Film returnee - XP2 & Plustek 7200 advice

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Tim- yes, the scratch/dust removal feature works on C41 B&W films like XP2 same as color film. Peter, also good to see you here, but you say "three of us from DP review are here", what about me? Actually, I spend less and less time at DP. best...Peter

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[tashley]

Tim- yes, the scratch/dust removal feature works on C41 B&W films like XP2 same as color film.

Thank you! Very useful info...

 

Actually, I spend less and less time at DP. best...Peter

 

 

So do I...

 

;-)

 

Tim

[peterv]

I just got back a roll I shot at Stonehenge for the Summer Solstice and for now at least I am really glad I shot my M8 for all the important stuff because for whatever reason the MP had only exposed 4 frames out of 24. I am pretty certain it wasn't winding on, since the last four frames I shot were the only ones that came out, and were the first four on the roll!

 

:-(

 

T

 

Tim,

 

sorry to hear the film loading on the MP doesn't quite work like it's supposed to, yet...

 

here's a thread about this issue:

 

http://www.l-camera-forum.com/leica-forum/film-forum/26565-loading-film-probs.html

 

Last friday I got my MP (finally)

 

At first there was some confusion in the shop concerning film loading. My conclusion: follow the easy steps in the instruction guide exactly.

Than make sure you see the red dots move along every time you cock the shutter.

 

On a sidenote:

 

look at the Epson V750 for scanning; you don't seem like the type of person who wants to 'waste' too much time behind the computer scanning your photo's one by one...

 

Peter

[Mark Antony]

Tim

I find that whole business over at DPR pretty sickening. The fact that Leica users are constantly badgered by insecure Canikon owners wanting us to justify our purchases is maddening enough but to have those trolls going to forums just to stir up trouble then report forum members is stupid.

Each forum needs a moderator, I'm going to fire off an angry e-mail to PA and the site owners.

Regards

Mark Antony Smith

[peter55]

Tim I haveI have not tried it but your probably correct but the Silver Fast software that ships with the PlusTek OpticFilm 7200 dedicated film scanner, the dust & scratch removal may indeed work on all C-41 films color & B&W.

 

I'm carefull about always covering my scanner and the negative trays are always put back into their original clear sleeves that they came in. So dust is not an issue for me. On my very old negaitives say 20 years ago yes they have some dust on them but anything new there is no problem.

 

BTW there is a thread requesting your reinstatement on dpreview.

 

I started one also explaining that people can join this forom and talk with you. Soon you will be reinstated as that is in the rules. It's only trmporary.

 

Your MP should not have any problems as my M5 was made in 1973 an it's perfect. When you load the film do you observe the rewind crank turning as you advance the film with the film advance lever. It should be in the users manual. You may have to download one if you don't have it. The trick is that after the film leader is taken up in the spool and you put the bottom plate on you must first take the rewind crank and carefully rewind, that's correct, rewind the film very slowly into the original film canister and with very little pressure until you feel a resistance. Then the film is tightend up in the film canister. Now AND ONLY NOW CAN YOU USE THE FILM ADVANCE LEVER TO ADVANCE THE FILM TO THE FIRST FRAME. OBSERVE THE REWIND CRANK AS YOU ADVANCE THE FILM , IF IT'S ROTATING THEN THIS MEANS YOU HAVE LOADED THE CAMERA CORRECTLY. IF NOT THEN TAKE THE BOTTOM PLATE OFF AND CHECK THE FILM TAKE UP SPOOL.You may have to reinsert the leader and start the procrdure over again. This has happend to me. I downloaded an M5 manual and learned all of this. Sorry about the caps I hit the Caps lock key and I'm to lazy to retype all of that.

 

You are in the right forum for your MP and M8 and if you have film loading questions you should start a new thread in the film forum here. Another good forum is the rangefinders forum.com they will help you out as well.

 

The Plustek OpticFilm Scanner is better than any flatbed including the more expensive Epson V750 Pro. Why? Well first of all, flatbed scanners are dust magnets. Dedicated film scanners are not! If you want dust problems even with new negatives then get a flatbed scanner. If you just want to go to work scanning your negatives then you must get a dedicated film scanner. My Plustek is actually not all that slow, they are all a little slow. I never need to scan at a higher resolution than 2400 dpi, even if my scanner can opticaly scan at 7200dpi. Be sure to always set the output print size to the size that you want to print at and then 2400dpi is actualy overkill. But that's as high as I go. Also to speed things up remember to set the prescan at 72 dpi, then when you are ready for the final scan set the correct (2400) dpi. You must also always rename the files, what I do for each foll of film is give a name like 01 Protrait, then the next scan I jsut chage the name to 02 Portrait and so forth untill I have scanned the entire roll. I also create a new folder for each new roll and use a name and a date. This keeps things organized. Lastly I save everything into a folder called: Film Negatives Scans.

[peter55]

Hello Peter,

 

I know you are a serious photographer and I have seen your posts on the rangefinder forum. Alas I have not seen you here before. Sorry!

 

I just look at the photographs on this forum and very rarely make a post myself. If I do it's almost always about a very good image that I'm viewing.

 

I find the Leica User Forum to be mostly about photography. I come here for peace, answers to my questions and for the Photography. The less I post and the more I view technique works well for me here.

[peter55]

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Tim

I find that whole business over at DPR pretty sickening. The fact that Leica users are constantly badgered by insecure Canikon owners wanting us to justify our purchases is maddening enough but to have those trolls going to forums just to stir up trouble then report forum members is stupid.

Each forum needs a moderator, I'm going to fire off an angry e-mail to PA and the site owners.

Regards

Mark Antony Smith

 

Mark don't bother as Phil will probably respond something along the lines as that's life, or get used to it. It will continue because many people at dpreview just don't have a film background and do not know much about Leica Cameras. Those of us who have one keep them.

[peter55]

Peter

Don't forget me! I post at DPR as well, I also have an M4-P I use a 35mm focal length lens on mine as well

Photo Utopia: June 03, 2007

A Canon though:)

Regards

Mark Antony Smith

 

Sorry, I goofed up. There are more of us than I thought and thats a good thing! I have seen you over there, so again please accept my applology.

[Jamie Roberts]

Jamie, please do let us know how you get on with the Epson - I'm itching to buy a scanner but the Plustek sounds too slow and Jono says the Nikon 5000 was a huge PITA so I am really hoping that the Epson comes up trumps...

 

Best

 

T

 

So some initial thoughts about the Epson 750...

 

First, I haven't done any wet scanning yet; once I get the fluid from Toronto I'll let you know..

 

I've just got the thing set up and running. A breeze and nicely done on their part. I used SilverFast AI before so it's a nice thing to have, and it does give better results (marginally) than the Epson scan utility. At least, I find it easier to get good results there. The reflective and transparent targets bundled with Monaco Colour are really nice to have to create your own scanner profile (another profile!)--but I haven't done it yet.

 

Compared with my Nikon 4000ED (a few years old, but still pretty good), it's a heck of a lot faster to scan a lot of film, but just as slow (or slower) to scan at 3200 or 4800 ppi.

 

The look of the scans is ever so slightly softer than the Nikon, so far. But the colour is much better, IMO (the Nikon was always a wee bit screwy).

 

Now, here's the big thing... the Epson seems to work much better with regular (not chromagenic) BW and Kodachrome than the Nikon, which was always kind of iffy there in terms of artifacts.

 

I've heard that the newer Nikons 5000 / 9000 are even worse with true BW / Kodachrome; something in the silver in the film that the illuminating parts of the scanner doesn't like.

 

FWIW--the reflective parts of the 750 rock. It's a very good reflective scanner.

 

But considering it really does--for workflow and overall output--beat the Nikon, well, that's pretty good.

 

I need more time to test. But it looks pretty good so far.

 

Cons so far:

 

1) no way to manually focus that I can tell short of these little film holder feet you take out and turn around and then you re-scan

 

2) film holders are fine, but flimsy--sort of. I ran into trouble with an old cut single frame 35mm negative. Not quite flat, which is a problem...see number 1 under focus

 

3) highest resolution scan is really, really slow. Like 5 or 6 minutes.

 

4) I honestly wish the flatbed was a little larger.

 

5) So far I haven't tried high ISO or pushed negs, which I think are bound to exaggerate that non-critical "softness" I've seen compared with the Nikon. I'm not sure you'd see the difference in a print, though, and you trade off the Nikon artifacts with the Epson...

 

Stay tuned!

[tashley]

Tim

I find that whole business over at DPR pretty sickening. The fact that Leica users are constantly badgered by insecure Canikon owners wanting us to justify our purchases is maddening enough but to have those trolls going to forums just to stir up trouble then report forum members is stupid.

Each forum needs a moderator, I'm going to fire off an angry e-mail to PA and the site owners.

Regards

Mark Antony Smith

 

Thanks Mark,

 

I can't say it over there but I agree with you: that whole incident in which somehow I became the bad guy, was quite astonishing! We live and learn... but it's good to have the support of others when the chips go so unexpectedly down...

 

Best

 

Tim

[tashley]

Tim,

 

sorry to hear the film loading on the MP doesn't quite work like it's supposed to, yet...

 

here's a thread about this issue:

 

http://www.l-camera-forum.com/leica-forum/film-forum/26565-loading-film-probs.html

 

Last friday I got my MP (finally)

 

At first there was some confusion in the shop concerning film loading. My conclusion: follow the easy steps in the instruction guide exactly.

Than make sure you see the red dots move along every time you cock the shutter.

 

On a sidenote:

 

look at the Epson V750 for scanning; you don't seem like the type of person who wants to 'waste' too much time behind the computer scanning your photo's one by one...

 

Peter

 

Thanks Peter. I SO thought I had followed the instructions but I have now learned to be sure to tension the film after loading so that you can see the knob go round when you wind on. It was really disappointing though!

 

I'm looking at the Epson, waiting for Jamie's verdict. The trouble is, I want two different things: a fast way to scan a whole film quite well, and a top flight way to scan a small number of keepers to really high quality.

 

Best

 

Tim

[tashley]

. The trick is that after the film leader is taken up in the spool and you put the bottom plate on you must first take the rewind crank and carefully rewind, that's correct, rewind the film very slowly into the original film canister and with very little pressure until you feel a resistance. Then the film is tightend up in the film canister. Now AND ONLY NOW CAN YOU USE THE FILM ADVANCE LEVER TO ADVANCE THE FILM TO THE FIRST FRAME. OBSERVE THE REWIND CRANK AS YOU ADVANCE THE FILM , IF IT'S ROTATING THEN THIS MEANS YOU HAVE LOADED THE CAMERA CORRECTLY. IF NOT THEN TAKE THE BOTTOM PLATE OFF AND CHECK THE FILM TAKE UP SPOOL.You may have to reinsert the leader and start the procrdure over again. This has happend to me. I downloaded an M5 manual and learned all of this. Sorry about the caps I hit the Caps lock key and I'm to lazy to retype all of that.

 

The Plustek OpticFilm Scanner is better than any flatbed including the more expensive Epson V750 Pro.

 

Thanks Peter,

 

I think I have the knack now... with a bit of luck I'll get so good at loading the film that I'll actually have something to scan!

 

;-)

 

Tim

[tashley]

So some initial thoughts about the Epson 750...

 

 

 

Stay tuned!

 

I certainly will... this is exceptionally useful, thank you Jamie.

 

Did you see this month's LFI (in which you seem to be mentioned on every other page!)? There's a very interesting article on chromogenic films and scanning methods. Quite chewy, but useful.

 

So when do we get to see some scan results from you?

 

All the best

 

Tim

[marke]

Wow, sorry for the OT post, but there sure are a lot of friends here!

 

I might find myself hanging out here more often than dpr. That isn't exactly a film-friendly place, although the Leica forum is no doubt friendlier to "filmers" than any other (dpr) forum is.

 

Glad to see some familiar faces!

[Jamie Roberts]

I certainly will... this is exceptionally useful, thank you Jamie.

 

Did you see this month's LFI (in which you seem to be mentioned on every other page!)? There's a very interesting article on chromogenic films and scanning methods. Quite chewy, but useful.

 

So when do we get to see some scan results from you?

 

All the best

 

Tim

 

Hey Tim--I'm flying out this holiday weekend to do a commercial shoot for a medical company. As part of that, I'm going to be doing some BW portrait work, so I'll post the scan results here next week.

 

Tests though are looking pretty good, I must say.

 

Hey--I have *not* seen LFI except as an online excerpt. Is it online, or do you have to subscribe?

[tashley]

Hey Tim--I'm flying out this holiday weekend to do a commercial shoot for a medical company. As part of that, I'm going to be doing some BW portrait work, so I'll post the scan results here next week.

 

Tests though are looking pretty good, I must say.

 

Hey--I have *not* seen LFI except as an online excerpt. Is it online, or do you have to subscribe?

 

You have to subscribe, though I get my copy from Classic Camera in London. In Germany, oh luxury, you can buy it at news stands!

 

It is fantastically good though. Really, really, really good...

 

Have a great trip and I look forward to seeing the results!

 

Tim

[xrogers]

Jamie, I'm also looking for your thoughts on the 750 as a batch 35mm scanner. The only option I see today for making this simple is the Nikon 5000 with a roll feeder. It would be great if the 750 did this in some relatively simple, relatively quick manner, at something around 2000 dpi...

 

I agree about the Nikon scanners, at their highest resolution with regular black and white film, the grain (or something) gets messy, not at all like a darkroom enlargement.

 

I'm gone for a week or so, but will check this thread again when I return.

 

Thanks,

 

--clyde

[peter55]

Wow, sorry for the OT post, but there sure are a lot of friends here!

 

I might find myself hanging out here more often than dpr. That isn't exactly a film-friendly place, although the Leica forum is no doubt friendlier to "filmers" than any other (dpr) forum is.

 

Glad to see some familiar faces!

 

Hi Mark,

Yes this forum is nicer to us film users. They also have a great deal of experience. Since this is the Leica Camera Users Forum we are home when we are here.

 

I'm still looking for my second Leitz lens, either a 35, 90 or 135 for my M5.

I have the Summilux.

 

Mark I see your posts all the time on dpr and I enjoy your images. I'm working on my street photography now thanks to you and I'm using the shoot from the hip technique.

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