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Reviews of photography products that enhance the enjoyment of taking pictures. Published frequently but irregularly.
Plustek 120 Shipments Delayed
27 April 2013
Earlier this month Plustek quietly announced a delay in shipments of its popular Plustek OpticFilm 120, which we are reviewing. The scanner has been in short supply since its introduction.
While the review unit hasn't exhibited any hardware problems, we've spoken to two sources that reported image quality issues with the OpticFilm 120. The recent announcement from the company doesn't identify the image quality issues disclosed to us but does confirm a manufacturing issue.
Plustek's Mark Druziak elaborated:
"There are a couple different things we are trying to resolve including some shipping issues, supply chain issues and hopefully this will give us some time for a driver release that includes the offset stuff. The good news is there really aren't any design issues that we have to solve."
One of the big questions we've had about the OpticFilm 120 is whether the firmware is upgradeable. Druziak has told us it is not, but issues like getting offset data from the scanner to accurately frame images in various holders ("the offset stuff") can, Druziak said, be handled with driver updates. There has been one Windows driver update already.
On the software front, the latest builds of SilverFast 8 have resolved some key productivity issues for us, particularly with the Overview and JobManager functions.
We'll have a lot more on these issues in the final part of our review, which we've been holding pending the resolution of a few issues.
The text of the press release follows.
OpticFilm 120 Update
April 19, 2013. Recently we discovered a component used in the manufacture of the OpticFilm 120 does not meet our quality standards. Consequently, we have decided to temporarily stop shipping the scanner until the issue can be completely resolved. Plustek is working with a third party to identify a permanent resolution to this problem.
We do not expect this delay to be extensive. However, we do not have a firm date when shipment will resume. This page (http://plustek.com/usa/news/press-releases/opticfilm-120-update-4/19/13.html) and our Facebook page will be updated weekly to keep you informed of the latest information.
Plustek is committed to providing high quality products and we feel this delay is necessary to meet our customers and channel partners expectations and we apologize for any inconvenience this has caused.
Please feel free to contact Mark Druziak at 562-650-3900 for any questions.