It is called Plustek OpticFilm 135i and is the new scanner from the brand specialized in analog to digital conversion, which we have already seen on several occasions in the news and reviews of our site.
In this case, the focus of the product is the treatment of films and slides, the golden heritage of an era that is now only alive in the hands of a few romantics, but which at the same time offers an interesting number of users who would like to have digitally those many memories in film that today it is difficult to recover and savor again, where on TV, perhaps with Plex, it would be much easier.
Positive and negative
The dimensions of the scanner out of the box are 24.5x35x20.5 centimeters, to which another approximately 50 centimeters must be added for the total dimensions of the film sled to use it well (from when it is in position to when it comes out), all in a molded plastic case weighing approximately 1.6 kg.
The air is a bit vintage, but it could not be otherwise for a product that recalls the glories of films, perhaps one of the most fascinating media even today, despite the twenty-year domination of digital which is cheaper and simpler but for this very reason more mainstream and less “cut” for an audience of fans.
Plustek OpticFilm 135i is a sled scanner with the front entrance for the film sled and five upper buttons, while in the rear there are the various USB connectors for data and power, as well as a port for the output. of the sled.
Also in the package, a little spartan, there are two slides, capable of accommodating positive and negative formats such as 24 × 36, 24 × 65 and 24 × 226 mm, both in positive and negative format.
All operations can be carried out exclusively through the supplied software, included in the DVD, but which we have quietly downloaded from the website of the parent company (it's okay to be retro but there are no more DVD players here).
Everything simple
To test the small scanner, not having the old films available, we asked our friend Giorgio, who you can see in the photo below, who proudly lent us an important archive of a few thousand shots that he kept in religious filing in the closet. .
This set us the stage for the main consideration: the Plustek OpticFilm 135i is truly a niche product for a clientele who, over the years, has shot a lot with film cameras and who today find themselves having to tinker with projectors or other things to review. those old shots, while it would be easier to have TIFF, Jpeg or Png files to manage with other and simpler devices or simply on the web.
Learning to use the scanner took no more than a few minutes, also because the software is done quite well and above all it is capable of automating the work in series.
Basically the films are positioned in the sled, hooking them in the foreseen places, it is not possible to make a mistake, and the software is started, defining the scan parameters in the area whose bizarre name is “Scan” (which is more reminiscent of a vocal operation than a photographic one) . Everything can be controlled completely from the App or, thanks to the buttons present, operate in hybrid mode.
The sensor can work up to 7200 dpi at 48bit , with infrared for scratches and damaged parts, and the process returns the various separate shots, which can then be saved in batches in the provided folder, or worked directly from the basic capabilities of the same software.
The test was carried out on shots of a purely amateur nature, there are no skills of a photographer, and for this reason we appreciated the colorimetric recovery qualities of the software, together with the ability to operate on RGB levels in an interesting way.
A passage with Photoshop certainly helps, but we can anticipate that the software is able to manage three quarters of the operations correctly and without problems very quickly, promoting the batch activity and relegating only the final phase to third-party programs.
In case you need it, the same also has social capabilities to upload the shots to the main photographic sites, even if our experience suggests caution in this, given the age of the films and the need to analyze them thoroughly before sending them on. a public open social network.
In some shots, like this one by Giorgio, who participates with us in the review, it takes a little 'of post production. Which could involve scratches or dust, but also trivially a cut
Times and ways
We were used to the Plustek operational quality, and in fact even the Plustek OpticFilm 135i did not disappoint us: a scan takes place in about 3 and a half minutes, and we were able to manage complete operations including recharging every 4 minutes, thanks to the software ( by operation we mean from empty slide to ready and separate files in the destination folder).
The writer recommends creating workflows that operate with scanning first of all, retouching only the most complex images with the integrated software, then delegating to a passage with Photoshop or more simply to Photos on Mac all the retouching, which number and type can vary a lot from shot to shot, especially in the amateur world where it is often necessary to intervene not only in the color balance and in the correction of scratches and dust, but also in the cut and in the color cast (and there is no desire for it. friend Giorgio).
For purely practical reasons the scanner when it rests on the desk has no completely irrelevant dimensions, since it offers a footprint of a small printer, so if you have a desk that is not too generous, you will be pleased to know that the device is good to put it in the box when you don't need it, but it really takes a moment to get it back on track, if the software is already installed. The longer time is required by the scans, otherwise everything is very fast.
The result of a scan, optimized then with the integrated software: a lot obviously depends on the quality of the original, but the transition to Photoshop may be necessary only for the most demanding or for those who do it for work
Considerations
In judging the product we can only start from the fundamental consideration that it is a niche product, more than the average of the Plustek scanners that have populated these pages. Most readers, especially younger ones, will find the product useless or at least strange, in an age when anyone has a camera in their pocket and shares their shots in the cloud in a couple of seconds.
But it is equally true that for the same reasons there will be readers who will be dazzled by rethinking how easy it can become to digitize their analogue archive and give it new life through Instagram, Flickr, Facebook and even simply to TV via Plex.
The price is high, but according to the writer it is parameterized to the specificity of the product and to the intrinsic quality, thinking above all for the numerous automatisms that facilitate an otherwise worrying process.
At this point the ball passes to the readers, in particular to those who have an archive of films at the back of the wardrobe, a piece of life history: how much does its return to light deserve? This little scanner guarantees it, even if you don't know Photoshop.
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Price
More information on Plustek OpticFilm 135i can be found on the parent company's website, and readers can purchase it directly from the Amazon.it pages.
