[filmscanners] VueScan vs. SilverFast with negs

["Tomek Zakrzewski" <tomzakrz@ka.onet.pl>]

Within several days I'm going to buy a film scanner (LS-4000ED) finally.
I can buy it with or without SilverFast bundled (of course the price
difference is considerable).
Do I really need this software?
I know VueScan quite well, I use it with my Agfa Arcus 1200 flatbed scanner,
I I appreciate many of it's qualities, I can even live with its user
interface :-)
But putting UI  aside, I'm most interested in the capabilities of those
programmes in delivering good scans from negatives. As I haven't tried VS in
this respect I can't judge how it works.
Does anybody have experience with both VS and SF+NegaFix in scanning color
negs? Are the profiles in NegaFix superior to VS's profiles?

And another question having its roots in my lack of real experience with
filmscanners:
Will I be able to deliver professional quality scans (mostly from slides)
without calibrated monitor, IT-8 and so on, relying only on my common sense
and knowledge of scanning rudiments?
I have a friend who can give me for scanning 50-100 slides which he uses
then in a printed magazine. Being careful and 'tidy' with what I have, can I
fullfil professional's demands or must I invest in calibration equipment?
I personally always had the feeling that without calibration one can get at
least 90% of the 'ultimate" quality.
What confirms my feeling is my experience with a scanning bureau with
LS-8000ED, Silverfast+Negafix, Silverfast HDR and IT-8 calibration.
Every time I used this bureau I had to tweak the scans in Photoshop's
levels, curves and color balance a little. Never was I able to use the scan
without any correction.

Regards

Tomasz Zakrzewski

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Unsubscribe by mail to listserver@halftone.co.uk, with 'unsubscribe 
filmscanners'
or 'unsubscribe filmscanners_digest' (as appropriate) in the message title or 
body