Vuescan - opinions, please!

[jmc]

I'm aware of the fact that this is a pretty basic question but I'd

really appreciate some help with this. I have an Epson 2480 flatbed

scanner with a slide/transparency unit; and I haven't had much luck

doing even a decent scan of any of the slides I have. I'm shooting

both colour and b/w slides (Agfa Scala), and those typically have a

very wide range of densities. The slides look utterly brilliant, but

the scans, using Epson's software, look like I scanned an image which

had been created using crayons on toilet paper. The simple question I

have is: Will Vuescan do a better job? I've heard people are very

happy with it but I'm wondering whether they just have a better

scanner. Any opinions?

 

Thanks!

 

- Joerg

[claudia__]

you will definitely want Vuescan. i use it with a flatbed and tranny adapter for medium format negs and prints. i think you can download a demo to check it out. well worth the modest sum if you buy it.

[cfimages]

I have an Epson Photo 1670 flatbed scanner with the slide unit. Which I believe is the model down from yours. An in my experience, the Epson software is terrible. I ended up buying Vuescan, and it does a much better job.

[sjmurray]

I use Vuescan for scanning 4x5 transparencies and black and white negs on the 2450. The current version of Vuescan is excellent. Its got a good preview and you can control the histogram. I usually do fine tuning in PSCS, but Vuescan allows you to capture what's in the original. I've heard the full version of Silverfast is quite good too, but its way more expensive.

 

For general workflow, I scan black and white negs in 16 bit gray scale and color originals in 24 or 48 bit color. I usually just use 1200 ppi because I print 11x14. I don't use any sharpening in Vuescan. Once scanned, I resize the image to the size I want to print at 300ppi using "bicubic sharper." Then do the fine tuning for color and contrast, etc. Maybe a final light sharpening before printing. Turns out great!

 

The nice thing about Vuescan is that it works with most printers without even loading up the printer's own software. Hamrick is always improving it too, and new versions come along frequently. Do take the time to learn about all the settings available.

[awindsor]

Surprisingly Vincent Oliver of <A HREF="http://www.photo-i.co.uk">photo-i</A> didn't like VueScan for film scanning (though he liked it for scanning prints). I have used VueScan with my CanoScan FS4000 and I prefer it to Canon's FilmGet. I had many issues with the shadows in negative films (in particular green dots). <P>

 

It is free to download and try so why not just try it. The IR cleaning certainly leaves something to be desired though. I think that both Digital ICE and FARE are better.<P>

[rhaytana__tim_adams_]

The timeline of my Vuescan use was as follows, with my Canon FS4000:

 

1. Downloaded, registered, disliked, didn't use.

 

2. Heeded opinions of online users who preferred Vuescan to other products. "These folk know more than me, why not do it their way?"

 

3. Invested dozens of hours learning the intricacies of Vuescan settings. Spent lots of time browsing comp.periphs.scanners.

 

4. Used Vuescan exclusively for several months. Noticed grain, focus problems that never were an issue with Filmget. Grew weary of slower processing times vs Filmget.

 

5. Returned to Filmget, but with much more attention paid to Filmget settings.

 

Perhaps I have erred. Many knowledgeable users still swear by Vuescan. Perhaps there is one more Vuescan setting that I could tweak. But I have decided that further effort would be throwing away good time after time I already have lost.

[chiswick_john]

IMO it's possible to extract more information out of a film with Vuescan than it often is with OEM software but it often requires more work in PS to make use of it.

[zee]

I tried Vuescan and just didn't like it. I wasn't happy with the results on my Epson 3200, but others say it's really great. I'm getting excellent results with Silverfast AI on my 3200 and my 4990 (despite it's clunky interface and obtuse documentation). I feel it's the best on the market. You should download a trial of both Vuescan and Silverfast AI; that way you can put both apps through their paces and choose the one that gives you best results.

[rich815]

Vuescan is simply awesome. I have used it for scanning on all my Epson trannie adapter flatbed scanners: 1200U, 2450 and 4990. 6x4.5, 6x6, 6x9 and 4x5, slide, B&W and color neg. Those who find it fiddly are expecting too much "plug and play". It's a very powerful program and worth the 30 minutes of reading the help menu and understanding all its functions and capabilities.

[mendel_leisk]

I do like the extra degree of control Vuescan gives, and the raw file scan-from-disk concept. But of late, my enthusiasm is waning due to problems at both ends of my workflow:

 

1. At the scanning end, the infrared cleaning is poor compared to ICE.

 

2. At outputting finished files, I'm having no luck getting decent color balance with color negative film, but my experience is very limited. I have followed advanced workflow and tried every trick I can think of. Color slides are ok, though.

[stwrtertbsratbs5]

I own both Vuescan and Silverfast SE. I use Silverfast now almost exclusively.

 

Vuescan is patched almost weekly, and it seems there is little testing before the latest patch is released. It is written by a single person, so I can see the problem - it's difficult to test your own work. And the dust removal isn't very good. And silly features are being added, such as OCR. But I'll sell you my license ;)

 

Silverfast, on the other hand, is very reliable. And the film profiles for converting color negs are excellent. it takes some learning, but it is worth the effort. Docs are weak, so buy the Silverfast book (available used for about $10 on abebooks.com or amazon.com used books vs. $30 from Lasersoft).

 

Try both. Many people love Vuescan. It just wasn't for me.

 

Robert

[fanta]

Why don't you just give it a try? The evaluation is for free, and see how it works for you. I have been using it for hundreds of scans with a Minolta film scanner, feeding it with the canned (linear) color profile coming with my scanner, and was freaking happy about it. I experienced some instability at times, but found acceptable workarounds, and therefore Vuescan and a Minolta slide scanner have been my tools for a couple of years, until digital SLR has become affordable enough to me (today!).

[jmc]

I tested Vuescan with Agfa Scala film and one (of my many) exposrues which looks great as a sclide and immensely bad as an Epson scan, and I'm not too thrilled, yet. It seems like the secret lies in getting those parameters right, and maybe I cna get that fixed with the Epson software? But then if scanning slides is such a hassle maybe I should just get it done? Maybe I'll try that other software and see how that works. So far, I'm not impressed. I'm very open for tips etc., though - especially how to get good scans out of slides that have huge contrast.

 

- Joerg

[bobmichaels]

I've been very happy with Vuescan for many years. I used it with every scanner I've had.

 

But, as already pointed out, just download the free demo. Try it as much as you like. If you like it, just pay the registration fee and get the key to remove the watermarks from your scans. If you don't like it, just delete it. There's no better way to see if it's for you than a free trial.

[jack paradise]

Remember that as a Siverfast user, if you upgrade your scanner next year, you'll need to buy another copy of Silverfast at full price! But if you use Vuescan, about a month after the new scanner is available, it will be supported by Vuescan at no charge!

 

Vuescan as just added support for single-pass multi-scanning on most Epson and Canon scanners!

[chris_chow]

I just want to say that Vuescan works great for me. I have been using it for more than 4 years. I am into my fourth film scanner now.

 

The best thing about Vuescan is the degree of control you have and the ability to get as much information as possible from the scan, which helps me to maximize image quality later at PS. Profile the scanner and your workflow will imrpove a lot.

[frank_oddsocks]

I tried it out with my Epson 4990 under Macintosh OS X, and didn't like it.

 

The results were no better or worse than from the Epson software, except that the trial

version doesn't support colour profiles and always does its own autoexposure/white

balancing. I can't help wondering whether some of the "better" results being reported from

it are because of this.

 

My copy crashed a few times. The IR channel dust removal just plain didn't work... no

wonder it was so much faster. The Epson Scan software comes with a licensed Kodak ICE

and has never crashed on me.

 

One thing Vuescan does do better than the Epson software is scan-to-printer. Epson took

20 minutes for one page, while Vuescan took 20 seconds. This is most likely specific to

the Mac/CUPS.

[aaron l]

I've used it for several years and been generally happy with it. For the price, it's excellent. Silverfast is probably better, but that's PN speculation. ICE is no doubt better, but I balance Nikon's crappy software that came with my Coolscan IV. It does have a handy batch mode. Everything seems to require fiddling...that's the biggest gripe.

[ted_marcus1]

I used it since before it was called Vuescan ("VueSmart" for the SCSI HP Photosmart scanner) and I wouldn't be without it for scanning film. I replaced the Photosmart with a Canon FS4000US and found Vuescan much better than Canon's FilmGet (and not just because you can't disable sharpening in FilmGet). The user interface isn't the simplest or most intuitive, probably because it gives you so much control. It takes some getting used to, but when properly set it produces beautiful scans. Try it, read the tutorials, and see if it works for you.

 

The only reason I've stopped using Vuescan is that I've given up scanning negatives in favor of a digital SLR. Vuescan can read RAW files from a great many digital cameras, but the documentation about this usage is scanty and it requires calibration with a target for accurate color. Does anyone have experience using Vuescan as a RAW converter? I'm not really happy with the other RAW converters I've tried, and perhaps Old Reliable Vuescan might be a good option.

[__jon__]

Got tired of the bugs when used with my 5400. Bought Silverfast and won't ever look

back... try out the demo on Lasersoft's site.