Great video and amazing explanation of your new scanning process, Bon! It's fascinating to see how you've transitioned from using flatbed scanners and digital cameras to using a dedicated 35mm film scanner. The small footprint of the scanner and its portability seem to be a great advantage over the bulkier and more complex tools you've used before. Your tips and insights on editing, including how you edit dust and scratches, are very helpful. 👌
Discovering your channel has been wonderful. I’m a 52 year old that has been shooting since taking a darkroom class in middle school in the mid-80s. I used to shoot a lot of hardcore street on film, self developed, have a color enlarger still in my garage… Then I switched to digital like most everyone else and my collection of about 35 film cameras has been collecting dust for about 10 years. I recently decided to do a project that I wanted to have a disposable flash aesthetic. At first I thought I would shoot digital and fake it. That lasted about an hour before I decided to shoot it on film. I broke out my Olympus XAs (I have 4 of them!) and then realized they were going to be just too good/sharp as well. It has to be disposables! Researching reloadable “disposable” cameras led me to your channel. I am going to give the Simple Use, the Show, and the M35 all a go for this project. Will be fun to decide which is king. 😁 Tonight I dusted off my old Plustek 7600i AI from 2011. Still works with Silverfast 8 on Mac OS Ventura which made me oh so very happy. Also have my old trusty V600 in the garage too if need be. The first of the three plastic cameras arrives tomorrow and I just wanted to say thank you for the information and inspiration. I am giddy with excitement to get started. The GRs, the x100, and the X-T4 can gather dust for a while instead. edit: typo
I’m so excited for you!😆 I can only imagine the feeling of doing something again which you haven’t done in a decade. I hope it turns out well. Are you sharing your work online?
@@Bonsees I used to be on flickr back when I was shooting a lot of b&w street on film. After a while I thought it was influencing my shooting though so I deleted my account haha. I do have some projects up on a personal site still however - two of them shot on film, one on digital. I'll send you a DM with some info about them and a link.
Such a pleasing video to watch! Keep up the great work. Question, you don't need Negative Lab Pro correct? The SilverFast is capable of scanning black and white images and converting them on its own? I have Lightroom I can do some editing with as well.
Thank you! Yes, you don’t need negative lab pro, you can convert them on Silverfast (the Quickscan software can also convert images but with less controls) and edit in Lightroom
Virtually worthless for someone considering buying one of these. Maybe if you've owned an 8200 for a decade it might be useful, but for the beginner this is worthless.
Interesting take 🤔 here in Toronto a typical scanning service is about $8, if you bought the Plustek new at $800, then scanning around 100 rolls of film will get you even. So I guess if someone doesn’t scan that many, then yeah, they’d be taking a hit 😅
Great video! This is my exact workflow with NLP although I have been DSLR scanning and I have been looking for a better option, as you said, it's a pain to drag out all of the equipment every time you want a scan. I came here hoping to find a video that showed a positive scan and I was really happy to see it is possible with this scanner. Again, great video and I really appreciate the information, cheers!
Very nice! I may look into this scanner. I’ve also used the Epson v600 and currently a DSLR with Lightroom and NLP but I feel the v600 and DSLR sometimes make the grain look coarser than it is. Blue skies also tend to look very noisy imo.
Cool. Nice movie. I'm going to buy a Plustek scanner and I'm wondering between the 8300i SE or 8200i AI. But I also allow a pretty simple 8100 to start with. I have over 3k photos to scan. Maybe after a few videos like this one I'll make a decision :)
I just got the 8200iSE for a day. It took a half a day to get used to it. But man all my 45 year old slides looks great. The dust removing infra red scanning remover is a game changer for me. So far I know the 8300i is only faster (+37% faster). For me it is fast enough for my use case and 100€ cheaper then the 8300i. If needed I always can upgrade the software for the 8200i SE Silverfast to the AI Silverfast version for around 100€/100$. But for me I don’t see the need for it. 😮
Thanks! This was very helpful. I have the Epson V700 Pro flatbed plus a digital scanning workstation built around macro lenses and my Fuji cameras. I'm really thinking about getting the Plustek.
Loved this video so much Bon. It's so calm and relaxing and seeing those pre-covid shots is a real eye opener. Your ektar shots were awesome as well! Man that plustek honestly blew me away!
Very interesting video. A lot of effort, but also great results. Talking about myself, I don’t have a computer anymore for more than 10 years now, doing everything on my iPad only. Absolutely sufficient for me, but also limiting, comparing to your workflow. 😉 However, I made my peace, ordering my scans from the lab. About $5 for a film in quite acceptable quality, I think. But … same like you, I also tweak things a little bit digitally later.
Gosh, I need my juicy laptop to be able to do most of my work 😂 I was able to ditch the desktop, but a laptop with good graphics and cpu is a need. But mobile devices are getting better and better every year~
Do you think you would recommend buying this scanner or the 8200 over learning and building the setup for dslr scanning? I have a black magic pocket 4k, but it's really more for video than photography.
I liked this scanner because it took less space than a flatbed and didn’t require setting up like the previous camera scanning systems, but with the new Valoi ez35 system, I feel like camera scanning is easier now 😅 I recently bought the EZ35 but I haven’t used it yet though. If you like a small-ish scanner that doesn’t require setup, I think this scanner is still pretty good, but a 4K camera could provide better quality, and pairing that with something like the Valoi EZ35 makes it easier to setup. I’ll be making a test of the EZ35 soon so I might have more insights, but for now maybe check other videos on it 😅
I'll share my experience. I have an Epson V700 Pro. I also built a setup for digital scanning using my Fujifilm cameras, which I did use with my Canon 5D2. The advantage for me with flatbed scanning and digital scanning is to be able to scan other formats. I have 120 and 4x5 negatives and transparencies. With digital scanning, you'll need a macro lens or extension tubes plus a normal focal length lens. I've used both vintage film macro lenses and Canon EF prime lenses. I get decent results. It doe 35mm better than flatbed and is a lot quicker. I'm really considering getting the Plustek for my 35mm negs and slides. I have 50+ years worth of material to scan of both personal and professional work. From what I'm seeing, the Plustek will do as good if not better than a digital scan workstation, but the digital scan will be much faster and if you aren't making huge enlargements the results will be fine.
They came packaged together so the QuickScan Plus just detects if my Plustek is on. I’m not sure if it’s backwards compatible though but I don’t really see why not
Glad to help! I scanned the photos on my latest video with the Plustek too if you’re interested 😆 they’re half frame photos and I compared one to a noritsu scan and the Plustek held up (with some sharpening of course haha)
I recently got into film photography thanks to your video on the Kodak H35. I got my first roll developed, but the scan ended up looking so green. Is it possible to scan film using a printer scanner?
Hey Marcus 👋🏼 have you tried editing the photos first? If colour is the only problem and the quality of the scan is great, you might be able to fix it (try adding magenta to counter the green). I haven’t tried scanning using a printer scanner, I’m assuming you might be able to, but you’ll still need a photo editing software that can invert the negatives to colour images. I actually have a printer scanner, maybe I should try haha 😂
@bonsees I managed to get rid of the green tint but I can't seem to get rid of the scan lines in the picture. I'll try your advice when editing again so thanks!!
Definitely not PrimeFilm XA Plus. It doesn't support SilverFast, and it often cause my Vuescan to crush after scanning 10 images. It also fails to consistently detect where the images start or end. A lot of trial and error is required. I only use it if the film I scan is dusty.
5:06 This is prob not even needed. Because the NLP setting removes almost all of the color noise by default when importing to LR. Using a lot of color noise reduction can result in muddy images, I'd suggest only doing a tiny bit, I find that around 15 is well enough (it's preference). As for the DPI, the optical dpi of the plustek is about 3800, so you should either scan at 7200 and downscale to 3800 and then sharpen, or just scan at 3600 for best results (I scan at 3600 since it's much faster). In the end, you pics still look amazing, these are just notes that could help you improve on your scans. I love that you are showing what dedicated 35mm scanners can do, I tried dslr scanning but the plustek scanners are just so much more convenient for 35
Thanks for the tips! I like the scanning at 7200 and then downscaling. Idk why, but when I was scanning at 3600, it didn’t look as good 😅 are you using the quick scan software or silverfast?
@@Bonsees Downscaling is the way to get the most resolution out of the plustek, it just takes way too long for an image that's a tiny bit higher res. I use silverfast to scan in a raw image (maybe that's why it takes longer for me) and then convert with negative lab. DNG files should in theory give you even better results, plus it's good for archival (you prob won't have to rescan in the future if you keep the raw files). Again, we all have different workflows and if what you do works and gets you the results that you want, then you can just keep doing it that way. These were just some tips I'd love to know when I started scanning. Keep it up and cheers from Czechia!
@@psajgal no, it’s great to hear these different workflows! I’m new to this type of scanning so I’m open to trying new methods to see what works best for me 😆 I haven’t tried the silverfast at all haha cheers!
If silverfast is still using digital ice to remove dust and scratches, In my experience it works well. Its been many years since I scanned film. I was using a Nikon Coolscan 5000 and Viewscan. Maybe that is the difference.
@@slug5240 It's not a matter of "growing up", it's the basic consideration and respect for your readers. How do you not know that? Would you use that kind of language speaking to your Grandmother? Then don't use it for folks whom you have no idea who is reading.
Why did you scan as tiffs and not dngs? DNGs would give even better color conversion
Can you create an update on this video if possible? any new tips, any new ways to use it, when scanning 35mm? that would be amazing
Great video and amazing explanation of your new scanning process, Bon! It's fascinating to see how you've transitioned from using flatbed scanners and digital cameras to using a dedicated 35mm film scanner. The small footprint of the scanner and its portability seem to be a great advantage over the bulkier and more complex tools you've used before. Your tips and insights on editing, including how you edit dust and scratches, are very helpful. 👌
Thanks Dan! I actually still have the Epson scanner so maybe I should make a comparison video of my different workflows 😂
your videos has inspired me to pick up film photography! thank you for making these videos
Yey! I hope you’re enjoying it 😆
Discovering your channel has been wonderful. I’m a 52 year old that has been shooting since taking a darkroom class in middle school in the mid-80s. I used to shoot a lot of hardcore street on film, self developed, have a color enlarger still in my garage… Then I switched to digital like most everyone else and my collection of about 35 film cameras has been collecting dust for about 10 years.
I recently decided to do a project that I wanted to have a disposable flash aesthetic. At first I thought I would shoot digital and fake it. That lasted about an hour before I decided to shoot it on film. I broke out my Olympus XAs (I have 4 of them!) and then realized they were going to be just too good/sharp as well. It has to be disposables!
Researching reloadable “disposable” cameras led me to your channel. I am going to give the Simple Use, the Show, and the M35 all a go for this project. Will be fun to decide which is king. 😁
Tonight I dusted off my old Plustek 7600i AI from 2011. Still works with Silverfast 8 on Mac OS Ventura which made me oh so very happy. Also have my old trusty V600 in the garage too if need be.
The first of the three plastic cameras arrives tomorrow and I just wanted to say thank you for the information and inspiration. I am giddy with excitement to get started. The GRs, the x100, and the X-T4 can gather dust for a while instead.
edit: typo
I’m so excited for you!😆 I can only imagine the feeling of doing something again which you haven’t done in a decade. I hope it turns out well. Are you sharing your work online?
@@Bonsees I used to be on flickr back when I was shooting a lot of b&w street on film. After a while I thought it was influencing my shooting though so I deleted my account haha. I do have some projects up on a personal site still however - two of them shot on film, one on digital. I'll send you a DM with some info about them and a link.
Such a pleasing video to watch! Keep up the great work. Question, you don't need Negative Lab Pro correct? The SilverFast is capable of scanning black and white images and converting them on its own? I have Lightroom I can do some editing with as well.
Thank you! Yes, you don’t need negative lab pro, you can convert them on Silverfast (the Quickscan software can also convert images but with less controls) and edit in Lightroom
Virtually worthless for someone considering buying one of these. Maybe if you've owned an 8200 for a decade it might be useful, but for the beginner this is worthless.
Interesting take 🤔 here in Toronto a typical scanning service is about $8, if you bought the Plustek new at $800, then scanning around 100 rolls of film will get you even. So I guess if someone doesn’t scan that many, then yeah, they’d be taking a hit 😅
Great video. Unfortunately, no matter what method is used to scan film, it's an arduous and time-consuming task.
Very true 😣
the color of this video is pleasant to watch, bon.
Thanks Edvan 😄
Great video! This is my exact workflow with NLP although I have been DSLR scanning and I have been looking for a better option, as you said, it's a pain to drag out all of the equipment every time you want a scan. I came here hoping to find a video that showed a positive scan and I was really happy to see it is possible with this scanner. Again, great video and I really appreciate the information, cheers!
glad you find it helpful! 😄
Very nice! I may look into this scanner. I’ve also used the Epson v600 and currently a DSLR with Lightroom and NLP but I feel the v600 and DSLR sometimes make the grain look coarser than it is. Blue skies also tend to look very noisy imo.
Hmm that’s an interesting observation, I haven’t checked this myself 😮
Cool. Nice movie. I'm going to buy a Plustek scanner and I'm wondering between the 8300i SE or 8200i AI. But I also allow a pretty simple 8100 to start with. I have over 3k photos to scan. Maybe after a few videos like this one I'll make a decision :)
Hello! So wich one you choose?
I just got the 8200iSE for a day. It took a half a day to get used to it. But man all my 45 year old slides looks great. The dust removing infra red scanning remover is a game changer for me. So far I know the 8300i is only faster (+37% faster). For me it is fast enough for my use case and 100€ cheaper then the 8300i. If needed I always can upgrade the software for the 8200i SE Silverfast to the AI Silverfast version for around 100€/100$. But for me I don’t see the need for it. 😮
Great video! Love to have one of those scanners! 😊
Thanks Isaac! It’s pretty neat and handy 😆
Thanks! This was very helpful. I have the Epson V700 Pro flatbed plus a digital scanning workstation built around macro lenses and my Fuji cameras. I'm really thinking about getting the Plustek.
Glad it helped!
Loved this video so much Bon. It's so calm and relaxing and seeing those pre-covid shots is a real eye opener. Your ektar shots were awesome as well! Man that plustek honestly blew me away!
Thanks Brendon! And yeah, it’s a pretty good scanner eh? It’s not a Noritsu for sure, but it’s great for a home scanning setup
Very interesting video. A lot of effort, but also great results. Talking about myself, I don’t have a computer anymore for more than 10 years now, doing everything on my iPad only. Absolutely sufficient for me, but also limiting, comparing to your workflow. 😉
However, I made my peace, ordering my scans from the lab. About $5 for a film in quite acceptable quality, I think. But … same like you, I also tweak things a little bit digitally later.
Gosh, I need my juicy laptop to be able to do most of my work 😂 I was able to ditch the desktop, but a laptop with good graphics and cpu is a need. But mobile devices are getting better and better every year~
Do you think you would recommend buying this scanner or the 8200 over learning and building the setup for dslr scanning? I have a black magic pocket 4k, but it's really more for video than photography.
I liked this scanner because it took less space than a flatbed and didn’t require setting up like the previous camera scanning systems, but with the new Valoi ez35 system, I feel like camera scanning is easier now 😅 I recently bought the EZ35 but I haven’t used it yet though. If you like a small-ish scanner that doesn’t require setup, I think this scanner is still pretty good, but a 4K camera could provide better quality, and pairing that with something like the Valoi EZ35 makes it easier to setup. I’ll be making a test of the EZ35 soon so I might have more insights, but for now maybe check other videos on it 😅
I'll share my experience. I have an Epson V700 Pro. I also built a setup for digital scanning using my Fujifilm cameras, which I did use with my Canon 5D2.
The advantage for me with flatbed scanning and digital scanning is to be able to scan other formats. I have 120 and 4x5 negatives and transparencies. With digital scanning, you'll need a macro lens or extension tubes plus a normal focal length lens. I've used both vintage film macro lenses and Canon EF prime lenses. I get decent results. It doe 35mm better than flatbed and is a lot quicker.
I'm really considering getting the Plustek for my 35mm negs and slides. I have 50+ years worth of material to scan of both personal and professional work.
From what I'm seeing, the Plustek will do as good if not better than a digital scan workstation, but the digital scan will be much faster and if you aren't making huge enlargements the results will be fine.
@@dougmacmillan1712 this is great. Thanks for sharing
What is the camera model on your desktop screen background?
Lomography's Lomo Apparat Neubau edition 😄
How you made QuickScan Plus work on your scanner? Is it possible to use this software on Plustek 7400?
They came packaged together so the QuickScan Plus just detects if my Plustek is on. I’m not sure if it’s backwards compatible though but I don’t really see why not
I tried the Plustek Quick Scan Plus the same evening I saw this video. It states "Please connect the scanner" in the software.@@Bonsees
Thanks, Bon - your video has helped me decide to purchase it. ;)
Glad to help! I scanned the photos on my latest video with the Plustek too if you’re interested 😆 they’re half frame photos and I compared one to a noritsu scan and the Plustek held up (with some sharpening of course haha)
loving that neg conversion technique. how much was the plugin?
$99 USD, you can get a free trial to see if it’s something you’d like (negativelabpro.com)
I recently got into film photography thanks to your video on the Kodak H35. I got my first roll developed, but the scan ended up looking so green. Is it possible to scan film using a printer scanner?
Hey Marcus 👋🏼 have you tried editing the photos first? If colour is the only problem and the quality of the scan is great, you might be able to fix it (try adding magenta to counter the green). I haven’t tried scanning using a printer scanner, I’m assuming you might be able to, but you’ll still need a photo editing software that can invert the negatives to colour images. I actually have a printer scanner, maybe I should try haha 😂
@bonsees I managed to get rid of the green tint but I can't seem to get rid of the scan lines in the picture. I'll try your advice when editing again so thanks!!
Thank you. Very informative. ❤
Glad it was helpful!
pacific image primefilm xa plus vs plustek opticfilm 8300i ai your opinion
Not sure if I wanna buy another scanner (I fund all of this myself haha) but that would be a cool comparison
Definitely not PrimeFilm XA Plus. It doesn't support SilverFast, and it often cause my Vuescan to crush after scanning 10 images. It also fails to consistently detect where the images start or end. A lot of trial and error is required. I only use it if the film I scan is dusty.
You are so talented. The photo of the priest and the other guy is so cinematic!!
Thanks Bianca 😆
5:06 This is prob not even needed. Because the NLP setting removes almost all of the color noise by default when importing to LR. Using a lot of color noise reduction can result in muddy images, I'd suggest only doing a tiny bit, I find that around 15 is well enough (it's preference). As for the DPI, the optical dpi of the plustek is about 3800, so you should either scan at 7200 and downscale to 3800 and then sharpen, or just scan at 3600 for best results (I scan at 3600 since it's much faster). In the end, you pics still look amazing, these are just notes that could help you improve on your scans. I love that you are showing what dedicated 35mm scanners can do, I tried dslr scanning but the plustek scanners are just so much more convenient for 35
Thanks for the tips! I like the scanning at 7200 and then downscaling. Idk why, but when I was scanning at 3600, it didn’t look as good 😅 are you using the quick scan software or silverfast?
@@Bonsees Downscaling is the way to get the most resolution out of the plustek, it just takes way too long for an image that's a tiny bit higher res.
I use silverfast to scan in a raw image (maybe that's why it takes longer for me) and then convert with negative lab. DNG files should in theory give you even better results, plus it's good for archival (you prob won't have to rescan in the future if you keep the raw files).
Again, we all have different workflows and if what you do works and gets you the results that you want, then you can just keep doing it that way. These were just some tips I'd love to know when I started scanning.
Keep it up and cheers from Czechia!
@@psajgal no, it’s great to hear these different workflows! I’m new to this type of scanning so I’m open to trying new methods to see what works best for me 😆 I haven’t tried the silverfast at all haha cheers!
If silverfast is still using digital ice to remove dust and scratches, In my experience it works well. Its been many years since I scanned film. I was using a Nikon Coolscan 5000 and Viewscan. Maybe that is the difference.
What about scanning the xpan negagives? Is this machina capable of doing it?
The frames are 4x6, you’ll have to scan one XPan frame as two photos and merge them together. Lightroom can do this for you quite easily
What's with the foul language? SO unnecessary.
sorry 😛
Grow up
Get a life
@@slug5240 It's not a matter of "growing up", it's the basic consideration and respect for your readers. How do you not know that? Would you use that kind of language speaking to your Grandmother? Then don't use it for folks whom you have no idea who is reading.
@@tar4heel2 womp womp