Plustek OpticFilm 7300
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The Plustek scanner installed very easily with the drivers on the CD and Windows Vista had no problem installing it automatically. Installing SilverFast and the NewSoft Image editing and handling programs also went fine and SilverFast even upgraded to SilverFast 6.5 Plus with a download from their website.
The SilverFast program does a great job of handling the image before scanning and has a lot of features to manipulate and fix the scan before sending it to your computer or other programs. The real features that make the SilverFast program a treat and easy to use are the defect correction and general correction features.
To correct an image using the SilverFast program for things like scratches and dirt or dust you simply place the slide or negative into the scanner and open the program. The SilverFast program is available for use through programs like Photoshop CS3 or through the programs menu of your computer. Using the separate parameters for dust and scratch removal works well and gets rid of several defects like scratches and debris from the slide or negative.
There are several other corrections and image editing you can perform before scanning the image to a file or program like brightness, color correction and scaling of the image size. You can also perform batch file scanning using the batch file feature and scan several images for loading to your computer at one time but the OpticFilm 7300 does not move the mount for you so this feature is not really needed.
You can choose image resolutions from 72 DPI all the way up to 10,000 DPI if your computer can handle it. I found that the 4600 was about the highest I would go for a really great looking image scan that had no problems scanning into my computer. Anything with a higher resolution was just not necessary for a better image and the scan took a long enough time.
Your scanning for images at 300DPI will not take long to scan and the higher you go with resolution the longer it will take, the same goes for processing the images and saving them or opening them up in other programs. The SilverFast program does a great job handling images and negatives and I had no problems using the program with scanning.
The SilverFast program also includes a basic mode and a standard mode that allows the user the choice of very simple and basic settings or the full fledged features of the program. The basic mode is nice for doing everyday scans of things that do not require very much editing or if you are doing most of the editing with another program. The standard mode allows all the editing from inside SilverFast so you can start your image editing somewhere else with the best possible image.
The scanner is a great way to scan and record 35mm film negatives and slides but the scanner only does these types of film, it does not scan any other sizes or kinds of film. The scanner installs easily and does a great job not only scanning into other programs like Photoshop CS3 but scans well right to a file.
For scanning film strip negatives and slides the Plustek OpticFilm 7300 is a great scanner and I recommend it for this use. The additional program SilverFast is a great way to interface the scanner with other programs or to save images to your computer.