Pacific Image Electronics PrimeFilm1800

Review Date
August 12, 2006

Overall Rating
 1 of 5

Value Rating
 1 of 5

Used product for
Less than 1 month

Visitors rate this review
4.50 of 5, 2 votes

Reviewed by
Fine Art Video , Professional

Price Paid
$199.00 at B&H Photo

Photography Experience
21+ years , Fine Art

Summary
I bought this to tranfer client's slides to DVD, assuming the description on the B7H Photo site was at least 90 percent truthful. To say this unit sucks is an insult to the air that would be providing the suction.

1) It took nearly three minutes to can one slide.

2) After scanning each slide, it crashedsmy computer and I have to restart it (a new Pentium 4- 2.4 gig with 1.25 gig ram) .

3) The saved slide file is nearly colorless, it is full of chalky colored, very grainy streaks. The image is barely recognizable as the slide that is put into the machine. I got better results holding a slide in front of my camcorder lens against a white wall.

In essence, this thing is a useless pile of trash. Since I waited three months to use it for the first time, I am likely not going to have any luck returning it to B&H when they open on Sunday. (They are closed now, Saturday, as I write this).

Strengths
It powers up. Other than that, no strengths.

Weaknesses
Takes forever to scan.
Crashes my up-to-date PC.
Image quality worthless, even for beginner.

Similar Products Used
Canon slide transfer machine.

Customer Service
Don't know yet.

Review Date
January 12, 2004

Overall Rating
 1 of 5

Value Rating
 1 of 5

Used product for
More than 1 year

Visitors rate this review
5.00 of 5, 1 votes

Reviewed by
huck69 , Intermediate , from Oklahoma City

Price Paid
$100.00 at ebay

Photography Experience
6-10 years , Outdoor

Summary
I'll try to keep this short. I've used this scanner for almost 2 years now and it's the most miserable piece of junk I've ever owned. Why do I still have it? I can't talk the wife into buying another one. In short, don't buy it! Even if you only have a few boxes to scan and you're not the picky type...take them to a photo center for digital transfer. If you still shoot slides (negatives too), do yourself a favor and put as much distance between you and this thing as possible.

Strengths
*It usually powers up when I flip the switch.
*You'll become a Photoshop expert after using this.

Weaknesses
*No dynamic range: Your shadows, while under control on the light table, will come out blotchy and almost unusable on slide film (Provia 100F). Highlights will be blown to pieces. Slides that look brilliant scanned by a Nikon LS-1000 come out looking horrible with this thing.
*Out of focus: I thought it was my lens at first, but I've come to realize the fixed focus on this thing needs glasses.
*Noise: Scan some Velvia. You'll think there's some MAX 800 in the tray.

Although I only listed 3 weaknesses, these pretty much spell disaster for anything you try to scan.

Similar Products Used
Nikon LS-1000

Customer Service
None

Review Date
March 21, 2003

Overall Rating
 2 of 5

Value Rating
 3 of 5

Used product for
3 Months to 1 year

Reviewed by
BUELENSC , Intermediate , from Tervuren, Belgium

Price Paid
$175.00 at Macro

Photography Experience
21+ years , Outdoor

Summary
I wanted to place my +/-1500 color slides on my PC without spending too much money (I bought it as Mictrotek Filmscan 35).
After 9 months, the scan didn't produce true colors anymore, returned in gaurantee, 6 weeks later: I got my money back.
Due to the weeknesses mentioned below en on this WEB page, I'm doubting to buy the same or something diffrent.

Strengths
Easy to be used indeed. Fast enough (about 30 secs for a slide). No SW hangs, abends or whatever.

Weaknesses
- no dust removal
- preview window too small
- the noise it makes is in 20% of the scans abnormal, sometimes the result is a half image.
- broken after 9 months, 500 scanned slides

Customer Service
It tooks 6 weeks before they said I got my money back.

Review Date
November 8, 2002

Overall Rating
 1 of 5

Value Rating
 1 of 5

Used product for
3 Months to 1 year

Visitors rate this review
3.00 of 5, 2 votes

Reviewed by
Marc , Professional , from Winnipeg, MB. Canada

Price Paid
$200.00 at Costco

Photography Experience
2-5 years , People

Summary
Well... I bought this scanner '1800u' thinking that any film scanner should produce a scan of higher detail then could be obtained scanning a picture on a cheap flatbed Scanner. I have learned the error of my ways.

Strengths
Cheap, easy to hook up and install. Light enough to use for skeet shooting. That's all I can think of.

Weaknesses
Extremly poor latitude. (my biggest complaint) If you have a contrasty picture with textured whites and shadows. You can scan for the whites or the shadows but not both. One ot the other will be washed out. My $80 Canon N640 flatbed does a much better job just scanning the 4x6 proof.
Requires a lot of trials to get half way decent color reproduction.
Offers no scratch and noise reduction software, but I guess what do you expect for the price.

Similar Products Used
Nikon Coolscan 4000 ED Film scanner. Excellent scanner, but quite expensive.
Canon Flatbed N640. Cheap, good quality for the price.
UMAX Flatbed, Junk, had to fix it with a 12 gauge double barrel.

Customer Service
It still works, kind of.

Review Date
November 4, 2002

Overall Rating
 1 of 5

Value Rating
 1 of 5

Used product for
3 Months to 1 year

Visitors rate this review
5.00 of 5, 4 votes

Reviewed by
Charles Moon , Intermediate , from Lewes, UK

Price Paid
$125.00 at Procom, LONDON

Photography Experience
11-20 years , Outdoor

Summary
I wanted it to digitise all my old slides, many dating from the 60s. Going under the name Filmscan35, it was inexpensive and easy to use, but regreatably failed after about nine months.

Strengths
One touch scanning of negatives, interesting software.

Weaknesses
Slide holding frame had to be forced down on rather thick Agfa slide mounts. When scanning a negative strip, it was difficult to ascertain that the desired frame was accurately in position.

Similar Products Used
First film scanner I ever owned.

Customer Service
After nine months it failed. The scanner gave out a click but would not function. reloading the software would not help. It was returned under gaurantee, but the replacement (3 weeks later)did the same thing. I then gave up on it.