Electronics Store
 Location:  Home:: Electronics :: Flatbed :: Amazon Imaging SmartScan 2700 35mm Film Scanner  
Information
Home Theater Forum
Returns / Refunds
Shipping Policies
Contact Us

Electronics Retailer: Consumer Electronics: Home Theater

Our Electronics Retailer Store offers Online Shopping for a huge selection of Electronics including Home Theater, Audio, Video, Receivers, Amplifiers Speakers, Subwoofers, Plasma, LCD, DLP, LCoS, HDTV, HD-DVD, Blu-ray, DVD Players, DVDs, Movies, CDs, Music, Gadgets, Video Games, Xbox, Playstation, Nintendo and much more. One of the largest Electronics Retailers on the Internet. We hope you enjoy shopping at the Shack!

Amazon Imaging SmartScan 2700 35mm Film Scanner

Amazon Imaging SmartScan 2700 35mm Film Scanner
Brand: Amazon Imaging Inc.
Category: CE

List Price: $249.99
Buy Used: $174.99
You Save: $75.00 (30%)



Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars 2 reviews

Media: Electronics
Fragile: No
Batteries Included: No
Shipping Weight (lbs): 4
Dimensions (in): 16.3 x 11.5 x 5.5

MPN: SS2700
Model: SS2700
UPC: 769171005800
EAN: 0769171005800
ASIN: B00006HZKS

Release Date: October 8, 2002
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days

Features:
  • 2,700 dpi resolution; recognizes over 68 billion colors
  • 45-second scan time
  • Includes Adobe Photoshop Elements
  • USB interface; PC and Mac compatible
  • 1-year warranty

Accessories:

  • Belkin F3U134-10 USB Extension Cable (10-Feet)
  • Canon 1029A004 Photo Paper Pro for BJC-8200 (8.5inx11in, 15 Sheets )
  • Tripp Lite INTERNETOFFICE500 500VA Ultra Compact Tower Standby 6 Outlets UPS
  • Spikemaster SM-BG8 8 Outlet Block, Standard Protection Surge Protector (White)
  • Monster Cable FL300 FireLink 300 IEEE 1394 Digital Audio/Video Connection, 4 Pin to 6 Pin (2 M)

Editorial Reviews:

Product Description
Do you have a shoe box or drawer stuffed with negatives of photographs you've taken over the years? Are they kept safe from damage? Can you even find them all in one place? Do you also have a few carousels full of 35mm slides - maybe even some your parents took, back when you were a kid? Preserve these priceless memories by creating digital images of your negatives and 35mm slides with the SmartDisk SmartScan 2700 scanner. Designed for use at home, at school or in the office, the SmartScan 2700 lets you easily and quickly digitize and save your memories safely on your computer. It features USB connectivity for use on either PCs or Macintosh computers.The SmartDisk SmartScan 2700 captures 2700 dots per inch (dpi), giving you more than three times the resolution of the average desktop scanner. It recognizes over 68 billion distinctive colors and captures up to 9.6 million pixels per image, giving you impressive shadowing, highlights and other details. If you're a graphics professional, this high quality resolution means you can enlarge images to approximately 20 cm x 13 cm (7.8" x 5.1") and still maintain dpi resolution sufficient for color separation and offset printing.To scan, simply insert your film strip or mounted slide into the viewing window and press one button. It's that easy! You can scan true 2700 dpi resolution images in just 45 seconds. Save time and finish your projects faster!


Customer Reviews:

3 out of 5 stars Watch out with this scanner   November 25, 2003
Redsfotografie (Mexico and USA)
56 out of 62 found this review helpful

Let me start by telling you that I first has a PIE 1800U scanner, when it stopped working after 2,5 years I contacted Primefilm *the same brand as the Smartscan 2700.pThey simply answered me that the CCD stopped working and that happens.... pI thought I would have a good deal by buying the Amazon 2700 because I trusted the scanner for what it did.pBut here it comes, the same prblem as the 1800U it stopped working, CCD failed. Warranty??? Where??? Till now I am waiting for a response. They only answer I had is the following:pIt just depends on how much you use it and if its left turned On by accident. This is the cause of a "lamp or CCD failure". Since you have voided your warranty , your looking at spending between $85 - $100 just on the repairs, parts, and sh itself so its really up to you if you want it repaired or not.pHow much I use it??? Well according to the company up to 3 hours can give problems...pAnd than the fact if you keep on scanning it seems that it doesn't want to adjust anymore, I mean in better words you have to adjust every picture over and over and keep on adjusting... takes hours to scan a film...pI think if you think about a low price scanner and your not a profesional by the Epson 3170, with the unsharp mask in Paintshop or Photoshop you can adjust enough sharpnes. Scan up to 5 negatives at once and much more option and you also have a good flatbed scanner for the same price.pLook at this page (NOT MY PAGE) http://www.billkee.com/Epson3170/brfor an idea about the quality of the EpsonpGoing for a cheap scanner for nothing???brhttp://www.ritzcamera.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?storeId=10001catalogId=10001langId=-1productId=622063topCategory=1004cat1=5741781brOnly 69 dollars and you get a scanner with reasonable quality for small pictures, slides, negatives and more.pIf you go for 35mm scanning and want something realy good?brGo for the Minolta Dual Scan III http://www.imaging-resource.com/SCAN/DSEIII/DSEIIIA.HTM , Nikon Coolscan http://hardwarecentral.dealtime.com/xPR-Nikon_Coolscan_IV_ED~RD-78434569860 or Polaroid Sprintscan 35 http://www.cix.co.uk/~tsphoto/tech/filmscan/pol35plus/pol35plu.htm brAll 3 are on the market around 300 dollars, the Nikon is just a little bit more the lowest price I saw is $389.99 Try to look for the previous model.pMore ideas at http://www.imaging-resource.com/SCAN1.HTMpQuestions? I like to help I scan a lot of pictures and negatives daily. redsfotografie@yahoo.co.uk


4 out of 5 stars Even with its flaws, good value for a budget scanner   October 28, 2003
71 out of 71 found this review helpful

Amazon boxes the Smartdisk Smartscan2700 (SS2700) 35mm film scanner and sells it under its own label. And Smartdisk's SS2700 is a rebranded (OEM) version of Pacific Imaging's (PIE) Primefilm 2700. So for $200 USD, Amazon delivers you a Smartdisk SS2700 (versus paying $220 if you direct-order from Smartdisk...go figure!) As far as I can tell, the Amazon product includes everything shown/described from Smartdisk's webpage -- scanner, cable, Mac/PC driver CD, and Adobe Photoshop Elements 2.0 (PC and Mac.)pCosmetically, the SS2700 looks similar to PIE's older Primefilm 1800u. Mechanically, the film-tray operates *exactly* like the 1800u. This means the following:p1) Mounted 35mm slides are easy to pop-in and pop-out of the scanner-tray, no risk of scratching precious slides. p2) 35mm film strips (negatives, or unmounted slides) require some careful placement to avoid scratching the picture-area (and to avoid getting your fingerprints on the film!) p3) For a budget/entry-level scanner the manual load/unload is fine. But people who need to scan lots of film, the manual tray is a *bottleneck.* Prepare to spend a lot of time manually moving *each* frame (of a strip) over the scanner-window.p...pNow about the software/driver operation:pSince I have a PC, I can only comment on the SS2700's behavior under Windows 98se (yes ancient, I know.) The SS2700 driver is an old version of the Cyberview 2.50d TWAIN driver. When preparing to perform the scans, Cyberview's preview-window is awfully small, the adjustment/optimization options are hard to use, and the driver has *NO* film presets. All in all, the driver made the SS2700 very difficult to use, and I was ready to return the unit.pBut *thankfully*, the SS2700 seems to be fully compatible with PIE's Primefilm2700. Why is this good? From www.scanace.com, I downloaded PIE's Cyberview-X Windows driver (for the Primefilm/2700), ran the update, and the driver successfully upgraded me from Smartscan's ugly Cyberview to PIE's improved Cyberview-X. (The upgrade procedure is a bit tricky. I first installed the SS2700's own Cyberview driver. After Windows recognized the SS2700 USB scanner, I then installed the Primefilm Cyberview-X update. After rebooting, the Cyberview-X TWAIN driver is available to all TWAIN-compliant scanner programs, including Photoshop Elements 2, Vuescan, Paint Shop Pro, etc. If you try to remove the SS2700 Cyberdriver before installing Cyberview-X, the upgrade will fail!)pCyberview-X is the saving grace for this scanner, because not only is it more user friendly (bigger preview pane, more adjustments with better ability to save/load your custom scan profile), it comes with a bunch of film-profiles. With the 'film-profiles', you pick the exact film-type from a list (Kodak, Fuji, Agfa, etc.), then the scan-driver will autoset the color-profile to match the film's characteristics. In terms of color/brightness levels, the preloaded-profiles will get you in the right 'ballpark.' You'll probably still need to do some fine-tweaking for unusually contrasty, dark, or bright pictures. Believe me, getting the same color-matching with the old Smartscan Cyberview was nearly IMPOSSIBLE!pAs expected for a low-end scanner, the unit lacks hardware dust removal. Dust specs and lint are a major annoyance for 35mm film scans, because the dust specs appear 'magnified' over the picture area. It is possible to apply software dust-removal, but that product must be bought separately -- and it is not as effective as a hardware-based solution.pThe SS2700 includes Adobe Photoshop Elements 2.0. Unfortunately, I have little experience with digital photography, and I'm not qualified to comment on this software. As I said before, I successfully used the PIE's Cyberview-X TWAIN driver to acquire scans inside Photoshop Elements.pAs for the scans themselves, 35mm slides have a very wide dynamic range. The SS2700 doesn't seem capable of capturing the entire range of a high-contrast negative. 35mm negatives fare a bit better, but the scanner's limited sample-depth (36-bit) causes a lot of 'posterization.' This means a continuous gradient, say a picture of the sky horizon which gradually transitions from light blue to dark blue, contains a lot of breaks and abrupt (visible) color changes. And finally, the SS2700's sensor seems to be very noisy, much noisier than my Epson Perfection 3170 (48-bit) flatbed.pHaving attempted 35mm scans (negatives and slides) on both the Epson 3170 and the SS2700, and in my opinion, I think the SS2700 beats the 3170. The SS2700's 2700dpi scans are consistently *sharper* than the 3170's 3200dpi scans. (I suspect the flatbed's resolving-power is greatly limited by the sensor-arrangement: a dual staggered 1600dpi sensor.) In terms of detail-level, the 3170's 35mm film scans were on par with the 1800dpi Primefilm1800u, which isn't saying a lot. However, the SS2700's scans contain more picture noise. I'm not sure whether that's due to the SS2700's better sharpness (and consequently, greater sensitivity to film grain), or if it's electronics-related -- the Epson 3170 flatbed is rated at 48-bit color and the SS2700 is rated at 36-bit. The 3170's noise-level (for film or prints) is visibly lower than the SS2700. Overall, in comparison against the Epson 3170 flatbed, the SS2700's extra-detail outweighs its greater noise.pThe next step up is the Minolta Dual Scan III (2800dpi, USB2, 48bit), which is widely regarded as the best $300 film-scanner. The DSIII gives you better color-depth, faster scans, and an (optional) APS-film holder.pIn conclusion, the Amazon Imaging SS2700 (which is really a rebranded PIE Primefilm2700) is an good value at $200 USD. It won't win any awards for picture-quality, but it makes usable scans. In terms of detail/resolution, the SS2700 is sharper than any *flatbed* scanner costing up to $400 USD. In terms of noise-level, a good 48-bit flatbed scanner (like the Epson 3170) is superior.pPros:br Apparently, SS2700 is a rebranded Primefilm2700br *REAL* 2700dpi 35mm film scans for $200br (...don't be fooled by 3200dpi flatbed scanners doing 35mm scans!)br bundled Adobe Photoshop Elements 2.0 OEM, a $50 retail valuebr Compatibility with Pacific Image's Cyberview-X driver and VuescanpCons:br no 'multisample' mode (for reducing picture noise)br high picture noise/grain (limitation of 36-bit sample depth?)br manual/mechanical film loading tray (single frame)br no hardware dust-removal, no autofocusbr USB1.1 (slower than USB2.0)br For a litte more money ($275 USD), Minolta DSIII is betterbr 35mm film only, no APS/110/126 film adapter