Re: filmscanners: I love/hate SilverFast

["Steve Greenbank" <steve@gccl.fsbusiness.co.uk>]

I deliberately bought an Artixscan 4000 which came bundled with Silverfast
as opinion on this list was that Silverfast is best. Ultimately I think this
is probably true as the Silverfast interface allows you to carefully tweak
your scans to a much greater degree than with anything else provided you
have spent months learning how to utilise the program. But Vuescan in my
experience produces good results almost immediately with minimum effort.
When I have a problem I sometimes try Silverfast but rarely do I get a
better result - in part, to be fair, due to my inability to use Silverfast
properly. But there in lies a part of the problem after 2 hours playing with
Vuescan I get better results than 2 months of Silverfast.

I can also appreciate your problems with the level of support. It took me
several weeks just to get the password for the download out of them. When it
came to fixing a showstopper problem they claimed I was the only person with
the problem. I knew of several others from this list. I managed a workaround
with an alternative boot without my IDE DVD and IDE CD writer. I gave up
trying to get them to fix the problem and eventually discovered they had
solved the problem 3-12 months later. Shame they didn't bother to tell me.

Yes, you do get IT-8 calibration and it seems to be much more accurate than
Microtek's Scan Wizard Pro but Vuescan generally produces good colour
anyway.

Steve

----- Original Message -----
From: <RogerMillerPhoto@aol.com>
To: <filmscanners@halftone.co.uk>
Sent: Sunday, August 05, 2001 11:25 PM
Subject: Re: filmscanners: I love/hate SilverFast


> I just paid extra to buy SilverFast with a Polaroid SprintScan 120 medium
> format film scanner.  I received the scanner a week ago Friday and it was
> inoperable for a week due to poor installation instructions from Polaroid.
> Then, after I got it running with Polaroid Insight, I tried to load
> SilverFast, which is what I want to use for scanner software since I'm
> already familiar with it on my SprinScan 4000.  But the new SilverFast
> wouldn't load, probably due to interference from another copy for the
SS4000.
>  But I was able to determine that the software on the new SilverFast CD is
> the old version and not the current version 5.5.  I need version 5.5
because
> it supposedly corrects SilverFast shortcomings with negative processing,
> which is what I want to use the SS120 for.  So I have a new copy of
> SilverFast that won't load and the software was obsolete even before I got
> it.  So now I have to pay another $45US for something I've already paid
for
> once and should have received in the first place.  You're right, these
guys
> are milking their client base.  In fact, they're cheating them by shipping
> obsolete software in the first place.  It wouldn't be so bad if the
software
> they sell would load.  And that wouldn't be so bad if SilverFast had an
"800"
> number you could call for help.  And the lack of an "800" wouldn't be so
bad
> if their support people would at least answer their e-mail in a timely
> manner.  I've said before that I think some of these people should be
drowned
> in a bucket of warm nose drippings.  It's a rip off.  It's frustrating
enough
> having a $3000 scanner in its second week of being unusable.  But being
sold
> obsolete software simply adds to the grief.  Too bad Insight and Vuescan
> don't support IT-8 calibration.  That's the only reason I've tolerating
this
> SilverFast nonsense up to this point.  I'm a photographer and I want to be
> spending my time and money in giving my clients what they want.  I don't
> enjoy fighting these other battles.
>
> In a message dated 8/4/2001 10:42:06 AM Pacific Daylight Time,
> david@hoffmanphotos.com writes:
>
>
> > At 16:55 +0100 4/8/01, David Gordon wrote:
> > >But the demo doesn't give an option to put a serial number in...
> > >
> > >So it's still pants, until someone tells me how!
> >
> > Click the 'i' (info) box top left in the SF interface.
> >
> > >Oh, by the way, you can do batch scanning with individual correction
for
> > >each frame now. Of course they all get watermarked.
> >
> > But you still have to cough up another hundred or two squids to use
> > the software with a bulk slide feeder!
> >
> > Fine software but they really milk their client base. Pay for each
> > scanner, each bolt-on bit & then pay again when they stop maintaining
> > the version you bought! Stuff 'em, go for $40 Vuescan (which always
> > did individual - & better - exposure control).
> >
> > David Hoffman
> >
>
>
>