Silverfast users...

menthel

menthel

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Jim
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Any hints? Its quite confusing! I have just got my new canon 9000f and it came with silverfast SE. Having had a quick play I can get some nice scans but they do look a little soft. Its also rather confusing when batch negative scanning! I keep altering one scan but leaving the rest alone!
 
menthel said:
Any hints? Its quite confusing! I have just got my new canon 9000f and it came with silverfast SE. Having had a quick play I can get some nice scans but they do look a little soft. Its also rather confusing when batch negative scanning! I keep altering one scan but leaving the rest alone!
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I've just been looking at a review of that scanner on Youtube and the Silverfast scan was not as soft as the first scan with the (I think) Canon software.

Be very interested to hear any further comments from you about that scanner as I'm thinking of changing from my CanonScan 5600F.

BTW where did you buy it?
 
menthel said:
Any hints? Its quite confusing! I have just got my new canon 9000f and it came with silverfast SE. Having had a quick play I can get some nice scans but they do look a little soft. Its also rather confusing when batch negative scanning! I keep altering one scan but leaving the rest alone!
Click to expand...

What setting did you use on the Filter Dialogue... I generally scan with "none" rather than "Auto Sharpen" or any of the other settings, which, admittedly does leave the scans rather soft, However, I'd sooner take charge of the sharpening myself in CS5, usually using a High Pass filter layer, as I find I can sharpen the image up without exaggerating the grain structure.

It took me a couple of rolls of film before I got the hang of the batch scanning - the fact that you CAN change settings for individual scanned frames can actually be useful - especially if you're working through a bunch of old negatives, some kodak, some fuji, some ilford... It's also handy to be able to scan all the shots on a negative strip, but just do the obvious duffers at 800dpi, while the better ones get 4800dpi say. I do wish that there was an option to select a single frame and say "Apply these settings to all" - maybe something to feedback to the writers.

Also - new film profiles are issued with update releases of the software, so don't forget to keep up to date on that score... the version shipped with my 8800F was well behind the times - current version (presuming Silverfast SE) is 6.6.2r2 I believe...
 
Thanks. My version is 6.6 r1.5. I will update it when I get some time. I think its a very powerful bit of software, just lacking in user-friendliness a little! Has everyone just stuck with SE or upgraded at all?

TheBigYin said:
What setting did you use on the Filter Dialogue... I generally scan with "none" rather than "Auto Sharpen" or any of the other settings, which, admittedly does leave the scans rather soft, However, I'd sooner take charge of the sharpening myself in CS5, usually using a High Pass filter layer, as I find I can sharpen the image up without exaggerating the grain structure.

It took me a couple of rolls of film before I got the hang of the batch scanning - the fact that you CAN change settings for individual scanned frames can actually be useful - especially if you're working through a bunch of old negatives, some kodak, some fuji, some ilford... It's also handy to be able to scan all the shots on a negative strip, but just do the obvious duffers at 800dpi, while the better ones get 4800dpi say. I do wish that there was an option to select a single frame and say "Apply these settings to all" - maybe something to feedback to the writers.

Also - new film profiles are issued with update releases of the software, so don't forget to keep up to date on that score... the version shipped with my 8800F was well behind the times - current version (presuming Silverfast SE) is 6.6.2r2 I believe...
Click to expand...
 
menthel said:
Thanks. My version is 6.6 r1.5. I will update it when I get some time. I think its a very powerful bit of software, just lacking in user-friendliness a little! Has everyone just stuck with SE or upgraded at all?
Click to expand...

:LOL: it's about as user-friendly as a cornered rat! It does however work pretty damned well, provided you've got a profile for the negative you're working with - sadly my recent fave (fuji Acros 100/LegacyPro 100) isn't on the supported list, so when I get a couple of hour's I'm gonna work my way through the profiles on there and see which is the better match. I've stuck with SE, mainly as the companies website is even more confusing than their software, and I can't work out what benefit's i'd get from the various upgrade packages :bonk:
 
Yep Silverfast is a powerful piece of kit.
Unfortunately it was developed by egg heads and never tested by a user.

http://www.computer-darkroom.com/

Look in the Tutorial section it has a lot of stuff on Silverfast and I found it really useful.

Like BY says not friendly and requires a lot of messing about before it starts to make sense.

Some of the upgrade packages have more film profiles in them, but beware if you get them and read the instructions carefully. i had to uninstall the older version before sticking the newer one on, because the software does not appear to 'Upgrade' or even over write.
 
***it's about as user-friendly as a cornered rat!***

Indeed...I gave up trying to use it a year ago, got error messages as well, and trying to upgrade as a registered owner defeated me with the red tape.
 
menthel said:
Any hints? Its quite confusing!..........
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Viewscan!



I have a copy of Silverfast for my Minolta Scan Dual III and could never really get on with it, and it kept crashing. Also that's the only scanner it will work with, whereas Viewscan Pro will work with any scanner with updates for life.
 
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