Plustek OpticFilm 7600i SE film scanner - any experiences ?

[Steen]

I'm trying to figure out a way to process Black & White 35mm film:

- development
- scanning
- printing (Black & White only ?)

Is a Plustek OpticFilm 7600i SE film scanner a good solution for the scanning part ?
Is it at least better than the cheaper Canon CanoScan 9000F ?
And is the resulting quality not too far from the (even used) far more expensive Nikon Super Coolscan 5000 ED film scanner ?

And does a Black & White only photo printer exist ?

Any advices and recommendations would be appreciated.

 

[willie_901]

Is a Plustek OpticFilm 7600i SE film scanner a good solution for the scanning part ?

Yes

Is it at least better than the cheaper Canon CanoScan 9000F ?

Don't know

And is the resulting quality not too far from the (even used) far more expensive Nikon Super Coolscan 5000 ED film scanner ?

It's close. Do a search on http://www.luminous-landscape.com

And does a Black & White only photo printer exist ?

Yes. Several printers don't use color ink. They use different tones of gray/black ink. There are more expensive laser based options too.


My advice is to scan as a color RGB image. Convert to B&W during post processing. I use Lightroom. Send your prints to an on-line vendor that specializes in B&W printing. I use MPIX.

Developing a scanning method that meets your needs is a tine-consuming process. This is not that different than learning how to print in a wet-chemistry darkroom.

 

[Steen]

Thank you, Willie, exactly what I needed to know :thumbup:

And thank you for the hint about the review on LL, very useful for my decisions.

I found the link to Mark Segal's review:

Plustek Optic Film 7600i-Ai Film Scanner Review
By Mark D Segal
Introduction and Conclusions
http://www.luminous-landscape.com/reviews/scanners/plustek.shtml​

 

[Steen]

Does anyone have any recommendations on dedicated "Black & White only" photo printers ?

 

[mathomas]

From what I understand, modern color printers do pretty well at B&W. Some third-party manufacturers make B&W ink sets (and probably require a custom RIP to use them) for pure B&W work. I say this because I'd recommend getting a color printer and using it for B&W. Otherwise, you may"paint" yourself into a corner with a B&W-only printer. Maybe you will fall in love with split-toning (as I am), or will want to get the look of sepia or cyanotype in a given print.

 

[Lewis44]

Try this web site for printers, cart's, ink profiles,

http://www.piezography.com/PiezoPress/

Also MIS has refillable ink carts and B&W ink for color printers:

http://www.inksupply.com/

Quadtone RIP:

http://www.quadtonerip.com/html/QTRdownload.html

That should get you in the right places to start. All use Epson color printers with B&W ink's.

 

[sirimiri]

The Canon Pixma Pro9500 variants have about 30% of their cartridge allotment dedicated to black and grey tanks (matte black, photo black and grey).

They are very credible mixed color/b+w printers, and Canon runs bundle rebates on them so often, that there is what I jokingly refer to as the "Pixma Flood" about twice a year where new, in box printers sans UPC codes show up on Craigslist at "reasonable" prices. You might consider one of these. The B+W prints it makes are quite good, in my opinion.

 

[Steen]

Thank you for your advices, hints and links, Mike, Randy and Sirimiri. Much appreciated :thumbup:

I'll have to take a deeper look into it and do some more thinking.
One difficulty is that I know too little about printers and profiles and RIPs and ink types etc. in general, and english is even not my native language.
Another is that I'm in Europe while the companies are often in US.
There's so much of this stuff that I don't know about or don't understand.

But thank you so far, I'll probably be back with more questions

 

[Ranger Rick]

There's a review of the Canoscan 9000F in February's Shutterbug, available on their website. David Brooks, who's been at this a long time and reviewed many scanners (including the Plusteks, also available there), found it quite capable. YMMV.