Customer Reviews

Opticfilm 7500I Ai 7200 Dpi Silverfast Ai Studio Isrd

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

No complaints with scanner, although I expect some will grouse about speed (Is that scanner, software, or resolution related?). High resolution scans and Tri-X are real friends. Can see through Kodachrome much better than my Canon 2710 or outside professional service that used Nikon 5000. If their work had been satisfactory I wouldn't have bought Plustek.

Strip film holder requires careful positioning and closing. Mounted slide holder outstanding. Plustek CD is all PC stuff. Which leaves Silverfast. Installed, on Mac w/10.3.9, and updated (free from their site) easily. Making a decent scan also easy.

Only those with boxes of Kodachrome need to read further-----I've found digging deeper frustrating. Their manual and instructional videos are big on superlatives, but short on technical details about how/when/why of the various settings. I tried a lot of Silverfast combinations on a Kodachrome slide and came up with good results, but not the best of everything in the same scan/file. Tried VueScan-default settings produced better results than any single file I came up with in Silverfast. I'm using "file" so there is no confusion, since many of the files were the result of multiple scans. As good, or better, results are likely possible with SilverFast; and it does have post scan processing features for those without Photoshop or whatever. I may not have the patience to figure it out given my comfort with VueScan and Photoshop.

Rereading above before hitting send I realize some may think I'm condemning Silverfast; that's not the case. In fact I've use Silverfast, almost exclusively, on my Epson 636 flatbed since day one. They do need a better technical explanation of their settings and a special section for extracting the details from Kodachrome we all know are hiding in there.

This scanner stands head and shoulders above the previous scanners I've used. It is extremely easy to use, and the Silverfast software does a terrific job with optimizing the scanned images. This was personally recommended to me by an editor for Shutterbug magazine, and I'm very pleased with my purchase. I've been scanning transparencies, color negatives and b&w negatives, and everything has been quite intuitive.

This is my first film scanner. For the most part, I used Nikon Equipment. I have been invovled in photography for the most of my life as a hobby as well as photo journalism, and also have done many weddings and events, etc. Just as I was reluctant to move into digital photography, I have held off for a long time prior to purchasing a film scanner. I really thought I would wind up with a coolscan, but I discovered this unit and was impressed with some of the reviews I read on it. I actually ordered one of the new coolscans just a few days before I ordered this one. The price was less than half of the coolscan. With today's financial pressures, it was not much of a brainstorm that convienced me to purchase the Optifilm 7500 AI.

I have not used it much, but have been working with it. I can say, out of the box it is very easy to use. It takes a little while to experiment with the software. For archiving, the quick scan is great and pretty quick. The software and the extra features it brings to the table are excellent in the sense, you can do a lot with it to bring your old slides to life again! It takes experimentation to discover just what size file you want to make of it. The software does a pretty good job on cleaning up the images. I did have one that came out with a flaw during the process, but I did not catch it until I had a print made. The resolution and color was great, if not better than the original slide.

I plan to use it a lot. I have a lot of film and slides to digitize. I don't think you can find a better quality unit for the price. Sorry, Nikon, this german scanner the best bang for the buck. I can only justify up to a certain amount of money to keep up with Nikon products.

I did a test print yesterday of a scanned slide taken around 1995. I was very excited to get the high quality that it produced. It was greater than my expectation for this scanner, and I only scanned it at about 600 dpi.

The only real drawback so far is the use of the software. It is pretty powerful, but it takes some playing with it to learn how to save your scans where you want them. The instruction are not very well written, however, there are some video examples you can click on.

The Main Complaint --- It is Made IN CHINA ! For that part, I am very diasapointed.

I'm by no means a professional photographer but it's become a hobby for me over the last 10 years or so. I've recently switch to digital and have about 6k negatives that I was hoping to scan and archive in the even that I want to print them in the future when film becomes a scarce commodity. Additionally, I was looking to archive, share, etc.

I found in my research that this was the best value for the money - a mid range scanner that offered some quality and flexibility. After reading the reviews, I saw some people say "the scans were just like pictures I took on my digital". I found that this was not the case by any stretch. When I set up the device (I'm using a mac), it was pretty simple. The SilverFast program it comes with is extremely complex. You can learn to use the basic functions fairly easily but there are so many things that can be tweaked, you get the sense that you need a PhD in color management to understand all of them.

Overall, I was disappointed with the results but I can't claim that it is because of the scanner or the software. I think it is just a limitation of scanning film in general. For example, because I was looking for flexibility, I mostly used ISO 400 film. When scanned and enlarged, you will have significant grain issues which from a distance can blend together but up close, are very noticeable. Also, I was expecting some good color matching meaning that what I see on my screen should resemble what I see on my prints and this is not quite the case either - especially when you are scanning skies (the blues aren't as deep) or rocks/mountains (the browns aren't as rich), etc. Of course, it doesn't help that I look at them on my 24" monitor at full size.

The scratch features of the software is fairly decent but it is very time consuming. You will have scratches and dust on every negative so expect to spend some time touching up. I've given up on my hope of simply scanning all my negatives and am focusing on just the "good" ones.

So - overall, I'm disappointed but again, I can't say it's product specific, more process related.

scanner works well on the whole, but for all these fancy features which have profiles for specific film types, it has trouble reading a black and white negative in grayscales. also the iSRD dust and scratch removal (which is why I chose this one, not the model before it) uses infra red light and so don't work for black and white negatives.

I have been using the Plustek for about three weeks now, scanning ectachrome slides from 1981 in China. The quality of the scans is remarkable. Dust and scratch removal is easy and color correction is also easy with the included software. I have used other scanners, but this is by far the best I have seen for film scanning. Highly recommended.

I had a Microtek 800I before I bought my Plustek 7500I AI.

The Plustek is SO superior to the Microtek, it's not even funny.

I'll never go back to the Microtek again.

The Plustek is so Quiet. It's so much quieter than the Microtek, and so much faster.

I purchased this slide scanner a month ago and boy does it work! The software was easy to install on my OS Win/7 and easy to use. No problems with its knowledge base. The quality of the scans are GREAT! I have over 1000 slides dating back to the 50's and now I can now restore the images and file them. I highly recommend this scanner and it's cheaper than the Polaroids or Nikons.

Love the scanner. LOTS of options - almost too many!

Great software - again, soooo many options

I haven't used any other scanner, but this one is ready to use after just a quick software install.

Buy the Nikon Coolscan 5000 ED, much better scanner. Made better and the images are much more clear. I couldn't get the software to work and the Silverfast is clumsy.