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The unthinkable?: switching from Vuescan to Silverfast


plasticman

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Well, the UI is always a matter of personal taste. I was talking about SF8, which is much better than SF6 in terms of the UI.

However, the functionalities I mentioned above (colour management and dust removal) especially for Kodachrome are objective differences. Here VueScan is just not usable.

Hermann-Josef

Edited by Jossie
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After scanning for a while now (see my earlier comments in this thread) I found myself more often using the Epson scan software with the V850 scanner instead of SilverFast. The Epson scan software didn't work for a while on PCs after MS enforced another cumbersome Win10 update in April, but in July Epson released a new driver version for the scanner which allowed to work with the Epson software again. Now there is another annoying bug: for images sized 6x6 or 4x4, the thumbnail view does not work because the software does not correctly recognize the frames in the preview view anymore. It works fine on 35 mm frames though. I didn't try 4x5" sized negatives since - not sure if the thumbnail view works here. My workaround is to select each medium format manually in the preview RAW view and then have it scanned - it works well. I often like especially B&W results better directly out of the box with the Epson software compared to SilverFast 8 SE. 

Otherwise SilverFast is a good program IMO after you get used to it and know how to avoid over-complication within the main menu window. I find the icons often not intuitive at all what they mean or can do. What annoys me most with SilverFast after lots of scanning with it is that every time I switch to either color to B&W or negative to positive (or vice versa) or to a different frame size, the program resets everything. I always have to re-enter the preferred scan resolution, the folder where I want to have the images saved to name a few. Other cumbersome thing is that you can't easily cancel a once started batch scan - if you have 15 frames of 35 mm negatives preselected and realize that you have to make a change after the process has started, you have to cancel each of the 15 selected batch scan modules separately and hitting cancel to scan  for each frame. I wonder that this was overlooked when the program was made since it likely happens often for everyone. 

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Re: Jossie: " (colour management and dust removal) especially for Kodachrome are objective differences. Here VueScan is just not usable."

I scanned a Kodacolor negative with EpsonScan and Vuescan.  They disagreed on color.  I could not tweak Vuescan to agree with EpsonScan, but that could be my ineptitude.  (I could move the colors close to each other with Adobe's Photoshop Elements Editor.)

I haven't tested Vuescan's dust removal powers, but SF's red marks are indeed reassuring.  I tried it using Betterscanning's anti-Newton-ring glass, and was perturbed to see that the red marks did not coincide with the dust.  Turns out the dust was on the glass, a few millimeters above the film.  That tells us that in an Epson V600, the viewing directions of the infrared and scanning lights are different.

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Re: Martin B: " I wonder that this was overlooked when the program was made..."

Indeed.  Computer software companies have forgotten about usability.  The companies need to hire people whose job is to specify and test usability.  Paying customers are usually not computer programmers, and don't give a whistle about how clever the program's internals are.

Kudo's to the programmers, though.  The ingenuity of EpsonScan, SilverFast, and Vuescan is astonishing.

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Hello Martin B and WideAngle

I can mainly talk about SF HDR, since I use Ai just for scanning into the HDR format. But I would assume, that the behaviour of the two SFs is identical.

I agree that it is annoying that if you load the next image into HDR the settings for file format, path are reset to the default values. Also if I set the histogram to separate, it falls back to additive if I open the next image. Same is true for the logarithmic display of the histogram (which really is not a log display). Also the frame settings reset the path to the default, which does not make sense. Take a look into the frame settings. These may solve some of the problems you have with SF resetting everything to their defaults. The frame settings come into action with every frame command issued and set the tools to the values they had when you save the frame settings. There are, however, also disadvantages with that.

Yes you can cancel a batch job by pressing ALT + cancel! This kills all jobs in the queue. So you do not have to cancel each scan individually. But this is attributed to a lack of documentation!

As far as dust removal of VueScan for Kodachrome is concerned, EH confirmed to me that the markings do not indicate all pixels that are modified! I subtracted an image without scratch removal from one with scratch removal. You would expect to see only the scratches. Far from true! VueScan is correcting all over the place in all dark areas. This is due to the fact, that in Kodachrome the IR-channel also contains a strong signal from the scene and not only the scratches. SilverFast in its Kodachrome-mode can handle this reasonably well, but VueScan cannot.

Hermann-Josef

Edited by Jossie
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i use the plustek 8200i

i can save the settings for each session..so what i do is setup the path / size / DPI etc and hit save on the bottom left of that menu box...and can recall it easily

the SRDx tool works well for scratches provided one makes a mask, otherwise it will blur all over the place. i found a setting of 18, 3 seemed to work well for usual film handling scratches

the IR SRD seems to work better for dust and simple scratches...i just leave it on detection 20

 

 

 

Edited by frame-it
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On 10/26/2018 at 8:51 AM, Jossie said:

Well, the UI is always a matter of personal taste. I was talking about SF8, which is much better than SF6 in terms of the UI.

mmm, not really. UX design is a science, not an art.  And I'm talking about the latest version anyway.

Edited by ianman
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6 minutes ago, Jossie said:

But did you compare the functionalities of VueScan with those of SilverFast in detail?

No. Like I wrote above, I use SF 8.x  I'm not saying it doesn't work, I just wish they put at least little effort into the GUI. it's seems to have been thrown together by a bad intern.

I downloaded VueScan and just seeing the even worse GUI I couldn't be bothered to test it properly. If a developper can't be arsed to put a little effort into what is essentially "the way in" to his application, I have to wonder what lies beneath. I chose the least bad... plus SF came bundled with my scanner.

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58 minutes ago, ianman said:

I just wish they put at least little effort into the GUI. it's seems to have been thrown together by a bad intern.

No. Silverfast's GUI looks like and *actually is* a bloated overgrown malady.

This is the result if you start creating a software without having resource to a UX designer. And then you put more and more features into it until it looks like Frankenstein's monster.

The only reason a scanner software like this is still alive in 2018 is because it's the mightiest in the field. There is not enough effort to dethrone it as the main intention (scanning film) is getting less and less popular.

Edited by raphael
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Quote

The only reason a scanner software like this is still alive in 2018 is because it's the mightiest in the field. 

This is probably also the reason why LSI does not work hard to eliminate serious errors in their software known for along, long time ...

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13 hours ago, raphael said:

No. Silverfast's GUI looks like and *actually is* a bloated overgrown malady.

This is the result if you start creating a software without having resource to a UX designer. And then you put more and more features into it until it looks like Frankenstein's monster.

The only reason a scanner software like this is still alive in 2018 is because it's the mightiest in the field. There is not enough effort to dethrone it as the main intention (scanning film) is getting less and less popular.

Scanning film is on the rise again - at least here in the US. Many youngsters go back to film - a big camera store in NJ has now one third of the store area dedicated to film and film gear accessories. I see in recent times lots of questions coming up in other photo-related forums about scanning film. Many seem to prefer the so-called hybrid analog process of working with film but then only digitizing it without using a darkroom to make prints. 

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On ‎10‎/‎26‎/‎2018 at 9:05 AM, frame-it said:

i use the plustek 8200i

i can save the settings for each session..so what i do is setup the path / size / DPI etc and hit save on the bottom left of that menu box...and can recall it easily

the SRDx tool works well for scratches provided one makes a mask, otherwise it will blur all over the place. i found a setting of 18, 3 seemed to work well for usual film handling scratches

the IR SRD seems to work better for dust and simple scratches...i just leave it on detection 20

 

 

 

Thanks for your helpful advice here - one problem with SilverFast is its fairly poor documentation when it comes to this kind of questions. What confuses me with SilverFast 8 is that there are multiple save buttons in different menus, and I gave up experimenting which save function saves which kind of control. In your example above, would this save button there only save the scan dimension and chosen resolution, or does it also save parameters in other menus below, for example usage of dust removal control etc? 

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