Pacific Image Electronics PrimeFilm PF1800U USB Film Scanner

This was a fine product in its day, but that day was Windows XP and it's long gone. The manufacturer is no longer supporting this model. You should purchase something that is compatible with Windows 10.

This economical 35mm film scanner is exactly what I wanted and needed. I have a large collection of 35mm slides taken in Korea and Vietnam; this scanner allows me to convert them to digital images on my computer and either print, send or share with others. It has a great preview function and an adjustable quality feature. A great buy for the money.

I purchased this product and after it arrived I started to us it. It broke after the 2nd set of negatives. Luckly I got what I wanted in to it before it broke. The motor for the arm to move broke. The motor is to small and does not have the power to move the arm continously. I will not purchase another one. I will purchase the high dollar one with a return policy if it brakes.

The scanner was delivered quickly and in good condition. I was excited to get it hooked up. I loaded the software CD included and I hooked up the scanner to the computer ..... and tried to scan a slide.......a message stated it couldn't find the scanner. I finally called the tech department at Pacific Image and was helped by a very nice young man. I discovered from him that the company stropped making this scanner in 2008 .....it is not compatible and will not work with Windows 8 or Windows 10. The software was impossible to uninstall. I called Pacific Image back and the same young man talked me through recovering my computer at a point before I had installed the software. While I'm disappointed it didn't work, it was not the fault of the seller or Pacific Image Electronics and I would highly recommend Pacific Image Electronics as a company to buy another scanner from. I will take time to do more research in the future when I purchase something for my computer.

I purchased this item about a week ago, and because of the widely varying reviews, thought that I'd chime in. Normally I just buy books through Amazon and haven't been motivated to review them since I usually know what I'm getting. I am NOT an employee of Pacific Image however (or any sort of camera or computer store). I am a graduate student in history who needed to be able to scan microfilm. I searched everywhere for a product that would let me do this. The strips fill an entire spool and are many feet long, and since they are borrowed, I can not cut them to fit a standard film scanner or flatbed with a 4-6 frame holder for negatives. Products designed for this purpose are thousands of dollars - not in a student's budget! I'd just about given up when I found this machine, and figured I didn't have much to lose since Amazon has a good return policy, so I took a chance. Is it perfect? No. The TWAIN software that came with the computer crashed every time I tried to do more than a preliminary scan. The Adobe Elements is nice, but I have an ancient copy of Paint Shop Pro 4 I like just fine. After several crashes, I emailed the company and got a fairly useless response from them. However, an online tech reviewer who liked this product had recommended a compatible scanning program called Silverfast. I downloaded the trial version of this and lo and behold, it worked. It still took some skill and some trial by error to find good settings for the film. It didn't match any of the settings, of course, so I had to try different film options until I found one that worked. I also had to play with the detail of scan and such to avoid blurring. But after a couple of hours, I determined the settings that work. I would assume it would be easier with a standard film type. I have some slides and negatives I'll probably try also just to see how they work, and if I get remarkably different results, will comment again. Is it fast? That depends on the detail you want. It does only scan one image at a time. However, I didn't find it hard to center the image in the scanner. It scans the pages faster than I can translate them, which is all that matters to me! If you aren't in a hurry, I don't think you'll have a big problem. In the week I've had it, I've run it some days for 3-4 hours at a stretch. I haven't had any problems with grinding noises. The scanner isn't silent, but it's in line with my old Microtek C6 - the only other scanner I've ever had. If it does break, I'll see how the company treats the warranty. So to sum up, if you have a specific need as I did, and you're willing to take a little time to learn the Silverfast software, you can make perfectly good images with this machine. I haven't printed any of them, but I am using them on CD enlarged so that just a few words of the original hand-written records fit on the screen, and the detail and sharpness are just fine.

Works food, bit lacks quality and misses the ICE chip that is very importante if you are an amateur without large knowegde (or time) in to photoshop.

I ordered an A/C Power Supply Adapter and received a scanner without an A/C Power Supply Adapter.

While cleaning up my garage I found a large box with slides from our travels dating back to 1976. The cost of buying a slideprojector and screen surpassed the cost of the scanner. I have scanned about 200 slides already and am currently preparing a show to watch on TV. You really can not get any one to watch an actual slide show anymore. An other beauty of this transfer from positive film to digital is that I have been able to share these pictures over the internet with old friends. The initial quality of the scanned immage is okay, but the included Photoshop software lets you make wonderful restorations. Although I wished that it could scan faster I am very pleased with this product. Speed it up and I will give it a 5 Star rating. Thank you for such a wonderful opportunity to share old data so easy with old friends and new ones.