PrimeFilm 1800AFL Film Scanner

Since I've upgraded my desktop iMAC to Maverick (10.9.5), I have lost the capability to use my PrimeFilm PF 1800 AFL Scanner. Generally most of Pacific Image Electronics' scanner's software has been made compatible with later versions of MAC OS's, but not so with that for the PrimeFilm PF 1800 AFL Scanner. In the process of trying to get the equipment to work, I've lost the old software so I cannot try to develop a work-around. Contact with Customer Service (and more specifically, Technical Support) was good, although I was informed that the scanner was too slow to work with the new MAC software. They recommended the 7250 Pro 3 for scanning film strips for speed, and the 7200 for individual slide scanning. It's hard to believe that interfacing a higher speed MAC with a slow speed peripheral cannot be accomplished. I guess the market need is not big enough for their effort.

The scanner is just the size of a book only a bit thicker. Very simple USB connection. The software install was a breeze. Will certify that it works perfectly on a Windows XP machine with a lot of other devices and software.Scanning results were very good at 1800 x 1800. created a 25 MB file. Scanning is very fast. In 5 minutes of unpacking I had it working. only issue I had was that I had to push the film into the autoloader a bit firmly. The auto loader works just as good, the best part is no guides to load a film onto.Would like to indicate that I did shop a lot, after evaluation found that It is probably easier to connect USB than a SCSI type Scanner (open a computer, put a card,then the SCSI issues! Believe me it is not all that cool! I service and maintain computers as a profession, I know).Also would like to recommend the 1800 resolution over 2800 resolution . Higher resolution is fine for professionals but for home users like us, who need to scan and digitize all the film at home and have CD or DVD picture albums, 1800 is more than enough. Infact an 1800 scanner is equivalent to a 4 Mega Pixel picture taken by a digital camera, So you can even print 4" prints from your photo printer or from Ofoto or any other online service.Finally but not the least it has an asthetic look. In all a very good buy.

I have one from years ago. As I recall it worked fairly well back then but when I tried to use it with my new laptop it isn't compatible with the current version of windows that I'm using.

Reading some of the below reviews, I am reminded with I use a Mac: things usually work. The PF1800 is actually a good, not outstanding, scanner. I am scanning all my Dad's slides in and it produces good, easy to use results. I use about 1200 to 3000 dpi and it works well with manageable file sizes. Previously I was using an Epson flatbed scanner w/ slide attachment which as much slower and could not reliably reproduce quality scans. The PF1800 does though although not perfectly: it has trouble with darker slides which come out very grainy despite various manipulations. Also its CyberView 35 driver in Mac OS X (Panther) is not glitch free: it often mysteriously retrieves an old scan while posting a NEW slide and freezes up occasionally. But it's MUCH cheaper than the rest and it DOES WORK. I've done about a thousand slides with it so far... I should know. Also check out Costco.com for a better price. Happy scanning!

Needs XP or XP ruining in VMware on a windows 7 or higher. Works like advertised, scans each slide, adjustable output quality no batch mode as each slide is inserted individually. Glad I got it Glad I only paid $27 for it.

I only have a few things to say about the scanner and the company. Pacific Image as a company is terrible! They have no support and they don't care. This is the poorest example of a scanner I've ever used. Please take my advise and look eleswhere.

I have wanted this scanner for years. I was not disappointed. I have a laptop running XP that I use for legacy hardware. Install was a breeze! My unit came in the original box, with cables and factory CD. I love that it will scan directly to a file or files and supports lossless TIF as the output. This is extremely important!!! The product looks like new and works better than expected.The attached pictures are from negatives shot in the 1980's. I made absolutely no adjustments to the scanned images and used no enhancements in the scanning software.

I have used this unit for a couple of years to selectively go through my old slides and 35mm negatives. It has done a great job of turning the older photographs into a digital file. It takes a little bit to get the settings adjusted right, but once you do, it works great. It is not an exceptionaly fast scanner, as I am sure there are more scanners that may be quicker. It is fun to recreate your older photos into electronic media to work with again!