Reflecta RPS 7200. Problem solved.

The problem

As you probably already know, I had a very hard time with my pretty-good-resolving-scanner, the RPS 7200 proffessional from Reflecta GmBH. This company is basically the same as Pacific Imaging Inc. Most of the time, I was very frustrated with the results this device produced. When it first came to my hands, it seemed like a very capable scanner delivering very good resolution. After a while, I started seeing lines, very similar to banding issues with older digital cameras, as well as ocasional noise in the shadows, which rendered the output of this little beast almost unusable. After half a year, me and my friend, both having the same problem with the same device from the same vendor, decided to go a different path and to return both devices back and get our money back.

Banding on colour reversal and negatives…

The solution

As a result from sending the device back to Reflecta and back again was two things. Imager sensor replaced and 150 Eur less weight in our pockets. Although this sounded like a very promising situation, results presented by the RPS 7200 were just the same. After another post-office back and forth, some phone calls later and a lot of discussion between me and my “brother in arms” we found a solution to all the pain producing illness, that this device has thrown at us.

It was not a solution REALLY offered by the Reflecta technician, nor was it the first thing we sould have come across. At some point (mind that this was at least 3 months sicne the first return) one of the technicians just “by the way” said, that a connected external USB hard drive might cause problems. I have heard, that hard drives usually allocate a lot of (electrical) resources for them, could cause significant fluctuations by their quite demanding I/O operations… but it never came to my mind, that this could have any effect on a device, that should be shielded and power-regulated, denoised and compensated from bottom to top. To a device, that has “Proffessional” in its name.

With and without a USB disk attached.

After 2 hours of testing, evaluating and some real-application testing and evaluating again, we came to a stunning conclusion. YES, Reflecta RPS 7200 just might be the best ever 135 film scanner out there (considering the price tag), but you cannot scan while having your hard drive attached to a USB port. This should also apply to any heavy input-output USB device, taht might be connected to a USB port while scanning with Reflecta RPS 7200. As a matter of fact, we did other extensive tests to conclude, that a tablet, mouse, keyboard or a web cam do not affect the image quality to a significant degree.

All in all, who wants to make sure, disconnects all USB devices and enjoys the ride with an RPS 7200, which will excell…