SilverFast

[AJQS]

If I buy a new scanner (Minolta Elite 5400, I.E. A frigging good one!) Will my current Silverfast work with it? It was supplied with the Plustek, not sure whther it's going to therefore be tied in or not. I've been trying to upgrade Silverfast but it won't recognise the Serial number.

I really do not need another £100 on top of the near £500 it's going to cost for the scanner, just so I can get shots that don't change colour at will, have purple stripes or orange tops.

 

[Cuchulainn]

I think Silverfast is tied to the scanner model and can't be transferred. I don't know for 100% though - trying to get this confirmed was one of the reasons that made my decision for vuescan. Lifetime free downloads/updates, works with any scanner and when you update your computer it's no hassle to install it on the new one were the other deciding factors for vuescan for me. Naturally, your mileage may vary ;-)

 

[menthel]

It's deffo scanner tied, so you would need to buy a new version. Vuescan is the cheaper option and I also prefer it over silverfast.

 

[AJQS]

Cheers, unfortunately I find vuescan utter pants. It does appear though that SF only goes up to version 6.6 for the Minolta, so that brings it's cost down a bit.

 

[Anorakus]

I forked out €60 for v8 of Silverfast for my Plustek 7600i at the beginning of the year.... wish I hadn't bothered It has serious quality issues with underexposed slides - it takes an age to scan, and the results are awful.

Here's a typical old slide with a strong magenta cast scanned on Silverfast v8, with the multi-exposure, auto-CCR and GANE turned on:

Notice how the shadow detail in the trees disappears into a yucky dark green colour cast.

Here's the same slide scanned using Plustek's own scanner application. It scanned in a fraction of the time, and as you can see, the shadow detail in the tree branches is much much better, although it doesn't do as good a job of correcting the colour cast (however this is easily fixed in Photoshop):

Several other people have complained about this issue on the Silverfast forums. I only hope Lasersoft fix the problem, as until they do I'm stuck with a piece of software I can't use :bang:

A.