Railfan Technology > Plustek scanner advice

I've been thinking about getting a dedicated film scanner that is not terribly expensive. Plustek scanners have been mentioned a number of times here, and I am looking at models 8100 and 8200. The main difference seems to be the infrared dust/scratch removal. 

Anyone care to share your experience with either? Is the dust removal feature worth the extra $100? Or perhaps you have a recommendation for a scanner in the same general price range?

I've been using an Epson 4490 flatbed to do some scanning of slides and negs. It is adequate, but I'd like something that will give me more quality if I go to print some of the images.

Thanks in advance

I have a Plustek 8200i and love it. I bought the SilverFast Ai Studio 8 software to go along with it. They have good tutorial videos that were easy to follow and not way over my head, since I'm not a tech nerd by any means. I scan most of my slides at 3600 dpi, but you can go up to 7200 dpi if you like. It just takes longer to scan at 7200 dpi,and depending on what you are using them for 7200 dpi might be overkill. I scan everything in the tif setting first. Then I take the image,resize and convert it to a jpeg for use on TO. The dust and scratch removal feature is excellent in my opinion. I'm still learning a little more everyday, but I'm very happy with this scanner so far. I hope more people reply that know a little more of the technical end of things. Maybe I'll learn something too. Good Luck !



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/09/17 18:46 by perklocal.

I've had a Plustek 7600 for over three years now, and I think it does a great job. As for software, I don't care for the SilverFast that came with it, and bought VueScan, which comes highly recommended. I think the Pro version costs about $99, and includes lifetime updates, too. It's easy to understand and work with. Its good for dust removal and cropping and things like that. I do most of my post-processing in Aperture. As they say, your mileage may vary...

Keep in mind that the IR dust removal feature doesn't work with Kodachromes.  Not sure what you're scanning.

I'm using SilverFast8 Ai Studio software with my Plustek 8200i and their iSRD scratch and dust removal feature works just fine on Kodachromes.

ICE (or infrared cleaning) with Kodachrome has been discussed here many times. Generally speaking, it requires the "Pro" version of ICE, or equivalent in IR cleaning (not all scanner/software manufacturers license the "Digital ICE" brand of IR cleaning). In any case, some scanners support ICE Pro (and it's generic equivalent) which works on Kodachrome. I do not know about the Plustek models though.

Thanks for the replies. They've been helpful.

Vue Scan "IR clean" does work with any slide on an 8200i. Keep it set to light so rivets do not get removed ....
RWJ