Very pleased with the 8200Ai. I have a lot of slides from 70-80's and some family slides back to 40's. The scanner is easy to set up. Software takes awhile to understand, but so far, so good. LOVE the IR scan! It really makes a difference in quality of landscape scanned files. Able to use scanner on B&W slides but the IR gets confused with them. Full scan with IR takes several minutes but worth it to me.

Not a bad little scanner really. Confusing is it ships with two different scanner software. Silverlight has a free update for their package Plustek Has some issues and will not update itself. Once the new Sliverlight is installed I get a pop up at boot that states Silverlight is not installed. But it does work. Scanning is a slow process which has always been the case.It a solid little scanner and I'll be using to bring my old film images into the digital age. Once you get accustom to the Silverlight Software and the many settings you will be able to create good scans that are clean and true.

Scanner works great, love it. Plustek software easy to use. The SilverFast 8 software not so much, has a rather steep learning curve.

I purchased a great, used Nikon Coolscan V, and I also own a nice Epson V750 flatbed. This Plustek OpticFil 8200i Ai is great for 35 mm film and slides. After spending a few hours comparing the results to the Coolscan V, I have come to the conclusion that there is little or no difference. There seems to be a cult of Nikon Coolscan, but you pay a lot of money for an old and unsupported scanner. I can't see a difference, and I really was hoping that the Coolscan would turn out to be a better scanner. This $ unit does the job as well or better. The only feature missing is the auto feed, but I'm not scanning loads of slides or negatives here. All of the complaints about the Silverfast software are also unfounded. You have to read a 3 page instruction manual and use the scanning Pilot in Silverfast. Simple. I also used VueScan in my testing, and it also worked equally well. If you need hundreds or thousands of slides or negatives scanned, neither Coolscan or Plustek are the answer - I used a service for the first round of slide scanning.I can get a slide or negative prepped and scanned and into Lightroom in about 4 or 5 minutes. That's not fast, but scanning is a labor of love.Also, the Epson V750 does very good on 35mm films, and is fantastic on large format negatives, as well as on old prints and documents.

I have only owned the 8200i Ai for a couple of weeks and are pleased with the results. It is a little tedious as you can only scan one slide at a time and must manually move the slide holder for the next scan. The scanner came packaged with Silverfast software. I have nothing but praise for the software as it gives you complete control over scanning process. It does take a little to learn it but it comes with movies and adequate on line help.

As most have noted there is a learning curve, particularly with the Silverside software. For basic adjustments following the workflow is fairly easy. Just remember to start by clicking on the red globe in the top left corner. The booklet flow doesn't always match what you see on the screen and I still haven't found that multiple scan feature. Scans are of decent quality and the dust and scratch remover works very well. The slide tray is sturdy enough to last awhile. All in all a good investment. B&H shipped right on schedule although UPS damaged the cardboard box.

I went do the store with the Epson V700 in mind, but since I was traveling, I opted for the Plustek 8200i Ai, since it fits easily in my luggage and I can say I completely satisfied with my purchase. The results are amazing. I compare to the scans from my lab which uses a Nikon Coolscan and I can't tell the difference. The Silverfast software upgraded that comes with the Ai is simply the best by far I've used. I've tried them all I guess HP's, Vuescan and Epson's. The film profiles are really well done. They do work well. Besides, Silverfast gives me full control of my scan pre-scan, since i don't post-edit. I was quite reticent, since the scanner it's quite inexpensive. But again, very impressive results. At least the best I've seen in a consumer scanner. The only downside is that you have to push every frame at a time. But at least this way you know you got the result. Remember with an HP4050 I had I did all the roll, send the batch, only after to find out that Vuescan messed up with all my framing and I had to re-do it.