I've got to apologize in advance—this could possibly turn out to be the most boring week ever in the history of TOP.*
At least I'm making progress....
Mike's library.
This is about two-thirds of the books from the living room (which in turn are roughly half the books in the house). On the plus side, I've discovered that file boxes make great book boxes...they're not too big and they have handles, making them easy to carry. And we've got a box wholesaler with a warehouse about five miles from me, so they weren't too expensive either.
So I've been preoccupied. B&H had a big sale on memory cards yesterday and...I missed it. Sorry about that. I was happily writing a post about it this morning when I reached what looked like a little snag, so I called my friend Isaac (yo, Issac!) at B&H to ask him why I wasn't seeing the sale prices on the product pages. The sale was over, that was why. Duh. A day late and a dollar short, Mike.
But this one I can't miss...they're having a sale on scanners for the entire month of April. May. I meant May. This month, whatever it is. (Maybe physical labor dulls my brain, I don't know. Maybe my brain is full of carpet fibers.)
Plustek OpticFilm 7400 Scanner $222.95
Plustek OpticFilm 7600i SE Scanner $269.95
Plustek OpticFilm 7600i Ai Scanner $419.99
All are for 35mm slides and negs. I've never used any of them and don't know anything about 'em—I'm just passing the good word along.
And if you'd like a sort-of-free Epson V700, let me know. [UPDATE Thursday noon: The V700's been spoken for.] As far as I know it's broken, so you'd have to be willing to send it in to an Epson Service Center and have it looked at. I do have the box for it, and new it retails for $520, so you should be able to save some money if it turns out to be repairable. I hate to send it straight to recycling—I got pathetically little use out of it before it went kerblooey. Anyone who wants to take a flier on it can have it for the cost of shipping. Let me know.
(I think I'm star-crossed when it comes to Epson products. Everything I've ever bought from them seems to spontaneously explode, implode, corrupt or seize up in short order. I always assume it's my fault. But maybe the foundation of my house is made of anti-Epsonite or something. Maybe that's what the carpet was made of.)
I think I'm a little punchy.
Back to work.
Mike
*Although we do have a nice post by Kirk Tuck coming up on Saturday.
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Mike the 7600i is gem. Unfortunately a few folks who have invested big $$ in other scanners tend to turn their noses up at it. My advice to folks looking for a scanner is "buy it". You won't be disappointed.
Posted by: MJFerron | Wednesday, 02 May 2012 at 11:50 PM
The books are off the shelves, neatly packed in to file boxes. Now what? Where do the filled file boxes go to, the basement, where it floods???
Or do the shelves disappear and the room is then painted and becomes more of a real room as opposed to resembling a lending library.
PS: I don't care what colour a camera body is; as long as it functions for me and as a tool, works.
Posted by: Bryce Lee | Wednesday, 02 May 2012 at 11:55 PM
Good scanners all, to be sure. But the model the film community is waiting for is Plustek's OpticFilm 120 scanner. Hopefully on dealers' shelves by July.
Posted by: Jon Porter | Wednesday, 02 May 2012 at 11:59 PM
Oh I could use a decent scanner , how did the brokenness manifest itself?
And if those boxes are on top of the boards to keep them above moistness , then you really ought to put a plastic sheet under the boxes. I speak from unfortunate experience.
Posted by: hugh crawford | Thursday, 03 May 2012 at 12:46 AM
You know, upon seeing that picture of your boxes, "little boxes made of ticky tacky" began playing in my head...
Posted by: Zeeman | Thursday, 03 May 2012 at 01:18 AM
Maybe Epson products are sensitive to carpet fibres, too.
Posted by: Martin Doonan | Thursday, 03 May 2012 at 01:23 AM
Could be Martin, my 750 does not wanna go above 3200 without scanning either black or straight magenta.....maybe I have to send it back as well (yeps, Mike I raved about it a few month back.....forgot to knock on wood apparantly).
Greetings and strength, Ed.
Posted by: Ed | Thursday, 03 May 2012 at 01:47 AM
If you buy a Plustek scanner, do yourself a favor, buy the 7600i, and then buy Vuescan. Skip the AI version with Silverfast. You can thank me later.
The 7600i is really a great scanner, especially for the price. I have been pleasantly surprised by the results from it. Maybe not quite as sharp as a higher end scanner, but miles and miles ahead of any flatbed.
Posted by: Josef | Thursday, 03 May 2012 at 01:54 AM
I don't need a scanner -- I need to go the other way. Does anybody know where you can e-mail-order high-res slides from digital files?
Posted by: John Camp | Thursday, 03 May 2012 at 02:13 AM
The Plustek scanners are very good if you also have a flatbed for making contact sheets, otherwise the manual film feed can be a pain. The model numbers right up to the current 8100 series, apart from the 7400, all refer to software differences, not the nuts and bolts of the scanner. The 7400 is the basic model that doesn't have an infra red facility, so it can't do dust removal. But if you do B&W only, or don't have damaged or dusty colour negs, that one is the real bang for buck version. Vuescan instead of Silverfast makes a big difference to the output.
Posted by: Steve Barnett | Thursday, 03 May 2012 at 03:03 AM
I have a Plustek 7500i which I bought a couple of years ago, so that I can continue shooting film and scan my slides in my computer. I won't bother you with the problems I had after the Mac Lion upgrade, and the fact that Plustek forced me to buy their new Silverfast8 or else my scanner would become paperweight, I can understand these things.
However, I decided that there would be no more Plustek for me, when the scanner power supply went south. After spending two weeks exchanging emails with their support people (not the fastest in replying), they finally wanted me to pay for the power supply (a 30€ item) via wire transfer! In other words, I had to go to a bank spend at least an hour of my time to transfer them 30€. As if credit cards do not exist, Paypal doesn't exist etc. Got a power supply from eBay and call it a day. If you live in Europe, don't count on Plustek for support.
Posted by: John Caradimas | Thursday, 03 May 2012 at 03:34 AM
In the "a day late and a dollar short" category, I always recommend asking after boxes at bookstores. They often have an excess that they are gladly willing to part with.
Anyway good luck with the rehab. Low-VOC carpets are great and really do make a big difference, odor wise. When we moved in three years ago we carpeted the bedrooms, and we only did one low-VOC due to color selection. I was glad that we put the low-VOC in our bedroom, because the difference was obvious.
Posted by: Ben | Thursday, 03 May 2012 at 07:09 AM
Those boxes reminded me of how tiring and boring it was when we moved cross country last July. Talking of which, I have not unpacked my Epson V700. Sorry to hear about your scanner. I hope mine still works :)
Posted by: Armand | Thursday, 03 May 2012 at 07:24 AM
Oh yeah, those boxes are the best, used them in 2 moves now.
Thought you might enjoy this version: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LM8JhvfoqdA&feature=results_main&playnext=1&list=PLBAB963F54DE0740D
Posted by: Robert Roaldi | Thursday, 03 May 2012 at 07:46 AM
Hi Mike,
I guess I've not had a good track record with Epson either.
I've stopped buying Sony products, because I've had no end of early failures on TVs, hi-fi, walkmen & alarm clocks. On the other hand I know people who are wall-to-wall Sony and have no problems. Maybe we have a special affinity for some brands and not others. I've always had excellent service from Panasonic, from phones, vacuums, breadmakers, ice-cream makers, and now my rather wonderful LX3 & G3.
Graham
Posted by: Graham Dew | Thursday, 03 May 2012 at 08:01 AM
Maybe put a brick under the 2 x 2's, and the above suggested plastic sheeting on top? I'd be concerned about moisture wicking up through the wood into the books, and it gets them a bit higher off the floor.
Posted by: Kent Wiley | Thursday, 03 May 2012 at 08:40 AM
When we moved into our new house, I placed books on 2x4s; my wife thought it silly until it rained and water poured in a window well!
Posted by: Jim | Thursday, 03 May 2012 at 09:09 AM
I keep thinking about scanning my old negatives and transparencies but I doubt I'll ever make any serious effort in that area. I've also gotten little use out of my Epson V700. Bought it with good intentions toward continuing to shoot film. But the first 35mm I scanned didn't look so great and I only did a few medium and large format films before jumping into digital cameras with all four feet. It has been idle on the desk beside the printer for years now. Another of my good intentions down the drain.
Posted by: Dogman | Thursday, 03 May 2012 at 09:38 AM
Hopefully the prints are being removed to another room for safekeeping? I wouldn't want to hear of an installer's shoulder knocking down a print.
Something for your diversion, from 2010, apropos of exactly nothing:
http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/11/23/point-backwards-and-shoot-professor-says-camera-has-been-installed-in-his-head/
Posted by: Rob Atkins | Thursday, 03 May 2012 at 10:54 AM
Robert,
That version almost makes me like the song!
Mike
Posted by: Mike Johnston | Thursday, 03 May 2012 at 11:50 AM
I've been using the Plustek 7600Ai for about 6 months and am very pleased with it. So far mainly for B&W negs but also some transparencies. See http://www.lesashephotography.com/Rallysport/Donegal-Rally-1976/21888227_mD3zMv#!i=1745429713&k=KkWx7HW
for B&W and a few colour examples.
Posted by: Leslie Ashe | Thursday, 03 May 2012 at 12:39 PM
Mike! You're scaring me!!
Posted by: Gabi | Thursday, 03 May 2012 at 01:21 PM
I have the original Plustek 7200 that I bought around seven years ago, use solely for B&W (w/Vuescan)- and it has been money well spent (and not that much of it either).
Posted by: Stan B. | Thursday, 03 May 2012 at 03:22 PM
Don't feel bad, Mike. Even though my current scanner is still an Epson, I've gone through my share of 'exploding hardware' and other failures from Epson. They make great performing products, WHEN they actually perform.
Posted by: Laurence | Thursday, 03 May 2012 at 08:52 PM
I've been using a Plustek 7x00 Ai (can't remember off hand exact model number) for several years. Performance is great, its a nice compact unit and vasty outperforms the three other flatbed scanners I've got/had that handled transparencies. I've only used it for 35mm negatives (colour & b&w) so I can't comment on using other formats (or if its possible). Definitely a great product.
Posted by: steve | Thursday, 03 May 2012 at 09:02 PM
You're right about the boring week, ads and info requests so far....:-)
Posted by: Marcus | Friday, 04 May 2012 at 09:59 AM
I was really bummed I missed out on the Peter Turnley sale as well as the Ctein sale (poor cash flow timing on my part). I consoled myself by buying one of these.
Posted by: John | Friday, 11 May 2012 at 12:19 AM