Re: filmscanners: SilverFast vs Others

[RogerMillerPhoto@aol.com]

In a message dated 8/4/2001 11:28:18 PM Pacific Daylight Time, 
jpgrove@blueyonder.co.uk writes:

> I have read a great deal about SilverFast, can someone tell me the
> advantages of SilverFast over say Nikon Scan 3.1 and VueScan?
>
> James Grove


I can think of several hundred differences between SilverFast and Vuescan, 
all measured in dollars.  Not only is SilverFast extremely expensive, but 
they charge for each upgrade and for each scanner you happen to own.  I use 
SilverFast with my Polaroid scanners and feel that it is one of the most 
powerful programs available.  Also, it is available with an IT-8 calibration 
slide.  I don't believe Vuescan has IT-8 capability, but I don't know for 
sure as I don't use Vuescan, but I'm sure that Vuescan users would argue that 
it isn't necessary anyway.  I have to admit that I'm really pissed off at 
SilverFast right now because I just spent many hundreds of dollars extra to 
use it with a new Polaroid 120 medium format scanner and they shipped me the 
old version of SilverFast and not the current version which has been improved 
so that it does an adequate job with negatives.  Since my medium format work 
is mostly with negatives, I'll be forced pay an extra $45US for something I 
should have received in the first place.  And then I may have to pay another 
$45 to upgrade SilverFast for my SS4000 (used only for scanning slides) so 
that the user interface is the same for both scanners.  For that extra $90 in 
SilverFast upgrades I could have bought Vuescan for myself, another copy for 
a friend, and had enough money left over to start a dot com.  And with 
Vuescan, I'd never pay another upgrade fee.  Ever.

I don't know anything about Nikon except that version 3.0 was reported to be 
buggy and 3.1 is supposed to be better in that regard.

My advice would be that you download demo copies of SilverFast and Vuescan 
and make up you own mind as to which is better for your application.  Vuescan 
has an advantage over SilverFast in that you can usually get your Vuescan 
questions answered on this list, and that's important while climbing the 
steep learning curve of any scanner software program.  SilverFast just 
started a user forum, but I don't know yet how valuable that's going to be.