Quick!! Help needed. Plustek 7600 or Epson V700?

Quick!! Help needed. Plustek 7600 or Epson V700?

  • Epson V700

    Votes: 82 62.1%

  • Plustek 7600AI

    Votes: 50 37.9%
  • Total voters
    132
tedwhite said:
A photographer friend of mine just ordered a Plustek 7400. He seemed to think it was the newest model and that Silverfast had updated an improved version of its software. Is he correct about the 7400 being the newest model?

I don't really care about the Silverfast update. Couldn't get Silverfast to work half the time anyway, so I switched to Vuescan.. Much friendlier. The Silverfast would tell me it couldn't find the scanner, or the scanner was not turned on, or it would stop in the middle of a scan, freeze the computer, and required a restart. Yuck.
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Yes the 7400 & 7600 are newer models using LED as a light source, updated software, and boasting dust removal capability. Don't know much more than that.

I tried Silverfast and it appears to work fine on my version of Windows Vista, but I'm also accustomed to also using Vuescan. I'll likely give Silverfast a try at some future point in time to see what functions its got.
 
I'm not sure this makes technical sense but I'm gonna ask anyway just to be sure.

Apparently the white LED that the 7600i uses is supposed to give more vivid and dimensional results along with better color reproduction. I'm just wondering if this supposed vividness and dimension would have the effect of making the images look ever more like digital images taken off a digital camera, moving further from the feel of film as can be replicated from scanning? I wouldn't want that. Lookign at dws21uk's sample images earlier in this thread raises this concern of mine a little more, but of course the appearance of his/her images could be due to various factors.

P.S. The 7400 is the same as the 7600 but just without the iSRD.
 
I would never ever buy a V700 for 35mm films. It's totally useless for that. Well yes, for contact sheets, web work and smallest of the smallest prints it is OK, but not for "real" prints in just about any decent size. Plustek is not perfect either, but surely it is much much better for 35mm films than V700. Actually, the samples I have seen were quite good. I almost thought of selling my Coolscan and buy Plustek instead.
 
zniv said:
I was absolutely disappointed by the 7600i.
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Yours is either broken or you're doing something wrong. My 7600i produces very high quality scans -- scans that make better prints than my Apo-Rodagon enlarger lens ever produced.

Strongly recommended (except for mass scanning. It's not built for that).
 
the LED light should be more reliable, I'm having issues with the lamp in my Plustek 7500i... it decided to not turn on anymore. Pretty disappointing.

Image quality is good but I find it very hard to get a good white balance when scanning color negatives (I use Silverfast AI, but I'm not very comfortable with it)
 
rbuday said:
Does anyone know if the Plustek can scan 35mm Xpan format? I have a Microtek ArtixScan 120tf that does a great job with standard AND Xpan negs and slides. Sadly, it's dying. I've seen reports that the V700 and V750 only actually scan up to 1750 dpi.

RB
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You can, it just takes a bit of effort. If you go on their website and fax in an order for extra negative holders and then cut out the little struts between you can manually advance the frame bit by bit and stich the whole thing together in photoshop. I just did this to scan some stuff from a 135 back for a bronica and it worked well, it just took a bit of time.

In my experience my plustek 7200i is pretty great for the price, and i don't think there's a much better deal out there for 35mm (although my experience with the competition is limited at best). It doesn't have the greatest Dmax, and the 7200dpi setting is essentially useless, but for day to day scanning it's not bad. The main thing I wish they'd put on it is a motor to advance the holder, but sitting and watching tv while occasionally pushing the thing to the next frame isn't too terrible a job.
 
c.w. Useless at 7200dpi is about right. I never scan at more than 2400dpi; seems to work just fine.
 
Ugh

Ugh

I keep revisiting this thread over and over. I have a lowly Epson 2450 that was given to me. Definitely need to get something better. Can't decide between this 7600i, or the V700. The poll shows overwhelming inclination towards the V700, but then there are others that say for 35mm, really a dedicated film scanner is better. Currently that's the only format I fiddle with, and then it is pretty much only black and white.

Let me ask this: about how long does it take to scan a frame at sufficient size to get a decent 5x7 print? What about an 8x10? Can either device handle that?
 
The idea of a dedicated 35mm film scanner certainly has merit. I have an Epson 4990 flatbed scanner. I consider it hopeless for scanning film; however, it does a great job scanning prints.

I have an old Plustek 7200 and, using Vuescan, it does a very good job scanning both 35mm films and slides. I would go with a dedicated 35mm film scanner, especially if that's all you shoot.

To scan a film neg takes about 2-3 minutes. I have it set up so that it then transfers the image to Photoshop. Then I can tweak it (if necessary) and print any size up to 13X19 on my Epson Epson R2400. How long it takes to make a print is up to your software and your printer.
 
I have the 7200 and a newly-purchased v700. Using the Silverfast software with both, I am getting better results with the v700 than with the 7200. Using the 7200 for 16-bit scans, I was getting very wonky results, with contrast issues I couldn't easily correct. I got much better results on 8-bit scans, but I don't want 8-bit scans. I want more color depth for making adjustments. I don't know what the issues were, whether I was the problem, but that was my experience. And I'm not a novice with digital processing.

I have no issues with 16-bit scans on the v700. That, plus doing a lot of negatives at once, really sold me on it.
 
I'm still enjoying my Plustek 7600i and it's scans. I'm using the included SilverFast SE Plus.

First two, Tri-X...last one, Fuji Pro160S...

5063153332_898f6d4a8f_b.jpg


5062530577_d031b0409c_b.jpg


5058436546_8b7e59882f_b.jpg
 
Not to beat a dead horse, but...

Leica M6, Zeiss Biogon 35/f2 lens, Fuji Pro160S film, Plustek 7600i scan with SilverFast SE Plus...

5115672861_b5a4417d5f_b.jpg
 
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I have run Kodachrome through my Plustek. Didn't seem to be a problem.
 
I bought the V700 as my first film scanner.
I use it now for batch scanning and the good ones I scan with Minolta 5400 scanner which I got from ebay "Minty :) "
 
>>something I could drive down the street!<<

Heh... I could be wrong, but isn't that a classic toy pedal car?! ;)

Doug
 
Hi Mark from Plustek here. Just to clear up some questions about the LED light source...

The main benefits of the LED light source is that there is no warm up time, the output is more uniform, it lasts longer and doesn't degrade over time like a cold cathode light source.
 
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