OpticFilm 135i - Automatic Film & Slide Scanner, Batch converts 35mm Slides & Film Negatives, Support 3rd Party Editing Software Export, Max. 7200 dpi

Short version: Good scanner, mostly does what it says it is going to do Scanning speed depends on your computer speed and memory / DPI selected Great customer service Long version: The adage you get what you pay for is true with this scanner. The scanner is easy to use and mostly delivers on its claim for cleaning up the dust and scratches. Not all but cleans up better than none, need to try the different settings for this option. I was using 20 to 30 year old negatives / slides that were not stored in in any sort of proper manner, and they cleaned up for use. The dialog box for scanning allows for different DPI options, does require that the user knows what level resolution prior to use (I did re-scan for higher resolution on important photos). Please realize that higher resolutions require more time to scan and process. For normal 35mm negatives / slides for 4 by 6 size (2400 dpi) it takes about 3 minutes for the process (your time will vary depending on the speed and memory of your system). The software for scanning could use greater controls. The software will work for basic scanning, however it can use better controls (Level and Curves controls). While that can found in photo editing (Photoshop, Elements, Lightroom), it would be nice to have great control at scanning. Additionally, dust / scratch (like cloning / healing brush) and noise adjustments would be nice without having to go to editing software. I had an issue setting up the scanner (on late Christmas evening) and posted a question on Amazon as the to location of the drivers / software on the Plustek website. It was answered within a hour. I was expecting a couple of days and instead it was actually a hour. Even if I was lucky in their monitoring, this is outstanding customer service. Their response solved my issues and I had the scanner running in less than 30 minutes. Full disclosure: my mistyping caused the whole issue in the first place, read the instructions prior to setting up. This is a full-featured scanner works for somebody comfortable in photo editing and that wants quality scans.

I love this product. I had tried other, cheaper, scanners and they were very difficult for me to use. This one costs more, but is simple to use and gives great results. It also allows you to edit your slides as you go. It does four slides at a time, which is what the other brands I tried did, but this was so much easier. I definitely recommend it to anyone who needs to convert a lot of slides.

This scanner is capable of producing high quality digital images from film. It is easy to setup. The film holders securely hold transparencies and negatives. I really like the autofeed of the holders during scan. The files are easily uploaded into editing software. The Guide is very lite on detail and I haven't found any indepth tutorials. So new users wanting to utilize the full capabilies of the device will need to do some experimenting. On initial setup, when loading the driver, stop all Epson tasks. Any running Epson task prevents the driver from being installed. The film holders don't have any markings to indicate film orientation. After a few attempts with both film types, I made labels for orienting film. Spring tension in the transparency hold is strong. Cardboard mounts can be bent if forced into the holder. On the Scan page there are 3 options: Positive, Negative and Custom. The Positive and Negative options will auto crop images. If you want the full frame, use Custom. The only thing about Custom is being able to crop or uncrop an image between scanning and processing. For Scan preferences there are several variables: ICC Profile, Auto Exposure, Dust/Scratch Removal and ECG/Low Exposure Mode. Each film emulsion is best interpreted by a specific ICC Profile. There are over 50 profiles listed. I found 4 that work film emulsions in my image library: Adobe, BenQ GL2460 Color Profile, Film Scan A81 and sRGB. The default profile is Film Scan A81. Kodachrome is the most "finicky." The attached photos show an image scanned with the default profile vs a profile better suited to the film. Auto Exposure works well for tranparencies but blows out negatives. Dust/Scratch removal only does minor cleanup. Company support wasn't able to explain ECG and how to use it.

I am now helping a friend do some scanning and I found that it works quite well with Vuescan software. Speed is pretty much what you'd expect and the quality of the scans looks good enough that the limitation on quality is definitely the quality of the slides or negatives, not the scanner. Surprising how good a 8MP digital photo looks when you go back and compare it with film/slides. Audible noise is not as much as a lot of the scanners. And the ability to scan 4 and THEN crop and fix them, allows you to at least do something while it is scanning.

The scanner is solid build and software is easy to use. Plustek Quickscan software is very rudimentary but allows scan of negatives and slides. Scanner is supported by Vue Soft if you need, Even after trying hours with all sorts of different settings, the image quality is poor. Images have a lot of noise and seem to be out of focus. Even on 4x6, quality is not really usable. It's a good if you scan for online use, but it is far away from delivering any professional quality scans used for print.

The OpticFilm 135i was easy to set up and has provided excellent scans of my slides. The slide holder had a small manufacturing defect. The Plustek support department sent out a replacement unit and it arrived in record time. I am very happy with the purchase.

My flatbed scanner died so my son got this for me. It is wonderful. But even better it is fast. I can scan lots of negs faster then with my flatbed. Would recommend to someone wanting a scanner for film.

I am in the process of looking at over 23000 slides. I will be selecting about 2500 to digitize and store for posterity. The 135i does all of the things that I need to do. It took a little time to learn what all of the settings would do. I started out using the supplied Quickscan software. It proved a little awkward to use but did have some very good features. Scans could easily be sent directly to PhotoShop. The scanning process was so good that I felt that I seldom needed PhotoShop. I changed to using VueScan software. With that I could avoid going to PhotoShop, although I could later use PhotoShop if needed. The slide holding tray provided is quite rugged. Care must be taken when putting slides into and out of the holder since the cardboard slides can buckle because of the strong force necessary to put them into the holder. This is not a problem when done carefully. It would be nice to have extra slide holders but they are not available. The 135i feature that removes scratches and dust works VERY well. However it does take more time since the slide is scanned twice. I blow the dust off of the slides before scanning and do not usually have to use the IR scratch/dust removal feature. It is faster for me to just scan the slides and then rescan the few that need scratches and dust removed. After a lot of experimenting I have chosen to scan the slides to the 3600 dpi. This results in a .jpg of about 3 to 4 mb in size for most of my slides. The unit will scan to 7200 dpi, but takes much longer. I could not see a difference in the final .jpg, even when viewed on a 50 inch, 1080p screen. I decided that the much larger storage space and longer scan time was not worth it for me. The unit has run very reliably, I have scanned over 200 slides so far. I waited for many years before I found a unit that would do my scanning project in a sort of reasonable time! I am glad that I waited for this unit. Earlier units (and even today low cost units) just do not scan to a high enough resolution nor quickly enough to make my huge project worth while. My goal was to have slides changed to digital format in a way that viewing the results would be about as good as using a slide projector and this unit does that!