Pacific Image Electronics PrimeFilm PF1800U USB Film Scanner

I purchased this product and after it arrived I started to us it. It broke after the 2nd set of negatives. Luckly I got what I wanted in to it before it broke. The motor for the arm to move broke. The motor is to small and does not have the power to move the arm continously. I will not purchase another one. I will purchase the high dollar one with a return policy if it brakes.

a

Not the most practical to use. If you can save up to buy a more quality one then I would recommend you do that.

i had the same problem as others with this scanner. i used it for a few days and it worked great. i went to use it again a few weeks later and nothing. I manged to get a new one over the weekend and just plugged it in this am and it burned out. No more items from this company for me.

I had the same problem with mine...I had Lamp Failure with very few hours on the unit(around 15 hours). I had lost my sales slip so could not get any help. I would have given this unit a 5 star rating because when it was working it was a great tool. Too bad the lamp life wasnt better.

Dont entertain the thought of converting 1000s or even 100s of slides with this . Software is poor , manual is lacking . At best , quality of scans is just OK if the slide or neg is perfect .. and the weather is good .. your mood is not bad .. moon is full etc. etc. Top notch film scanners with Digital ICE run 500.00 to well over a 1000.00 bucks . Most of these require a SCSI interface . When I got mine it was 75.00 MSRP , It was worth it .

All of the critical comments on this item are accurate, and many of those involve software. Picked one of these up for a few bucks (new in box with extra bulb) in 2004 or 2005 at GoodWill. The owner who dumped it had good reason apparently. Within a week I discovered updated software and everything was running smoothly. The original scans were disappointing. The original purchase receipt was still in the box and if memory is correct it was $160 or $170. The original bulb was fine so it can be assumed the owner was so exasperated over poor performance they ordered a second bulb - which was not the problem.

This is not a bad item when you need to scan a couple, but its very slow and the resolution is not good. If you need it for your family photos it can be a good product, but you have to think you will need a lot of time, if I could Ill try to get one with autofeed.

This economical 35mm film scanner is exactly what I wanted and needed. I have a large collection of 35mm slides taken in Korea and Vietnam; this scanner allows me to convert them to digital images on my computer and either print, send or share with others. It has a great preview function and an adjustable quality feature. A great buy for the money.

I purchased this item about a week ago, and because of the widely varying reviews, thought that Id chime in. Normally I just buy books through Amazon and havent been motivated to review them since I usually know what Im getting. I am NOT an employee of Pacific Image however (or any sort of camera or computer store). I am a graduate student in history who needed to be able to scan microfilm. I searched everywhere for a product that would let me do this. The strips fill an entire spool and are many feet long, and since they are borrowed, I can not cut them to fit a standard film scanner or flatbed with a 4-6 frame holder for negatives. Products designed for this purpose are thousands of dollars - not in a students budget! Id just about given up when I found this machine, and figured I didnt have much to lose since Amazon has a good return policy, so I took a chance. Is it perfect? No. The TWAIN software that came with the computer crashed every time I tried to do more than a preliminary scan. The Adobe Elements is nice, but I have an ancient copy of Paint Shop Pro 4 I like just fine. After several crashes, I emailed the company and got a fairly useless response from them. However, an online tech reviewer who liked this product had recommended a compatible scanning program called Silverfast. I downloaded the trial version of this and lo and behold, it worked. It still took some skill and some trial by error to find good settings for the film. It didnt match any of the settings, of course, so I had to try different film options until I found one that worked. I also had to play with the detail of scan and such to avoid blurring. But after a couple of hours, I determined the settings that work. I would assume it would be easier with a standard film type. I have some slides and negatives Ill probably try also just to see how they work, and if I get remarkably different results, will comment again. Is it fast? That depends on the detail you want. It does only scan one image at a time. However, I didnt find it hard to center the image in the scanner. It scans the pages faster than I can translate them, which is all that matters to me! If you arent in a hurry, I dont think youll have a big problem. In the week Ive had it, Ive run it some days for 3-4 hours at a stretch. I havent had any problems with grinding noises. The scanner isnt silent, but its in line with my old Microtek C6 - the only other scanner Ive ever had. If it does break, Ill see how the company treats the warranty. So to sum up, if you have a specific need as I did, and youre willing to take a little time to learn the Silverfast software, you can make perfectly good images with this machine. I havent printed any of them, but I am using them on CD enlarged so that just a few words of the original hand-written records fit on the screen, and the detail and sharpness are just fine.