PrimeFilm XA SE 35mm Film Scanner

braxus · Sep 4, 2021

I just got through scanning my first batch roll of 35mm B&W on this scanner. I chose this scanner over the other new option which is the Plustek 8200. The Plustek doesn't do 10,000 dpi nor does it have auto focus. The Primefilm is available in the USA for $500, which is a really good price, since many old film scanners like the Minolta 5400 go for at least that on Ebay, and those are used scanners. Seemed like a no brainer getting the Primefilm unit. I really like the results I get off this scanner, though I did have to add some contrast on many shots of B&W. My only real gripe is the time it took to scan 36 images, plus the fact on most frames, I had to readjust the film offset for each shot. That alone wasted a lot of time to get the frame centered. Its a shame they didn't build in frame detection somehow, instead of the thing advancing to any value for each shot. But after all was said and done, the results spoke for themselves. Im not sure the 10,000 dpi option is useful, as the image was soft at 100 percent with the grain showing. This might help on blowups, but for most uses 5000 dpi or less is better off. It took around 5 minutes to scan at 10000 dpi. Very slow process. Here are some samples from this scanner. I can't say if its any better then the Minolta Scan Dual IV I had previously, but it looks decent enough. And I have a warranty with my 500 dollar purchase. It holds the highlights quite well on these scans. And I used the multiexposure mode on each scan, which added to the scan time. It took over 5 hours to scan up all 36 shots at 2500 dpi. This roll was 2012 Plus X developed in Xtol.

Andrew O'Neill · Sep 4, 2021

I find scanning an extremely tedious task. But... it's a great way to proof negatives. when I proof, they're low rez. If I think it has potential (for alt print digi neg), I'll scan it in at high rez. I use an Epson 750V as it allows me to scan up to 8x10 negatives.

braxus · Sep 4, 2021

I miss the days when I used to work in a local photolab and I'd scan up my own rolls on their Noritsu film scanner at 3000x2000. It was an easy quick way to scan, and the colors off that scanner were really good and accurate. It took way less time on that machine then doing it at home, though the rez was lower. My Minolta scanner did 3200 dpi, but I rarely used the thing since I was working in the lab. When we moved the store to a new location, we got new equipment from Kodak, and the scanner we used then really was no good at all. Im glad I got this new scanner, so now I can get decent scans off 35mm again. The flatbed scans for 35mm are just too soft. My old Minolta crapped out on me when I got Vuescan for Windows 10. It worked briefly, then just stopped all together. Two more replacement used Minoltas which also didnt work, had me throw in the towel on that model. I still have them, though Im trying to sell them for parts. The PrimeFilm unit has taken their place.

Im also getting an Epson V850 this coming week here, but I'll only use that for medium and large format. I have a couple 8x10 negs I'd like to try on it, plus more 4x5 and 120.

braxus · Sep 4, 2021

I may post a video of this scanner on my Youtube channel at some point soon. Im waiting to get my flatbed scanner first, then do a video on both.

Jack Baty · Sep 18, 2021

I just finished scanning my first roll with the XAs Super. Overall the process was pretty smooth. I used the included copy of Silverfast SE, which I already use with my Epson V750. Maybe I got lucky because batch scanning seemed to find all frames pretty accurately. I hope that continues because the ability to scan an entire roll of 35mm in one go is my primary reason for buying the thing. It wasn't speedy, but that's fine with me as long as I don't need to babysit it the entire time.

One thing I noticed is that, while the XAs appears sharper at first blush than the V750, the grain (HP5) looks a little digital and almost "wormy" in spots. Could be user error, though so I'll need to test it more.

Alan Edward Klein · Sep 18, 2021

braxus said:
I miss the days when I used to work in a local photolab and I'd scan up my own rolls on their Noritsu film scanner at 3000x2000. It was an easy quick way to scan, and the colors off that scanner were really good and accurate. It took way less time on that machine then doing it at home, though the rez was lower. My Minolta scanner did 3200 dpi, but I rarely used the thing since I was working in the lab. When we moved the store to a new location, we got new equipment from Kodak, and the scanner we used then really was no good at all. Im glad I got this new scanner, so now I can get decent scans off 35mm again. The flatbed scans for 35mm are just too soft. My old Minolta crapped out on me when I got Vuescan for Windows 10. It worked briefly, then just stopped all together. Two more replacement used Minoltas which also didnt work, had me throw in the towel on that model. I still have them, though Im trying to sell them for parts. The PrimeFilm unit has taken their place.

Im also getting an Epson V850 this coming week here, but I'll only use that for medium and large format. I have a couple 8x10 negs I'd like to try on it, plus more 4x5 and 120.

Those scans look nice. I'd like to see the comparison between the V850 when you get it and the Primefilm scanners.

Les Sarile · Sep 18, 2021

braxus said:
I just got through scanning my first batch roll of 35mm B&W on this scanner. I chose this scanner over the other new option which is the Plustek 8200. The Plustek doesn't do 10,000 dpi nor does it have auto focus. The Primefilm is available in the USA for $500, which is a really good price, since many old film scanners like the Minolta 5400 go for at least that on Ebay, and those are used scanners. Seemed like a no brainer getting the Primefilm unit. I really like the results I get off this scanner, though I did have to add some contrast on many shots of B&W. My only real gripe is the time it took to scan 36 images, plus the fact on most frames, I had to readjust the film offset for each shot. That alone wasted a lot of time to get the frame centered. Its a shame they didn't build in frame detection somehow, instead of the thing advancing to any value for each shot. But after all was said and done, the results spoke for themselves. Im not sure the 10,000 dpi option is useful, as the image was soft at 100 percent with the grain showing. This might help on blowups, but for most uses 5000 dpi or less is better off. It took around 5 minutes to scan at 10000 dpi. Very slow process. Here are some samples from this scanner. I can't say if its any better then the Minolta Scan Dual IV I had previously, but it looks decent enough. And I have a warranty with my 500 dollar purchase. It holds the highlights quite well on these scans. And I used the multiexposure mode on each scan, which added to the scan time. It took over 5 hours to scan up all 36 shots at 2500 dpi. This roll was 2012 Plus X developed in Xtol.

Very nice results!
I played around with 09 but of course since this is a highly compressed JPEG file there wasn't too much room to manipulate the highlights as I was trying to enhance the farthermost mountains which are nearly washed out.. Probably a scene that could benefit from underexposing in scan and lightness in post or perhaps even a 3 frame (under, normal, over) scan to apply HDR. No doubt a very wide latitude scene.

Alan Johnson · Sep 18, 2021

braxus said:
I may post a video of this scanner on my Youtube channel at some point soon. Im waiting to get my flatbed scanner first, then do a video on both.

When you get your flatbed scanner it should be possible to make a "contact sheet" using that in a few minutes, then use the Primefilm XA to scan the keepers.
That's my workflow, so much quicker with 2 scanners.

braxus · Sep 18, 2021

I got my flatbed a week or two ago. I could try it.

braxus · Sep 26, 2021

Alan Johnson said:
When you get your flatbed scanner it should be possible to make a "contact sheet" using that in a few minutes, then use the Primefilm XA to scan the keepers.
That's my workflow, so much quicker with 2 scanners.

Question. Do you need Silverfast to do the bulk scan as you suggest? I got a refurbished V850 and that doesn't come with Silverfast. I do have VueScan though.

Auer · Sep 26, 2021

Vuescan is mostly all you need.

Silverfast adds a lot more options tho, and can be somewhat clunky with a bit of a learning curve.
Personally I had no issues with SF v.8 and use it a lot.

Vuescan will batch scan of course, as does SF.

braxus · Sep 26, 2021

I noticed the Epson software also batch scans, so to make it easy, I used that. Just have to set it to thumbnail and select all.

albireo · Sep 27, 2021

Alan Johnson said:
When you get your flatbed scanner it should be possible to make a "contact sheet" using that in a few minutes, then use the Primefilm XA to scan the keepers.
That's my workflow, so much quicker with 2 scanners.

That's a great idea and can be approximated with one scanner if its preview-mode is fast enough. For instance, I use a Minolta Scan Dual IV for my 35mm. I cut my negatives in strips of 6 to maximise real estate on the Minolta Negative holder. Then, having loaded the Minolta with the negative strip, I'll fire up a 'batch preview' within Vuescan. This takes few seconds per frame. I'll then select what to scan in full res based on the previews, do an autofocus, launch a batch scan on the selected indices (eg, 1,5).

Once done I'll repeat this with the other 5 6-frame strips. Been happy so far, but then I rarely ever do an archival scan of more than 10-12 keepers per roll.

Alan Edward Klein · Sep 27, 2021

braxus said:
I noticed the Epson software also batch scans, so to make it easy, I used that. Just have to set it to thumbnail and select all.

You can also select individual ones you do or don't want to scan and batch scan as many up to the full strip. Epsonscan provides all the flexibility you could want.

braxus · Oct 25, 2021

I was going to scan my first roll of fresh color neg film on this scanner tonight. But I upgraded to Windows 11 a month ago. Needless to say my PrimeFilm scanner went nuts and refused to operate properly. All controls were frozen as it continually tried moving the scan head back and forth the whole time. I should have know the Windows 10 drivers dont work under Windows 11. So I either have to find software that does work, wait till Vuescan supports Windows 11, or bite the bullet and fresh install Windows 10. So far this is the only issue I've run into with Windows 11, so Im not keen to revert back.

Edit: I tried Silverfast 9 which does support Windows 11. Didnt make any difference. I couldnt get the scanner to stop trying to prescan (which it wasnt since there were no pictures showing anywhere). It just kept going until I powered the unit off. Something about Windows 11 isn't liking this film scanner, no matter what software I use. Unless my brand new scanner just decided to fail after only 1 days use previously. I wont know the answer unless I revert back to Windows 10.

Nodda Duma · Oct 26, 2021

Jack Baty said:
I just finished scanning my first roll with the XAs Super. Overall the process was pretty smooth. I used the included copy of Silverfast SE, which I already use with my Epson V750. Maybe I got lucky because batch scanning seemed to find all frames pretty accurately. I hope that continues because the ability to scan an entire roll of 35mm in one go is my primary reason for buying the thing. It wasn't speedy, but that's fine with me as long as I don't need to babysit it the entire time.

One thing I noticed is that, while the XAs appears sharper at first blush than the V750, the grain (HP5) looks a little digital and almost "wormy" in spots. Could be user error, though so I'll need to test it more.

Play with the grain reduction settings in Silverfast, that will help.

braxus · Oct 27, 2021

I was told by Vuescan to reinstall the program. That seemed to do the trick, as its now working as before. Somehow all software with scanners need to be reinstalled in Windows 11 when upgrading. It did that with Epson scan too.

I starting scanning some color negs on the PrimeFilm. For the life of me I couldnt get a sharp scan out of the negs. There is a slight curl to them, but I dont believe its enough to cause autofocus problems. I shot this roll with a new old lens, but the negs look ok with a loupe, though defining hard detail is hard with the loupe. Should I rescan the neg with the emulsion on the opposite side as before?

albireo · Oct 27, 2021

braxus said:
I was told by Vuescan to reinstall the program. That seemed to do the trick, as its now working as before. Somehow all software with scanners need to be reinstalled in Windows 11 when upgrading. It did that with Epson scan too.

I starting scanning some color negs on the PrimeFilm. For the life of me I couldnt get a sharp scan out of the negs. There is a slight curl to them, but I dont believe its enough to cause autofocus problems. I shot this roll with a new old lens, but the negs look ok with a loupe, though defining hard detail is hard with the loupe. Should I rescan the neg with the emulsion on the opposite side as before?

Can the scanner perform an autofocus and if so did you set the Vuescan autofocus crosshair correctly on a high contrast feature of the negative? Also, regarding emulsion side decision, what does the manual say?

braxus · Nov 11, 2021

Im still having a couple flaky issues with Windows 11 and this scanner. It works for the most part, but once you try to forward or rewind the film using the buttons, it goes haywire. Only solution then is to power the thing off. But I did get it to work mostly under Windows 11. I scanned up some color film today. I was scanning Ektar 100. The offset was still driving me nuts over many of the scans, having to reset it several times till it was centered. Some scans I got lucky and didn't have to touch it. Hit rate was around 60 percent correct first time. I don't know why they couldn't have put a sensor in there to see the blank sections in-between each frame. This is where actual film holders works better, as the scanner knows where each frame is with those. The results of scanning Ektar were mixed. The color balance was way off on Vuescan. I tried selecting the film itself, but then it just was way too yellow. I ended up using default and it was better, but still way too blue tinted. Photoshop brought it back to where it was supposed to be. With Ektar, the contrast and saturation was quite muted. It looks more like Portra NC then Ektar. You can bump it up in Photoshop, but thats not the result of this scanner. I also had to use Unsharp mask with some frames, because it just wasn't that crisp. I really would have expected better results from Ektar on this thing, but the color rendition leaves a bit to be desired. I got better color out of my old Minolta film scanner. Some Ektar shots weren't too bad, but others were quite muted. The lab damaged the film with tons of scratches and marks all over the roll, but this scanner took most of that out. Some scratches were still left as you can see in a couple shots. I got way better results from the labs old Noritsu scanner then what I've been able to get at home. I wish I could afford a HS-1800 scanner.

drmoss_ca · Nov 12, 2021

Auer said:
Vuescan is mostly all you need.

Silverfast adds a lot more options tho, and can be somewhat clunky with a bit of a learning curve.
Personally I had no issues with SF v.8 and use it a lot.

Vuescan will batch scan of course, as does SF.

I've used VueScan for a long time, but only lately caught on to a time-saving trick. I used to set it to batch preview at a lower resolution, then come back, draw the crops on the ones I wanted, set the focus points, and make a list of the frames for a full scan and save, then pressed the Scan button. Now I batch preview scan all at the final resolution, then when I come back to the scanner I just draw the crops and press the Save button. It actually saves time, unless you only want a full scan of one or two of the dozen negatives in the scanner.

albireo · Nov 12, 2021

drmoss_ca said:
I've used VueScan for a long time, but only lately caught on to a time-saving trick. I used to set it to batch preview at a lower resolution, then come back, draw the crops on the ones I wanted, set the focus points, and make a list of the frames for a full scan and save, then pressed the Scan button. Now I batch preview scan all at the final resolution, then when I come back to the scanner I just draw the crops and press the Save button. It actually saves time, unless you only want a full scan of one or two of the dozen negatives in the scanner.

I still do as you used to in the past: minimum resolution batch scanning of all frames in the strip, followed by selection of keepers (if any), precise cropping and - most importantly - ad hoc set up of the focus point for each keeper based on the scene.

My scanner is able to adjust autofocus, and I find it can make a lot of difference if the focus point is left wherever Vuescan decides to place it, as compared to manually placing it for optimal focus - the latter giving noticeably better scans in some situations.

drmoss_ca · Nov 12, 2021

I haven't seen a difference between me placing the focus point on what I think is important, or letting VueScan do the job. I don't really know how VueScan picks the focus point anyway - maximum contrast, perhaps? I can't see it makes much difference when scanning MF in the anti-Newton glass holder for the 9000, and if the 35mm holder is allowing, as it must, some slight curvature of the negatives, I don't know which bit to pick that represents the average CCD-to-negative distance! Incidentally, I scan both MF and 35mm at 2000ppi, which is fine for web and A4 prints. I'd probably go back to maximum scan resolution if planning an A4 print.

albireo · Nov 13, 2021

drmoss_ca said:
I don't know which bit to pick that represents the average CCD-to-negative distance! .

With my Coolscan 8000 and my Minolta Scan Dual IV, picking as the focus point the exact focus point that was chosen just before taking the exposure (if I remember it, which I usually do) makes a noticeable difference with the brands of film I tend to use, which seem to curl ever so slightly in the average humidity conditions of the country I live in. So I always go for that if possible: exposure focus point = Vuescan focus point.

PrimeFilm XA SE 35mm Film Scanner

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