Plustek Scanner Driver Windows 7

[Neomi Bensch]

Ihave got a Plustek OpticBook 3800 Flatbed Scanner, it works with Windows and is mostly the only reason that I still occasionally use that operating system.

Tried installing on Solus Budgie without much luck. There just didn't seem to be any drivers out there for this bit of hardware.

Any suggestions on how to get this running on Solus would be greatly appreciated. Happy to give feedback on any ideas that work.

tuxlover4 Thank you for your quick reply. I used Vuescan briefly about fifteen years ago and it worked well on an old scanner where the operating system would no longer talk to my hardware. It is an excellent solution for many users.

I tend to swap hard drives and reinstall OSs to fix problems so a paid licence that is tied to a specific machine does not work well for me. Buying licences of this type has cost me dearly over the years due to various hardware failures and a nasty virus/corruption that rendered my hard drive unusable.

For the cost of a licence I could cut my losses, bin my current scanner (and Windows) and get a smaller USB powered unit that had Linux support. I'm guessing a little research and a second hand Cannon or HP scanner would do the job.

you do need a driver/plugin.

what does plustek offer for linux support at their website I wonder?

lots of posts around here lately about driverless printing. maybe thats an option?

--just went to there website. they dont even have Mac support! Win only. But they sell a Linux scanner (model 3140) so mixed messages there. I think you have to play around.

It certainly did! Plustek had some of their scanner drivers included in the SANE project although support seems to end at 3600 which is not useful if your model is a 3800.

It also looks like some of the SANE Plustek drivers are used for the Canoscan range, probably down to common design features in the hardware. No point to this, it just interested me.

Pretty sure I tried connecting my scanner via SANE a while back without any luck. Maybe I should take a page out of the book of @WetGeek and try using Plasma with all it's wonderful tweaking tools. I have an old bitsa core two duo laptop in my spares box that should boot, which would alow me to experiment without worrying about messing up my main machine. Food for thought.

For me, Plasma also runs on a little travel laptop powered by a 2-core celeron cpu. It works. Not exciting performance, but well enough to keeping in touch with my email from a motel room. I'm pretty sure it should run well enough on your spare laptop to find out what you need to know.

Axios That is interesting, I wonder if you could add a model number to that information. I have been looking at stand-alone Canon scanners as an alternative option but there does not seem to be any reliable information of which ones work without the use of voodoo.

I have resurrected a junk box laptop with Plasma so I can try some ideas without messing up my main machine. It certainly didn't see my Optibook 3800 straight away. I was going to try tinkering with SANE in terminal but haven't had a chance to set it all up since my first try. Sadly I think that replacing this scanner may be the most sensible option.

I also use Vuescan and not Silverfast, and I think the way to do it is by going through the installation of Silverfast and the drivers first. Open Silverfast and check it finds the scanner. Then check that Vuescan can find the scanner, then you can delete Silverfast.

I think if you install Silverfast, which has the drivers, then run Vuescan, all will be fine. I think you can then uninstall Silverfast without a problem, but you might like to leave it on just in case.

But now that I have it, I can't even figure out how to install the Silverlight software and/or the drivers. I see the link for the Patch to Catalina. But I need the main software then I can install the patch. They offer the software for Windows--with the patch for OS--but not the software itself: -and-downloads.html

enter the serial number twice then register, then go to a different page, then download the latest software (after downloading the non-latest) then had to enter my serial number for it to be cancelled and re-assigned, then had to enter the new serial number and the software finally opened! Crazy, crazy process, but I finally was able to install it. Thanks.

Thanks. I was really hoping to get working with this scanner today---Plustek's tech support isn't open until tomorrow....its crazy they don't offer a driver for macs, but only a patch. A patch for what?!? so frustrating....

I own a film scanner Plustek OpticFilm 8100 but cannot find a suitable driver to use it in Linux OS.This scanner is not supported by SANE neither by VueScan.Specifically, my OS is Ubuntu 18.04.How to solve this? Thank you!

You can test VueScan with your scanner for as long as you'd like without buying it first. We're sure you'll find VueScan to be useful, so we also offer a 30-day conditional money back guarantee after you buy VueScan

Plustek's latest film scanner is a top of the range multi-format model that costs 1999 and offers resolutions of up to 10600dpi, a usable Dynamic Range of 4,01 (with SilverFast Multi-Exposure/ according to ISO 21550:2004) and a theoretically penetrable maximum density of 4.8. Plustek report improved functionality and features to perform better than ever. With multiformat scanners being so scarce, could this one fulfill the film photographers needs, without the expense of buying a drum scanner?

The box contains the scanner and power transformer, six holders for film and one for up to five slides; CDs for Silverfast Ai Studio 8 and the Opticfilm 120 driver. As well as quick start printed guides there is a 1.5metre USB cable.

Silverfast Ai Studio 8 offers features that will be useful to both experienced users, and complete novices alike. Enhanced support for Kodachrome transparencies, which are notoriously difficult to scan well, is also included. Due to the complexity of the batch scanning proceedure, reference to the associated quicktime videos is recomended.

The software was trialed on a 32 bit Windows 8 system and also with a Windows 7 64 bit system with 8GB memory running on an Intel Core 2 Quad CPU Q6600 @ 2.40GHz. It is important to install the scanner drivers before you install SilverFast. It is worth visiting the Plustek site and downloading the latest software before you begin installing which was straight forward on both systems. There was no difference in the performance of the two operating systems.

With SilverFast 8.0.1 (8.0.1.r22) the multi-scan has been dropped. SilverFast comment: 'Multi Sampling is not included in SilverFast 8 because all tests had the result that Multi Exposure is doing the same (not technical but in the scan results, they are better)'.

The WorkflowPilot is toggled on with a click on the red icon at top left. Custom format is easily available, and changing the colour management profile (CMS) in 'Edit/preferences/CMS/' and selecting a personally preferred one is straight forward. On SilverFast startup you can revert to factory settings if required from the 'Service Dialog' and selecting 'Software Reset'.

USM - Unsharp Masking - This dialogue box has a 1:1 pre scan mode which re-scans the media at your pre-selected resolution. Power, radius and threshold slider adjustors change the image in real time at a rate dependant on scanning resolution. Try it at a medium resolution for quicker reactions.

SRD - Dust and scratch removal - As with USM, 1:1 and three sliders, Detection, Defect size and Intensity very much as the SilverFast 6.6 controls. Use the 'Mark' correction mode to display in real time.

AACO - Auto Adaptive Contrast Optimisation - This has four presets, Low, Normal High and Maximum.

GANE - Grain and Noise Elimination - As with USM and SRD 1:1 but then a choice of three presets: Light, Medium and Strong. Quite effective real time display.

Plustek Opticfilm 120: Dynamic Range (Histogram) Slide VS Negative.

Multi-exposure is toggled to either on or off, and does not appear to have any user settings. Silverfast Ai Studio 8 combines two scans which are automatically merged to produce an image with a higher dynamic range revealing more detail in bright and dark areas. The differences are subtle, but are affirmed by the resulting larger JPG file with ME on.

Detail of Gull Slide: Plustek Opticfilm 120 vs 8100

Just as with previous Plustek film scanners, the Opticfilm 120 can scan at a very high resolution, its maximum of 10600dpi, producing a 421.6 megabyte TIFF file from 35mm negative. This is a lot of detail, and will probably exceed the requirements of most photographers, (unless AO size reproductions are required). The resolution can be reduced in an effort to improve productivity and save on hard disk space. At 5300dpi the same image would be 108.6mb. Scans completed at 2650dpi produce 26.1 megabytes TIFF files.

The unit itself is constructed from high quality plastics attached to a metal case. Being 210 x 374 x 189 mm in size, the scanner's footprint is similar to that of a small printer. You will need to allow extra space to the front and rear for the plastic film carriers to slide through the scanner.

The film and slide carriers are robust. The film carriers employ magnetic catches to hold the film securely in place. Up to five mounted slides clip firmly into place and up to twelve negatives are easy to align in the 35mm frames. The carriers load into the front of the machine, and will engage into the feed mechanism which pulls them in. Infrared dust and scratch removal technology is now well established, and is invaluable, however it does degrade the original film quality and is no substitute for spending time ensuring the medium to be scanned is as clean as possible.

3a8082e126