Re: filmscanners: SilverFast Upgrade Disaster

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

> Now my problem is that I get an error from Photoshop when scanning with my
> medium format scanner.  SilverFast people say I have a memory problem and
I'm
> going to have to reinstall Photoshop to cure the problem.  So first, I
have
> to transfer 20 GB of data from my hard drive to CD to clean the hard drive
up
> a bit.  Then I have to defrag the hard drive.  Then I have to figure out
how
> to uninstall Photoshop.  Then I have to install Photoshop.  Then I have to
> download and install the 6.0.1 update for Photoshop.  Then I have to
figure
> out how to uninstall SilverFast again.   Then I have to reinstall both
> SilverFast Ai and HDR, not from a CD disc, but as a download since I paid
for
> the upgrade.  Then I have 5 other plug-ins for Photoshop that also have to
be
> reinstalled.  And finally, I have to do four IT8 calibrations, one each
for
> the two film scanners that use SilverFast and two more for a flatbed
scanner
> that uses a different Photoshop plug-in.  I sure hope that the SilverFast
> recommendation to reinstall Photoshop solves my problem.

Not wishing to sound to gloomy, but the advice sounds like a "we have no
idea - but it might work if we re-install everything". The good news is that
it often does - the bad news is IME it more often doesn't. When I had a
problem they gave me all sorts of advice and blamed other software suppliers
when I knew it was their problem from the tests I had done. I had also found
a way round the problem which was an inconvenience rather than a
showstopper. 3-6 months later an update fixed the problem but they didn't
e-mail me to tell me. If I had paid the normal asking price (it was bundled)
and my livlihood depended on it I would have been bloody livid.

Depressingly Lasersoft support is actually better than many others.

Steve
>
> In a message dated 8/12/2001 3:29:23 AM Pacific Daylight Time,
> snorvich@interaccess.com writes:
>
>
> > The trick is to leave about a 1 mm extra border inside the Silverfast
> > recommended
> > framing.   I was incredibly frustrated with this until I accidentally
> > figured it out.  I
> > have and use Silverfast on my Nikon LS4000 and Epson 1680 Professional
> > Firewire
> > scanner where it comes bundled.  I have only calibrated the Epson for
> > reflective scanning
> > as I use the Nikon for slides.  However a transparency target is
provided
> > for scanning
> > 4x5 transparencies and that may some day be useful.
> >
> >
>
>
>