Plustek OpticFilm 7400 35mm Film and Slide Scanner (60-A29-BBM310-C)

Pros: Works very well with the included software.
Lots of photo adjustments that work.
Preview on the computer screen is large so it is easy to see what needs to be corrected.
Film and slide holders are well made and work well.
I have already done over 1000 slides and negative film.
More slides to go.
Very good scan quality.

Cons: The only reason I gave it 4 stars is that the upgrade online software doesn't work.

The upgrade software does not work with my computer ?
Runs very slow. I had to uninstall it and go back to the supplied software. Did this 3 times, same results.
The original software on the disk runs fast.
I have an i7-860 computer with lots of memory and drive space with a solid state drive. (256 Gb) for programs and 3 Tb of internal storage.
What the problem is, I don't know. However it work fine with the included software.

Pros: Great scanner and (SilverFast) software at an affordable price. Makes awesome scans of 35mm negatives and slides at up to 7200 dpi. The first of 3 film scanners I've owned and the ONLY one I have been happy with.

Cons: SilverFast software is touchy to install. The computer it is installed on CAN NOT have any other scanners installed or they conflict. Didn't realize at installation time that my Brother printer was also a scanner, so I had to uninstall it. It's a pain to not have printing capabilities on that computer.

Other Thoughts: Rating of 4 stars only because I miss being able to print! If this isn't a problem for you, then don't hesitate to get this!

Pros: Rugged and feature packed hardware (I think).
This is a tough one. I plan on contacting Plustek, so I may be updating this. Basically the hardware seems to be fabulous; really feature packed. So it's really promising. But the software to use these features is missing or unusable. As an example there are two very promising features: multi-scan/IR dust/scratch removal, and 48 bit color depth. But the basic Plustek software, which is quite easy to use and seems to work well, does not support either of these features. The Plustek software does a basic single pass scan in 24 bit color and saves the picture. You're on your own after that.

Cons: Miserable supporting software.
Plustek provides a CD with a striped down, obsolete version of SilverFast ver.6 which may support the multi-scan/IR scratch/dust removal and 48 bit color. However, it was extremely unstable on my Win-XP PC. It would run for 10-30 seconds and freeze up the computer - no response to Alt-Ctrl-Del - you have to pull the plug to reboot - something that extremely rare with XP. I tried to update the software and discovered that it was obsolete - but was provided an upgrade to SilverFast ver.8, which I was able to run. It's very difficult to use, mostly because the documentation is zilch. The stripped down version provided does not support multi-scan or 48 bit color. To get that you have to upgrade to the studio version at a cost that's twice what you paid for the scanner in the first place. So you can't use those fancy features unless you spend many times what you paid for the scanner.

Other Thoughts: I tried to get SilverFast tech support with no success. The phone message you get is "if you're not calling between 3 and 11 AM EST, hang up send an email" - i.e., you're calling Germany. Also "sorry, we are much to busy to answer all calls."

Just a detail - the unit is a big brick - so note the dimensions and weight.

Also note the installation conflicts described by another reviewer.

Manufacturer Response:

This scanner does ship with a different version of SilverFast than our 7600i series scanners, but it is the full version of LaserSoft SilverFast SE Plus described here: http://www.silverfast.com/show/silverfast-seplus-8/en.html

The OpticFilm 7400 does not have the infrared dust and scratch removal that the OpticFilm 7600i scanners have, so IR dust and scratch removal will not work. However, a software dust and scratch removal solution is included with SilverFast SE Plus.

SilverFast includes training videos embedded in the software. Look for the QuickTime logo on many of the SilverFast screens.

You can also contact Plustek support http://plustek.com/usa/support/technical-support-form.html if you are having problems with your scanner.

Pros: Fantastic support!

Cons: Doesn't play nice with other scanners, but that's a problem with Windows, not the scanner.

Other Thoughts: To update my previous review. I have since purchased an additional scanner (Canon flatbed), and my Plustek seemed to stop working correctly. After weeks of putzing with it, I finally contacted Plustek support. Within a day, I had a phone call from a live technician who spoke perfect English, and was immediately able to identify my problem, that Windows doesn't like to talk to multiple scanning devices at the same time (have to disable in Device Manager). Followed the technician's instructions and my scanner works like brand new.

I was astounded that I get better support on a $300 scanner than on Dell gear, where I spend many thousands of dollars a year on service contracts.

Pros: Fairly quiet.
Scan quality is good.
Construction is of good quality.
Bundled SilverFast software works well.

Cons: *Scan takes forever at high settings, figure 7~10 minutes/image at 7200dpi using multi-exposure. This yields an output file of 50~65MP, likely far greater than the actual film grain.
*Negative scans can yield a noisy image. The caveat is that I have so far only scanned very old negatives (early 1970s), so this may not be true of newer ones. Even so, the quality is acceptable, considering the age of the film.
*SilverFast sometimes writes TIFF files using the color profile of the scanner, rather than sRGB. This seems random, but perhaps I am unwittingly fiddling with some setting.
*SilverFast is missing many older negative film profiles.
*Scanning can bring even a fairly powerful (Phenom II X4/8GB) system to its knees. I recommend a dedicated scanning system. I also believe this is general behavior for scanners, nothing specific to this one.

Other Thoughts: I purchased this scanner to use for an archival project, scanning family photo collections, both slides and negatives. I was apprehensive that I would spend a lot of money on this scanner, only to get mediocre quality results. Having had this scanner for nearly a week and scanned over 100 images, I can honestly say that I am pleasantly surprised by the results. The bundled SilverFast software is easy to use, despite what some reviewers on the Internet say. I suspect that people who have trouble with it don't take the time to read the basic instructions. Overall, it seems to be a good software package, despite my comments above. If you want high-res scans be aware that they take some time. I leave the scanner to work and checking on it periodically, don't expect to rip through 1000 images in a weekend, or a week.