Sometimes technology companies are in a rush to bring a product to market, that they seem to miss the real goal. There are many companies online that manufacture and sell Slide and negative scanners. However, I can verify that most of these scanners do not provide you with high quality results.
My father is a “traditional” photographer. He has tens of thousands of slides and negatives and still likes to develop some of his own photographs. In an effort to bring him into the modern era, last year I purchased a slide and negative scanner to help him digitize his operation. However, after scanning some of his photographs, it was easy to discern with the naked eye how the quality of some of these scanners were lacking. Simple features such as the aspect ratio and comparing the color of the original picture to what was being scanned was well off.
Recently, I came across a high resolution film and slide scanner that tweaked my technology eye. The Plustek OpticFilm 8200i Ai is a quality scanner that is up to the artistic and technical needs of amateur and professional photographers and graphic artists.
The 8200i Ai has a 7200 dpi Resolution, 48-bit Color Depth. The 8200i Ai also includes a IT8 calibration slide, so that you can configure and adjust your color accuracy prior to scanning your photos. Unfortunately, with the quality and depth with the 8200i Ai comes some choices. If you are looking for speed and are willing to sacrifice on some quality, then you have the option to select the 3600 dpi in comparison to the 7200 dpi mode.
The 8200i Ai comes with the SilverFast Ai Studio 8, full-featured “professional” scanning software. The program is very similar to other scanning software, with slight differences with look and feel. It is compatible with both Windows (XP / Vista / 7 / 8) and Mac (OS X 10.5 / 10.6 / 10.7 /10.8) operating systems.
Price wise, the 8200i Ai is a little more costly in comparison to other models, however in this case the difference in the scan output from slide and film is day and night.
Features
- Dimensions (W x D x H): 120 x 272 x 119 mm (4.73” x 10.7” x 4.7”)
- Net Weight: 1.6 kgs (3.5 Lbs)
- Scanning Area (W x L): 36.8 mm x 25.4 mm (1.45″ x 1″)
- Resolution 7200 dpi
- Interface: USB 2.0
References: Plustek OpticFilm 8200i Ai high resolution film and slide scanner
