The Plustek OpticFilm 7200i 35mm Film Scanner; An Affordable, High-Resolution Scanner
David B. Brooks, September, 2007
Some believe film is dead, but I get as many e-mails from photographers as
ever asking about film scanning. The reason is that digital cameras have brought
more photographers into using a computer for photography so now they want to
access the film images they have made over the years in digital format. A new,
dedicated 35mm scanner model is a rarity these days; none of the established
brands have offered new models lately. In fact, a used Konica Minolta DiMAGE
Scan Elite 5400 II is currently bringing bids of well over $1000 on eBay. So
even though film to make new photos is in serious decline, it is very much alive
in the form of existing images made in the past, now being prepared for digital
printing and sharing.
Plustek 7200i Performance And Features
The Plustek OpticFilm 7200i is that rare breed, a new 35mm film scanner with
a most interesting mix of features put into a convenient package. The shape
and configuration is easy to deal with on a desktop, taking little space yet
quite stable. The slide or film carrier is light and simple; it is slid into
the dust-protected slots from either side of the scanner and positioned manually.
The scan is accomplished by the internal movement of the sensor bar, much like
a flat-bed; the film remains stationary during the process. In other words,
mechanical complications found in most dedicated film scanners that have a moving
film carrier have been eliminated. This should contribute to reliable operation
and a long service life.
Although configured simply on a mechanical level, the Plustek 7200i includes
a very high level of performance, with hardware optical resolution of 7200dpi
which when applied to scanning a full 35mm film image frame produces an image
file that is over 22x32” at 300 ppi. The scanning is done at 48-bit depth,
which results in very large files indeed. The dynamic range specification is
a 3.3 D-max, which is adequate for slide scanning, but is the only performance
attribute on the modest side. It also includes a hardware-based infrared dust
and scratch detection and removal feature that is supported by the LaserSoft
SilverFast Ai software driver supplied with the scanner, called iSRD (infrared
Smart Removal of Defect). The computer interface connection is USB 2.0. The
scan speed rate is quite fast with a very quick preview scan. However, scanning
at the maximum hardware resolution of 7200 ppi generates a lot of data, and
if iSRD is turned on the processing of such a large amount of data does take
time to accomplish.
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Using
LaserSoft’s SilverFast NegaFix to adjust color negative scans
is very easy using the Auto Tolerance slider adjustment to neutralize
the dye base color factor and obtain a neutral image interpretation.
All Photos © 2007, David B. Brooks, All Rights Reserved
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The primary software driver for the Plustek 7200i is LaserSoft’s SilverFast
Ai, which is augmented by a NewSoft Presto suite, including PageManager, ImageFolio,
and Mr. Photo, a web page creation application. The Plustek 7200i only supports
PCs with Windows (Pentium II or higher), including XP, Me, 98SE, and 2000. In
addition, and after I had concluded my testing with the Plustek, LaserSoft announced
that an upgrade is available to the latest full-featured SilverFast Ai 6.5 version
that includes the Multi-Exposure capability. This should refine the output potential
and possibly make up somewhat for the modest dynamic range of the Plustek 7200i.
Putting The Plustek 7200i To Work
I consider myself a reasonably proficient photographer, which presented a bit
of a dilemma considering that the 7200 ppi Plustek used at maximum scanning
resolution produces a 22x32” print image size at 300 ppi. Frankly, not
all that many of my 35mm slides and negatives are really going to hold together
at a 20x enlargement. So, with a high-powered loupe in hand I began going through
binders of slide pages looking for likely film images to scan. After a lot of
culling I had a stack of slides and mounted negatives to begin my testing. And
after a couple of long days I had accumulated a fair number of rather huge image
files to evaluate.
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In
addition to a check of sharpness in the fine branches of the trees
against the sky in this silhouette of horseback riders on the beach
of Maui, Hawaii, another test factor was the smoothness of the tonal
and color gradations reproduced in the sky.
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But as I was doing so I began thinking, especially since scanning at 7200
ppi is rather time-consuming and boring—particularly with the automatic
iSRD defect cleaning turned on—that if this were my scanner, would I scan
all the images at 7200 ppi resolution? Probably not. So, I wondered, would the
image quality be any the less if I scanned to a smaller final print size like
13x19” at 300 ppi? Theoretically, image quality should not be any different
because smaller output does not affect the physical attributes of the scanner’s
CCD sensor, it just changes the output file size, and speeds things up. My theory
was confirmed after making more scans and comparing the results with those scanned
at 7200 ppi.
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