best SW for Pacific Image Pf3650 Pro 3 Scanner

[chinoloco93]

I went to Wolf/Ritz Camera today and inquired about scanning from film. 40

cents a scan which is to me way too crazy since I have about 1200 negatives to

scan.

 

I started to look for a film scanner and decided to go with a used Pacific

Image Pf3650 Pro 3 from Adorama. It seems like its nearly impossible to order

any film scanners anymore since Digital is so large. Nikon CoolScan 5000 and

Nikon CoolScan V Ed are both out of stock at Adorama and BH Photo. Who knows

what you will get on Ebay even there were a few in the price range for buy it

now. Since I have been doing research on this stuff, it looks like most people

use third party s/w for scanning. Should I use something like Silverfast or

VueScan for decent results? A few of the reviewers from amazon commented that

they got as good of as result as Kodak PhotoCD which will make me very happy.

 

Comments or advice?

Thanks in advance...

[manuel_zamora_morschhaeuse]

If you want consistent output it is very important to establish a consistent workflow, with whatever software you choose. Silverfast is a nice product, but expensive - Silverfast Ai Studio with a calibration target is about 300 Euros. Do you only have negatives or also positives? For negative scans you do not need expensive calibration features, so I'd recommend Vuescan which costs only 80$ in its professional version with calibration and raw file support.

 

And be advised: Scanning is not easy, so be prepared to invest a considerable amount of time in your scanning skills. If you do not have that much free time available, really do consider using a scan service.

 

Manuel

[chinoloco93]

negatives only. I was thinking Vuescan as my first choice too. I do alot of scanning in my real job too as a software qa engineer. just never as a negative scanning as we test document scanning on Fierys. I don't mind investing the time to learn. I have done som reasearch into this as well and most people have positive things to say about this setup even with the auto settings.

[john_elder1]

James, The Pacific Image scanner should come with software entitiled Cyberview X. Although I just started scanning myself , this software seems good. It has curves and a histogram as well as profiles for most films including B+W. I came to the conclusion that I need no other scanning software.