Greg_E
07-06-2013, 05:59 PM
So I'm now a couple rolls of film through this Pacific Image Memor-ease ST "scanner" and I have some impressions. The reason I put scanner is quotes is that this is not really a scanner, it is a 9mp digital camera with a lightbox behind the film so it is very fast. The reason I wanted this was because I wanted a very quick way to look at film to determine what made it to my Nikon 8000ED scanner for the more time consuming scans, and it works fine for the web. So far I have only scanned pinhole images and mostly at the default settings for color negative and B/W negative, only just now finding the setting for less jpeg compression which will get tried on the next roll of film. Quality so far is reasonably decent for what I intend this device to do, I would probably never print anything larger than 4x6 from the files, but know that if the image is good that I can scale it a lot farther if need be. I used to print 2mp TIFF files from my old Kodak camera up to 19 inches with no artifacts visible, really good images with nice contrast would go higher. But back to the scanner, not much in the way of details on their page:
http://www.scanace.com/scan_pd_1.php?id=7
9 megapixel color and B/W
35mm film, 35mm mounted slide, 6x4.5, 6x6 film (I'm sure I'll do 6x9 sometime using software to stitch multiple parts)
SDHC card only
AC power supply (wish it ran off of battery too)
The film holders are the worst part, the little rails that hold the edges of the film are on the wrong side, so the film curls away from them and makes loading very hard. The 35mm holders work a little better because you can get multiple images per load, but the roll film holder only has a single opening so you need to slide the film to get to the next exposure. It's a pain and something that I will certain modify soon. I've been using the holder backwards because it is easier to load, only problem is it does not click into place like it should so you need to watch the preview window to make sure it is lined up. It is manual advance to the next frame.
The preview window is small, no way to tell if the detail is good, basically you get an image that lets you see well enough if it is in the right side forward and that you have the window centered over the camera. it does tell you if it thinks it can get a good exposure, the window turns red if it needs more exposure, not sure what it does if it thinks it needs less exposure. This is what it recorded when the LCD is red:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v329/Greg_E/pinhole/Dark_zpsb27d0a6b.jpg (http://smg.photobucket.com/user/Greg_E/media/pinhole/Dark_zpsb27d0a6b.jpg.html)
And this is what comes out after correcting the fault by dialing in +2 of compensation, might have only needed +1
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v329/Greg_E/pinhole/corrected_zps545537de.jpg (http://smg.photobucket.com/user/Greg_E/media/pinhole/corrected_zps545537de.jpg.html)
Above image shot on a Zero 2000 with way expired Efke 50
Here is a color negative shot with a Dirkon 35mm paper camera with 0.3mm EMS aperture on some Fuji 200 something or other, bit of reflection from the top of the car it was resting on when I took it.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v329/Greg_E/pinhole/dirkon15_zpsb8a5b9b8.jpg (http://smg.photobucket.com/user/Greg_E/media/pinhole/dirkon15_zpsb8a5b9b8.jpg.html)
No sharping has been applied, these are straight out of the "scanner".
All in all, a quick and simple way to get your film into digital for the web, never going to win awards for highest quality but then it didn't cost thousands of dollars.
Parting shot, a snap shot taken at lunch with a friend one day, Zero 2000 on the expired Efke 50
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v329/Greg_E/pinhole/PIC_0001_zps40e99737.jpg (http://smg.photobucket.com/user/Greg_E/media/pinhole/PIC_0001_zps40e99737.jpg.html)
http://www.scanace.com/scan_pd_1.php?id=7
9 megapixel color and B/W
35mm film, 35mm mounted slide, 6x4.5, 6x6 film (I'm sure I'll do 6x9 sometime using software to stitch multiple parts)
SDHC card only
AC power supply (wish it ran off of battery too)
The film holders are the worst part, the little rails that hold the edges of the film are on the wrong side, so the film curls away from them and makes loading very hard. The 35mm holders work a little better because you can get multiple images per load, but the roll film holder only has a single opening so you need to slide the film to get to the next exposure. It's a pain and something that I will certain modify soon. I've been using the holder backwards because it is easier to load, only problem is it does not click into place like it should so you need to watch the preview window to make sure it is lined up. It is manual advance to the next frame.
The preview window is small, no way to tell if the detail is good, basically you get an image that lets you see well enough if it is in the right side forward and that you have the window centered over the camera. it does tell you if it thinks it can get a good exposure, the window turns red if it needs more exposure, not sure what it does if it thinks it needs less exposure. This is what it recorded when the LCD is red:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v329/Greg_E/pinhole/Dark_zpsb27d0a6b.jpg (http://smg.photobucket.com/user/Greg_E/media/pinhole/Dark_zpsb27d0a6b.jpg.html)
And this is what comes out after correcting the fault by dialing in +2 of compensation, might have only needed +1
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v329/Greg_E/pinhole/corrected_zps545537de.jpg (http://smg.photobucket.com/user/Greg_E/media/pinhole/corrected_zps545537de.jpg.html)
Above image shot on a Zero 2000 with way expired Efke 50
Here is a color negative shot with a Dirkon 35mm paper camera with 0.3mm EMS aperture on some Fuji 200 something or other, bit of reflection from the top of the car it was resting on when I took it.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v329/Greg_E/pinhole/dirkon15_zpsb8a5b9b8.jpg (http://smg.photobucket.com/user/Greg_E/media/pinhole/dirkon15_zpsb8a5b9b8.jpg.html)
No sharping has been applied, these are straight out of the "scanner".
All in all, a quick and simple way to get your film into digital for the web, never going to win awards for highest quality but then it didn't cost thousands of dollars.
Parting shot, a snap shot taken at lunch with a friend one day, Zero 2000 on the expired Efke 50
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v329/Greg_E/pinhole/PIC_0001_zps40e99737.jpg (http://smg.photobucket.com/user/Greg_E/media/pinhole/PIC_0001_zps40e99737.jpg.html)