The PrimeFilm XA Plus from Pacific Image is a simple-to-use scanner for 135 film. It allows auto scanning of 135 strips and rolls and manual scanning of 135 slides. A 10,000 dpi resolution allows highly detailed true color scanning and DNG file support, and the included software offers correction tools and other features. The CyberViewX5-Plus software is provided as a free download for Windows and Mac.
- Auto Scanning of 135 Strips and Rolls
- Manual Scanning of 135 Slides
- 10,000 dpi Resolution
- Windows/Mac Software
Pacific Image PowerFilm XA Plus Overview
Pacific Image PowerFilm XA Plus Specs
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Pacific Image PowerFilm XA Plus Reviews
PrimeFilm XA Plus Scanner Review
Product shipped punctually from B & H and arrived undamaged. This scanner works fine with 35mm negatives or slides with the vendor's CyberViewX v5.20.70 software on an Apple M4 Mac Mini Pro running macOS Sequoia v15.2 operating system. As I also own VueScan Professional and was surprised that VueScan is not supported by this scanner on Apple Silicon Macs because VueScan requires CyberViewX and the latter only provides an Intel plugin. PIE indicated to me that they are working on that Apple Silicon plugin for Spring 2025 or later update to the CyberViewX software. The CyberViewX software is best used with the film negatives as it provides button controls to advance or reverse film frames from the software. Pressing the Eject button on the scanner powers the film strip out of the scanner (without scratching the film). VueScan (on Intel) doesn't have this negative advance/reverse button feature. I set my negative and slide scans to 5000 dpi and enabled magic touch to clean up the scans. This setting takes a couple of minutes to scan and I chose the DNG format for the images. The magic touch does a credible job of cleaning dust from the scanned content. Most of my negatives and slides were shot a long while ago on a Nikon F4S or N90S with a variety of prime or zoom Nikon glass, and a variety of professional films (Afga scala b/w, Fuji Velvia/Provia, Kodak Kodak/EktaChrome/Portia). Everything developed in professional labs, not the drugstore). The bottom line is that there are many less than stellar reviews of the Pacific Image PrimeFilm XA Plus scanner that I have not observed with my unit. It is excellent.
Almost Really Good
I bought this scanner in the hopes that I could batch scan film at a high resolution and it almost did just that. The scanner produced very nice high quality scans, and beautiful colors at a high resolution. My issue was with the batch scan feature. The scanner would not scan past the 3-4th frame of a strip of film. It would stop at frame 3-4 not continue to batch scan. If I tried to pick up the batch scan after it stopped, it would reverse back to frame 1, scan to 3-4, and stop again. It was a very frustrating experience, and it was so close to being a total recommendation to buy but it just didn't work correctly for me. Because of this, I am giving 2 stars. Would have been an easy 5 stars if there were no batch scanning issues.