Help! I am in Silverfast 8 hell

<p>Yes, I read the instructions and saw the Silverfast 8 movie.</p>

<p>I was trying to do one thing. Find out why Dust and Scratches removal was not working. Saw the movie and went to my scanner, Plustek 8200i. Could not get it to work like in the movies. Turned on WorkflowPilot and that screwed everything up. My iSRD, dust and scratches, button was frozen, like all the others in that column. When I scanned I got a gloppy red mess, which, when unglopped in Photograph (80%) still had dust and scratches. </p>

<p>This is the first time I ever had things get worse after reading the instructions.</p>

<p>Does anyone know how to deal with Silverfast 8? I honestly cannot. </p>

<p>Would it simply be better to change to Vuscan?</p>

<p>You aren't trying to remove dust from black and white film are you? The silver content of traditional (not C-41) black and white film block the IR channel completely rendering the process useless for that.</p>

<p>Thanks for your help, Dan. I am scanning color film (C-41). I did try to scan Tri-X and got total glop.</p>

<p>I have since found a way to undo the horrors of WorkflowPilot. Also I think I have found how to deal with dust and scratches. I works about 50% of the time.</p>

<p>I've tested the Vuscan sample and it looks good. Is it any better than Silverfast?</p>

<p>I am so glad that my Konica-Minolta scanner revived. Nothing can beat it.</p>

<p>Pony up the $80 (or whatever it is now) for Vuescan Pro, don't even hesitate. It'll work with any and all scanners down the road. Very logical interface, well thought out. None of the little goofy icons Silverfast is so fond of.<br>

My only caveat: Vuescan's infrared cleaning isn't so hot, at least the last time I used it.</p>

<p>For what they charge for Silverfast run do not walk over to Vuescan. it works so much better and has very good customer support.</p>

<p>I gave up on Silverfast long ago. I agree with others...Vuescan Pro does a much better job for me, is easier to work with, costs less, and instructions are almost understandable.</p>

Thanks everyone. I a going for Vuscan pronto.

<p>Yes, me too for the benefits of Vuescan, although be aware that it, too, has a steep learning curve when you get beyond the basics.</p>

Silverfast is out of the question as serious software from the moment that you are stuck with its problems and the best

you can do is periodically shell out hundreds of dollars for a next major version in the hope that it will solve them. It won't,

it never has. Besides the bugs, the UI is unbearable. Vuescan's UI is crude but dependable. Silverfast's support has

never helped me to solve any problem. Vuescan's support is one terse guy, but he withers solves your problem or tells

you right away why not. I prefer his "I won't cater to everything" attitude than Lasersoft's "pay up some hundred bucks

more, which ought to be peanuts if you have any breeding, so we can continue not solving anything".

 

Obviously, sometimes I'll fire up Silverfast just to see if I can get a better image. Sometimes it works.

 

Both applications are crude. The difference is that Vuescan is crude because it's raw, made for control, inexpensive and

constantly updated, whereas Silverfast is a house of cards, with a curious mixture of dumbeddownness and arcaneness,

and the feature or fix you need is always either not there or only available in a different edition from the one you've just

spent half your income on.

 

And the horror: other program's run circles round either of these when it comes to restoring photos - but only these two

know, per the infrared, where to apply the retouchings! Good grief, couldn't they take a look at what those others are

doing??

<p>Alex, before you shell out more money, this may help:<br>

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/reviews/film/scanning_workflows_with_silverfast_8.shtml<br>

SilverFast is a seriously <strong>powerful</strong> app. With that power comes complexity you may want to master. </p>

<p>Silverfast is a powerful app but it is also a poorly written and over priced app. I started using it in 2008 and have payed for 3 licenses and regret every one of them. I payed $75.00 for a single license of Vuescan and have been able to use it on every scanner I own. I do still occasionally use Silverfast but only after using Vuescan and being unhappy with it</p>

<p>Is it for real, the suggestion to drop yet more money on a book on how to use a program that should need no book in order to be used?<br>

Such books are usually nice because they explain to you the reasons behind using this or that option - but that's not what we're talking about here. We're talking about being able to use a piece of software. The reason people can't use it isn't because they don't know the lore of scanning film. It's rather because the program doesn't let them tell it to do what they want it to do.<br>

In this regard, Vuescan could be a lot better documented too. Oh, there's a book for Vuescan as well. Unfortunately, with either program, there's options nobody knows for certain what they do, though people can make educated guesses which often turn out to be wrong, and little way to find out from support either - support will often just repeat what you already know.</p>

<p>Well I'd say you should trial Vuescan first, then decide if you like it or not. Some people are just turned off by it and rather prefer Silverfast. Either way buying the book for whatever you decide will help, but there are a lot of people who make do without it.</p>

<blockquote>

<p>Is it for real, the suggestion to drop yet more money on a book on how to use a program that should need no book in order to be used?</p>

</blockquote>

<p>No, throw the baby out with the bathwater. </p>

 

Good friends, thank you for all the feedback. I bought Vuscan and have been enjoying it. Now that I have it, I need not

feel desperate when learning how to utilize Silverfast 8. I am not going to throw any money at Silverfast, which came bundled

with my scanner, but will learn to use it with its limitations. Anyway, I am no longer in hell.

 

I am glad my Konica Minolta dedicated scanner is doing okay, as is my old Mac laptop. The KM is brilliant.

 

Thanks again.

Just a note: if your Minolta ever goes down again, don't give up on it. There are repair services, there is at least RC in

Germany (I have no experience with them, but they do exist). I say don't give up because you won't find a comparable

replacement. The Plustek 120 would be it if only Plustek would sort out the problems, but I'm pessimistic because this is a

very small market and few will understand, let alone be willing to pay, for the advantages of such a scanner.

 

I'm all for buying books that deal with technical aspects of doing things. But that's a lot different from having to buy a book

in order to make sense of a something, in this case a computer program, that's not well built and doesn't even have the

excuse of being cheap. Yes, it is able to o a lot of things, but that doesn't mean the user is able to make it do what is

needed (for a number of reasons, not the least of which bugs).

<p>If you want some really great looking B&W shots with minimal post-processing, shoot in color, scan, then convert to B&W.</p>

Dear Alex,

iSRD is a powerful tool and for most customers, it works very well.

It's normal to have the button frozen in WorkflowPilot mode. It will unfreeze, once iSRD is the next tool to be adjusted depending on your selected workflow. However, there

are workflows, which do not include iSRD at all, e.g. scanning reflective material.

 

If you are using SilverFast Ai Studio, you will have a lot of possibilities to set up iSRD. You will have a 1:1 preview, you can work with masks on several layers to treat different

defetcs differently. With iSRD you can do a lot more than with ICE.

I suggest you get into contact with our support team here: http://silverfast.com/support (Just click through the assistant for a support form.)

We really would like to help you.

 

Best Regards

Christian

Thank you Christian. I have started to sort out Silverfast. At the same time I am enjoying Vuscan. I have so far found

other Vuscan dust and scratches removable is better than that of Silverfast, and both are not a nearly as good as my K M.

This view may change over the course of time the more I use my new scanning systems. I am glad at any rate that I can

now use a dedicated scanner on an up to date computer. Using antique equipment is scary, no matter how good it is.

 

Thank you all for your help. I am no longer in hell.

Alex, whick K-M are you using? As far as I know, Silverfast 8 only supports the 5400. Unfortunately SF8 does not support

DigitalICE. I don't know how good iSRD is, but certainly ICE on the K-M DSMP is visibly better than Vuescan's IR

cleaning.

 

Personally I've been scanning for a very long time, and I can get identical "flat" scans from SF and Vuescan. However I

prefer SF, for several reasons. First of all, it is more tightly integrated with the scanner. You might not notice this at first,

but apart from stuff like ICE, manual focus is much better implemented. Also SF has a wide range of adjustment tools

spefically designed for film scanning, which are far easier to use than the equivalents in Photoshop. It also has the "HDR"

worklflow, which I find useful (yes, I know, it isn't HDR HDR, but SF has been using that terminology for about a decade).

Of course if you don't want that stuff, it isn't worth paying for it, but if you do, and if you take scanning at all seriously, then

investing in Mark Segal's book is well worth the money. Face it, there's not much imaging software that you get the most

out of without some degree of 3rd party education, these days.

 

Vuescan has advantages too - you can get insulted by tech support instead of patronised :-) ... also one big plus for me is

the option to do a prescan without AF. But although it is better than it is given credit for on the post-procesing side, it is not

a patch on SF in that regard. However it's been a life saver for a lot of people, and there's no doubt that Vuescan-centric

workflows can be very effective.

 

What I don't really get is the hatred and invective for Silverfast. Lasersoft is a small, independent, niche software

company who by some miracle are not only still alive but still developing their products. Yes, GUI design is not their strong

point, but they have improved a lot. Maybe people underestimate the investment it takes to develop a UI, and how much it

diverts from core features. Ed Hamrick sure doesn't. I also don't get the criticism of their tech support. I file issues with

them now and again, and they follow through politely and work hard on solving them. What I do see is a lot of very rude,

aggressive flaming on their forum, usually from idiots who wouldn't even be able to recognise a manual, let along read it.

Frankly, if I was on the receiving end of some of that invective I'd just delete and blacklist.

 

Here's a useful tip for SF8 - if you really get stuck, and yes, it happens, just click the Service Dialog button on the launch

screen, then "reset software" (red button). Works for me.

<p>I'm wondering about Silverfast 8; it was 'free' with my Plustek scanner but it's driving me crackers! & wasting a lot've time - I'm currently struggling with 110 negs, I have a 110 holder which is fine but the negs are coming up far too dark & too much contrast; despite fiddling with histograms, graduation, auto, not auto; just about everything I can think of but there's little improvement. Apparently it is possible to scan 110 negs with Plustek/Silverfast, allegedly, what am I missing - or would I just be better with VueScan?! I totally get the 'I am in Silverfast Hell' feeling :/ </p>

<p>Silverfast 8 last update Version 8.8.0r1 is the worse version, it is extremely slow<br>

much slower than previous version</p>

<p>What they are doing ? Update usually faster, but silverfast 8 goes the other direction</p>