Plustek OpticFilm 8300i Ai Film Scanner - Converts 35mm Film & Slide into Digital, Bundle SilverFast Ai Studio 9 + QuickScan Plus, Include Advanced IT8 Calibration Target (3 Slide)

Well constructed, easy to use, quick to insert and remove slides from the 4-slide carrier. The infrared secondary scan does a great job of removing most dust and scratches. Unit is heavy enough to stay put on your desk, yet has a compact footprint. Scanning at anything higher than 3600 dpi gains nothing except a ballooned file size. Instead of the included SilverFast software (overly complex, clunky user interface), I use VueScan, then color correct in Lightroom. It's 2 steps instead of one, but more versatile image control and simpler interface. I also run many original scanned files through Topaz Photo AI to sharpen and denoise before going to Lightroom. The attached before-and-after of a 60-year-old slide is typical of results.

The media could not be loaded. There seems to be a large gap between the cheap film digitizers and the commercial grade film scanners. This is one of the few options out there that gives fantastic results for under $1,000. I'm well within the "amateur photographer" range, so this is really a bit overkill for my needs. Not complaining at all, I am very happy with what it can do. The scratch-fix works well, but it isn't a miracle worker. There is only so much it can do to save the image. If the scratch is severe, it will come through and there's no fixing that. The speed of the machine is great at about 30 seconds per image at 3600dpi. When cranked all the way up to 7200dpi, the scan takes about 3 min. Image qquality is fantastic. You can see the film grain quite clearly when zoomed in, even on the lower 3600dpi setting. The biggest drawback is SilverFast9. It's a hassle to get up and running, and has quite a learning curve. I've never used darkroom or photoshop, so the features on here are well beyond my pay grade. But with perseverance, you can get a preset that you like and keep it there. Alternatively, you can use Plustek's proprietary scan software Quickscan Plus. This offers hassle-free scanning for those less computer savvy. I love the detents for feeding the film through the scanner, and the flaps that keep the dust out when the feeder is out of the machine. Though I keep it zipped up in the protective case when not in use, just to keep it dust-free.Overall, it's a great device for amateurs trying to digitize 35mm photos and professionals who can get the most out of the complicated software. I know, it's a bitter pill to spend $600 on a scanner that only does one format. But the one format it does, it does very well.

Why did you pick this product vs others?:Works well but instructions are difficult to follow/understand.

I'm not a photographer, but the scanner works very well. I've scanned several hundred slides (and thousands to go), but was up & running quickly, with very good results. Was worried the SilverFast software would be too complex, but they included the "WorkFlowPilot" which made it very simple. Scanning is fast if you do not modify the scan (such as remove scratches, dust or improve the image), and if you do enhance the image, can take over 2 minutes (or more) per slide. Again, I'm not an expert, but I'm very happy with the PlusTek scanner & SilverFast software- it's getting the job done for me.

Tried to use this with an iMac Studio 2022 M1 Max. It was able to scan slides moderately well using the Plustek quick scan software. I tried to scan a wide variety of negatives with very poor results. Uniformly looked blown out like an bad overexposure. No idea how that is possible. I thought that the provided Silverfast software might help, but no. It installed ok but could could not see the scanner: "problem communicating with scanner". Plustek techs were no help at all. Silverfast US tech tried to help but failed. The Silverfast techs in Germany won't answer the phone (at the time specified by the US rep). I gave up after 5 attempts. I really wanted this to work for me and I was willing to accept moderately good results. This was unacceptable and it is now in transit back to Amazon.

Apple's latest devices use what's called ARM chips -- the M1 or M2 -- and Plustek doesn't provide a driver for those. A tech support person has told me it has no plans to create one, either.While Plustek claims the 8300i is "compatible with" these chips, what that really means is that you have to use Apple's workaround, called Rosetta, that emulates the older Intel chips it used to use. Anyone familiar with Apple software knows it's reasonable to wonder how long the company will continue to support that.I didn't realize this until I tried to install the Silverfast scanning software Plustek bundles. By default, on an M1 Mac, it will try to install the native ARM version, so it threw up an error message saying I had to switch instead.Silverfast is not very user-friendly, so I would prefer to use VueScan, which is very good about supporting all sorts of scanners, even ones long out of production. But it crashes as soon as it sees the 8300i connected, and the VueScan creator -- who's very good about support -- can't figure out what's going wrong.If I'd known all this first, I would probably have bought a different scanner. If you have a newer Mac, I'd recommend you do the same.Other notes: Scanning of slides is fine. Roll film is more problematic. The film holder doesn't have any sprockets to hold the film in place; adjusting film to stay in the proper spot is fidgety. You have to line up the individual frames with the plastic separators in the holder, and that's not easy. Some of the old clips I want to scan are extremely curled; that not only makes it even harder to put them in correctly, but the film holder isn't tight enough to flatten them.