to cut them into strips but I'd suggest sticking to 6 at a time!
Thank, I was thinking the same. Probably I will buy negative holders as well.
I have two questions:
- Why did you take the Plustek 8200i instead of the Plustek 8200Ai. The 8200Ai is delivered with two frames for Auto calibration.
- What is teh best format to archive/preservate a scan to disk?
I have Ai studio already and Silverfast sent me some calibration slides for a video series I made for them
Thanks for this. A question though, is it possible to scan the rebate on the neg so you can have a black border? Thanks
Nope. The scan area slightly crops the frame.
Ah damn. Is there a neg scanner which doesn't?
Sorry to pester you like this
Flatbeds have work-arounds - my next video is going to be about scanning with the film borders
ua-cam.com/video/lZjdZ0DApbE/v-deo.html
Check this out
I use the Plustek Opticfilm 8200i AI and can't recommend it highly enough. I used a Minolta 5400 prior to this, and the Plustek knocks spots off of it, in my honest opinion.
"It's a little bit overexposed." :-D
better than an epson?
is it better with vuescan??
I think so, but that may just be familiarity since I use Vuescan with all my other scanners (and have done since 1996 or so)
You say this is a big step up from the V850 but show no comparison. So how big actually is that step up! You obviously are able to either lease or buy more than most of us, so if the step is not that big and we already use an Epson v850 it would be of considerable interest to know the difference.
I can't even get the CD-Rom disk to intall on my Windows 10! - Any ideas?
M8, audio in this video is WACK. It sounds like you're broadcasting to us from the bottom of a soup tin. Good review though.
Yeah I was actually recording the audio from my friends submarine, is struggles with the satellite uplink under the ice
@@JonathanNotley 🤣 perfect response 👌
great vid
glove work ....mmm I can see you keep them even after loading the film plate and loading then in to scanner. You don't take off the glove when starting to use your computer. bad practice.. you getting all the human oil of your computer keyboard on the gloves. then on to film heg and in to scanner
good job , thank you
Some advertise MP and others DPI. How the hell am I supposed to compare these. How many MP does this thing give me? 8200 DPI tells me nothing.
Dpi is more informative because it gives you a resolution target that’s independent of format size. The formula to work out MP is to multiply the DPI by the length of the sides of your negative in inches. Eg. You’re trying to work out how many pixels your 6x6 frame would produce on a 4000 dpi scanner. Step 1: work out the length of a 6x6 frame’s longest side in inches - they’re both 2.2 inches because of the square format. Step 2: multiply this answer by the DPI - 2.2*4000= 8,800 Step 3: times it by the shortest side of the negative (it’s also 8,800 because 6x6 is square so we just raise it to the second power) - 8,800 * 8,800 = 77,440,000 pixels. Step 4: divide this by 1,000,000 to get the ‘Mega’ pixels - 77.4mp.
The reason that scanners are talked about in terms of DPI and not megapixels is because one scanner might be able to scan a dozen formats and listing all these would take up a lot of space. Take an Epson flatbed. You could scan anything from 1/2 frame to 8x10, including weird things like the widelux/xpan and 6x17 etc. The dpi gives you an idea of resolving power at a glance, whilst letting you work out the megapixels for your specific film.
Personally I find out the megapixel size of my film images by clicking image>image size in photoshop after the scan is complete, but each to their own.
scan well oscar
I don't understand this software. You pre-scan an image, and then you're given an example of what the image will look like once it's completed the actual scanning process. That's what the program would have you thinking, at least. Though, when it's done, you've got this extremely underexposed image that's in total need of repair. Why does the pre-scan show you something that's completely unlike what the finished product is gonna be? Why bother with Silverfast's exposure adjustment, if the image your basing it off of isn't right? I'm so confused. I purchased this scanner et software, so I wouldn't have to use my DSLR to scan, which was a headache and would always leave me having to heavily edit to get good-looking converted images. I thought that the software would do the bulk of the conversion for me. The goal with analog film is to get negatives that look fair to decent without heavy processing in PS or LR, right? I mean, they didn't have access to such things back in the old days. This is all just so frustrating. That plug-in costs money. Better software costs money. PS/LR costs money. Film. Development. I LOVE analog photography so far, don't me wrong, but the technology side of it kind of sucks sometimes.
Was this in colour of black and white, and did you select a RAW mode?
I don’t put too much emphasis on the correct colours till I’m in photoshop but I do generally get what I see in the preview as an output. Perhaps you deactivated auto adjustments before pressing scan?
Yeah, it was B&W, and I did select RAW mode. Though, after a couple scans, I noticed that the densitometer was active. Turning it off got me better images, but still nothing like what the program told me I'd get. They're all underexposed. I've been turning them around with curves in Lightroom, healing brush in Photoshop. It just irks me. My film negatives look nice. I'm pretty confident that the exposure when I took the shots was closer than the scans are giving me. But, yeah, I've been playing with settings. I think it's just a mix of me being new to the scanner, new to development, etc. They really do look alright, after adjusting the curves. Thank you!
When you invert the Raw scan you need to set your black point, otherwise you get really a washy grey mess. Easiest way to do this is to use the levels tool in Photoshop and just drag the tab to the end of the visible histogram. I'm going to make a video going over some of the photoshop techniques for dealing with scans soon so maybe that will help.
You're not alone in your feelings towards Silverfast software. For supposedly being the best in the film scanning and archiving business, they certainly fell well short of my expectations. I have soooo many issues with Silverfast that I usually end up just using the crude Epson software that came with my scanner and doing just a little bit more editing. When I prescan the film, it gives me an image of the whole strip and that's fine, I guess, though I'd prefer a thumbnail interface like my Epson software does because when I rotate it to view a verticle shot, it rotates the whole fim strip. So when I go to a horizontal shot, I have to again rotate it. There's just so much unnecessary clicking. So when I click on a certain frame and zoom in to work on it, it does a high resolution prescan that takes like 20-30 seconds. Then if I zoom back out to the strip and zoom back in to the same frame, it does another high res prescan. So Much Waiting. There's also no way that I can find to deselect frames that I don't want to scan. So I end up just having to scan them and then delete them once they save to my destination folder but it's a waste of time and just adds to my time scanning. I find the find frames function useless, as I usually have to fine tune every single frame anyway because it usually catches at least one black edge in every frame. There is sooo much extra unnecessary shit I have to deal with using Silverfast. I honestly regret buying it and I wish I could return it
9:24 says 3 min 50 sec for the scan. I'm looking at my deceased grandfather's 500+ rolls of 35mm film w/ 36 shots each to scan.
Math: 4 min x 36 x 500 ... 72000 minutes or 1200 hours or 150 days at 8 hours a day. Yea this solution is not a solution..
I only scan selects, not entire rolls
For that bulk level of scanning you shouldn't be looking at consumer level products. That's a commercial workload.
You may be better off negotiating a bulk rate with a photo lab or something.
Why don't you look, you might find a room more horrible for echo if you looked?????
FYI: This scanner is only 2400 ppi
That’s effective optical resolution, which is achieved at scanner settings above 2400.
@@JonathanNotley all I wanted to point out is that the effective optical resolution of this scanner is 2400. Anything above that is a result of interpolation and multipass to create an illusion of higher resolution for marketing purposes
3 minutes per negative? that would be 1 1/2 hours for one roll? thats crazy. I know its not the same but ill stick with DSLR scanning, i can get a full roll in 15 minutes and the quality looks good to me
That’s at the highest quality, I only suggest scanning the shots you’ll use at that level of detail! I only get 4-5 ‘keepers’ per roll these days
thanks for the clarification, i mostly document my 3 year old's life and he is so cute i keep 25 shots per roll :)
This was the most wholesome reason for keeping so many shots per roll.
Really, Jon, you need a better echo chamber for your videos!!
I actually recorded all the audio in a vocal booth, dubbed the video and then added the echo in post.
@@JonathanNotleyThe echo is really annoying lol.
This seems like a great scanner, but 3 min per shot, that’s a whopping almost 2 hours time spent scanning. And that doesn’t include the Photoshop work!!!
I think the plustek very much fits a 3-5 shots per roll workflow. If you're scanning everything everytime there are more convenient options.
Gabriel Aszalos, there were IR dust removal, and post processing options in SilverFast that he didn’t use. You don’t need Photoshop.
DSLR scanning is quicker per frame, but from what I’ve seen lower quality, fiddly, and you have to manually remove dust and scratches, and you need a Lightroom plugin to invert and remove the orange mask.
It goes almost twice as fast if you scan at 4800ppi and the difference in quality is minimal.
dead link
Sorry, try this one: jonathannotley.com/blog-content/2018/1/21/plustek-8200i-se-review-and-quick-start-guide
Audio is very bad. Hard to understand.
Sound is terrible
I was pretty clueless back then, still am tbh
Interesting you're gendering an object as "he"; I've never heard that before. Objects such a a car or ships I've heard as "she" and then other things such as a typewriter might be "it" but I've never heard "he". Is this a new development as a reaction to the feminisation of objects l would be most interested to know. Thanks. Very useful video by the way, the best I've seen so far.
Too much mumbling not enough enunciation.
Terrible audio.
No the audio is actually really good, check your speakers 🔊
@@JonathanNotley - yeah, right.