Review on Plustek OpticFilm 8200i SE scanner black by Ognian Velikov ᠌

Name: Plustek OpticFilm 8200i SE scanner black
Item: Plustek OpticFilm 8200i SE scanner black
Rating: 4

July 07, 2023

Good product, not disappointed.

I use both programs in multiple exposure mode to scan old family bw films. This practically does not affect the result, rather a placebo, but it is this mode that is set in the programs by default. VieScan is faster and more convenient. In the case of normally exposed frames, both programs give almost the same result. In the case of underexposed or contrasting frames, the VieScan result can be catastrophically bad due to a program bug. Such frames are scanned by SilverFast with the correction of the resulting negative in Photoshop. Processing such frames after VieScan requires a little more effort and, in my opinion, the result is a little rougher. In general, the scanner pulls out all the information that is there from the bw film. For this task, it makes no sense to buy more expensive models. Moreover, if you are interested in black and white films, you can limit yourself to the Plustek 8100 model, which is cheaper due to the elimination of infrared scanning, which is important only for color materials.
It was possible to compare the 8200i SE with more advanced models from Reflecta. When working with bw films, the result is almost identical, but the reflections work significantly, sometimes several times, slower.
With colored materials, the situation changes and reflections win both in terms of speed and quality of the result. For illustration, I have attached 2 scans made by Plustek using the VieScan program without removing scratches and dust particles and using the bundled Silverfast with default cleaning. It can be seen that there are much fewer defects on the frame. For comparison, I added a scan made 7 years ago by a Reflecta ProScan 7200 scanner running CyberView with cleaning in the default mode. The skies are much clearer and this result could be further improved with Silverfast.
I could not correctly compare the color reproduction, but it seemed that the reflections give more saturated colors. I'll try to do this comparison later.

Updated 10 months ago

Rating has not been changed

I have attached some photos to my review to provide a more intimate understanding of my experience.
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Pros

Good build quality, small size, quiet operation. Cute. The scanner comes with a fairly advanced SilverFast SE Plus program. The popular VieScan program, which can be purchased for additional, but little money, also works quite well with it. Better pro version. The functionality of the programs is similar, but VieScan works noticeably faster. On the other hand, SilverFast is better at removing dust and scratch marks, and has more tools for working with color. I liked it more when scanning complex bw frames. There is no automatic film feed, but the complete frames are quite well suited for working with old films that have been deformed from time to time. Of course, with some caution. In combination with the two programs mentioned above, it is close to ideal for scanning old bw films.

Cons

When scanning color films, it is noticeably inferior to more advanced models, for example, from Reflecta. Smaller dynamic range of the sensor. This may affect the scanning of quality slides. The dust and scratch removal function does not work very well when scanning in infrared. The complete SilverFast provides the most efficient defect removal algorithm, but the limitations for this model lie in the field of hardware implementation of infrared scanning: there are quite a lot of visible defects in the resulting file. The real resolution of the scanner lies in the region of 3200 lines per inch, but to achieve it, you need to scan in 7200 mode, followed by correction in Photoshop. This will complicate and greatly slow down the work. In the 3600 lines mode, we get a real resolution in the region of 2600 lines per inch. This is absolutely sufficient for scanning amateur films or films shot with film cameras, but there are doubts about professional-quality photographic materials. However, thanks to the moderate price, the scanner can be forgiven a lot.