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If you have one, why not try this? I'm slowly making my way through this YouTube page and it's very enjoyable. Pete

Please excuse me if this has already been covered. I did a search and couldn't find anything on topic. I have about 30 years of slides and negatives, 135mm and 6x6 formats. The results I'm getting from my Epson flatbed scanner and the 135mm scanner (I forget its name) are okay, but I'm wondering if I might get better results if I use my SL(601). Is this correct? Can anyone advise if this is worth doing, what I need equipment wise (presumably some sort of holder and a uniform whit background) and if it is feasible to photograph negatives as well as slides? Or am I wasting my time? Cheers John

Hi! Today I received a batch of negatives which I had processed and scanned at a dedicated b/w lab. Usually I do the scanning myself, but this time I needed some quick results to check the technical validity of some vintage cameras and I had little spare time available. These scans are low res jpeg and only substitute for contacts. I am thinking of re-entering the dark abodes of home-developing, especially after reviewing the result that I want to query this forum about. Seven rolls of TriX, TMax and HP5 from diffeent cameras (M3, IIIf, M7) came out fine, but one roll of film (TMax) from a 1934 IID shows peculiar scratches not typical of ones that I have seen or produced myself before. Since this is the only roll of film from this newly acquired camera that I have available (it is currently away for a focusing CLA), I would be particularly interested in whether it is a problem that might be related to the camera or whether it is related to film handling pre/during/post development, which I find more likely. Since I bought the camera from a respected dealer, he should be noticed of any problems soon as possible. The scratches start at #25 and continue until #36A, where the scratch line tapers off into the perforation. It is not a strictly parallel scratch like ones I have seen from damaged back plates or sloppy enveloping/ rolling and it is not continuous for all the way. I will post three example images. I hope diagnosis can be made from forum resolution. (1): #29, Inadvertent picture of my lens cap (idiot me ) (2): #32, Oyster bed, 300 million years old, today grounding a cottage, situated 600 Km from the nearest shoreline (3): #35, Casino, Wiesbaden, Germany Has anybody seen a scratch configuration like this before? Thanks! Kind regards, Mathias EDIT: By the way, the scratches are on the emulsion side.

Want to share my experience here to install two scanner related Silverfast 8 software packages on the same PC which allows to work with two scanners. I am currently using the Plustek 8200i scanner with Silverfast 8 Ai Suite and the Epson V850 with Silverfast 8 SE Suite. The start page of the software has a dropdown menu to select from multiple installed programs/scanners, but it is not straight forward to get there, and the current manual has nothing in there how to correctly install two or more Silverfast 8 versions for different scanners: 1. Do not install Silverfast 8 from the CD - the versions are not the most actual ones, and you can only run Silverfast 8 for two (or more) scanners with exactly the same updated version. Do not try to install from the CD and do not use the update function within the program at this point - it won't work correctly and will only lead to hiccups with the other version. Also, you need to install both Silverfast 8 versions into the same hard drive directory to make them work in parallel. 2. Download the most actual versions directly form the Silverfast home page. To do this, registration of the software is a requirement. After registration, you need to enter the provided serial number which came with the original CD of the program - do not lose this number! This allows you to get on the Silverfast website with downloadable software versions for the specific program version (for example SE Pro) which was purchased most likely in combination with the scanner. Download the latest version into a directory to install from on the hard drive. Repeat the whole process for the Silverfast version of the second scanner - register it also, enter its serial #, and download again the latest version - it must be the same version code as the first one! - of this specific Silverfast 8 version. 3. Choose any of the two (or several) downloaded Silverfast 8 programs to be installed in a provided directory. After installation, select the other version to have it installed into the same directory as the earlier installed version. Then start the program with the provided Silverfast 8 desktop link - it will open the start page (assuming the scanner(s) are turned on) and have both scanners in the drop-down list to select from. After selection, the specific version of Silverfast 8 fitting to one of the scanners will start. 4. Updates in the future. I didn't experience this myself yet, but I asked this question to the support team of Silverfast. Supposedly you can run from now on the internal update function which will now automatically recognize that two (or more) Silverfast versions were installed in the same directory. I was told that there is no need to download the latest upgraded version again directly from the homepage.

I am just working through some transparency work and scanning it on to the computer. I was particularly pleased with this one which was taken in 1999 on Kodachrome 64 using a Leica M6. Scanning was with a Plustek 8200i, and post was with LT Classic. I think it is amazing how the work we have just put away into a filing cabinet etc. has stood the test of time, and before there is "ah, well it is Kodachrome" some Fuji Provia RDP is just as good. Gerry

After digitizing for quite a while all my 35 mm negatives via photographing them with 1:1 macro lens, tripod, and LED light table, I decided now to get the plustek 8200i Ai scanner with SilverFast 8 software. Main reason for it was correct color calibration of color negatives. To do the color calibration manually in PS or LR is not always easy. Posting here to hear from others who use a plustek scanner with SilverFast software. So far I am very impressed by the scanner and the software. I updated to the SilverFast 8.8 version which has a lot of options - tricky part is to figure out what is mainly needed for a good color calibration of a scan and what is more optional. I prefer to use the internal settings for films to choose from - the color calibration of the scanned color negative appears fairly correct afterwards that only minimal adjustment is needed. I also like the infrared dust scan and automatic subtraction from the photo - it works really well and leaves other image parts intact. One thing I struggle with is the archive mode of the negative - the only option to save the file in RAW as DNG. I didn't find yet a way to get an automated color calibration after the negative was scanned with the archive mode. I would prefer to have the scan saved as DNG but would like to have it processed like it is offered for all the other image file modes as JPG, TIFF etc. Is there a way to do this easily? What is your best / most proficient workflow using plustek scanners and this software? Did you encounter any drawbacks?

I'm considering the hitherto unthinkable: switching from Vuescan to Silverfast. I just want some opinions from users of Silverfast. Background: I've been pretty satisfied with Vuescan the last few years. But one scenario in particular exposes a problem I keep having trying to export totally flat, linear, color-negative scans: when the entire image is high-key (over-exposed or simply an image that's intentionally just one narrow section of the full tonal range), I find that pretty much nothing I do will give me a scan that is correctly flat and at the same time only fills the correct part of the histogram. Instead of this, the tones get redistributed across the entire range of the histogram - which gives a highly contrasty scan where the opposite is what I intended. There may be workarounds - if you know how to fix this let me know - but my aim is to always simply export the flattest, linear, most neutral *batch* scan without needing to tweak output on a single-image basis. I find ColorPerfect, PhotoShop and Lightroom are all better at manipulating color and contrast etc than Vuescan, and I'd prefer to keep the scanning software out of the image-manipulation process, as far as possible. This is where my experiments with the latest Silverfast demo come in: the output scans are all much flatter, and maybe more boring. But that's what I want! They also sometimes seem to find slightly more color 'nuance' in things like masses of leaves in a forest of trees. This is a difficult thing to be sure about, as the color is influenced by the tonality. Anyway, the extra bonuses are that the scans are much faster. They also have slightly sharper characteristics at 100% view - though they don't actually extract more detail than Vuescan at 4000dpi (so possibly just USM - if so, I'd love to know how to switch it off, as I don't want the software to do any pre-processing). I'm still looking and comparing the two softwares, and I'm not sure yet, but there are definitely things that bother me about Silverfast: - the price-gouging structure - the censored support forum (and the often dismissive tone of the 'help') - the crazily unintuitive and unhelpful (and downright ugly) interface - this gets in the way of everything. - the program often does something (like a prescan) when you simply close an interface element (like the frame-finder function) - the lack of any in-depth documentation - apart from a third-party book that they sell(!!) you on their site - the general feeling that the company don't give a **** about their users I'd like to hear from people who use the software - especially with scanners like the Coolscan range - and are actually happy with it (or unhappy for specific reasons).

Hello all, Pretty new to this forum, but really enjoying it. I have been having this annoying problem with my Plustek 120 film scanner. When I am scanning 35mm negs it cuts off part of the picture in the scan even though I have the negatives placed perfectly in the film holder. Does anyone know how I can fix this? Has anyone else had this problem? Any help would be greatly appreciated. I really like this scanner for its ability to pull the the film in and scan while I am away, but not if it doesn't scan the whole picture. Thank you! Sincerely, Peter