Vuescan professional vs standard edition for scanning negatives/slides

N

NickT

Suspended / Banned
Messages
642
Edit My Images
No
On my current PC I have Vuescan 8.6.21 running under Windows Vista (Yuk). My PC is no longer good enough for the software development tasks that I want, so I've replaced it with a laptop and installed Ubuntu on it. I just can't stand Windows anymore and Windows 10 is very intrusive. I'd like to be able to run Vuescan on the new machine and connect my ancient Dual Scan II to it. It quite happily scans negatives and slides in their respective holders. Looking at the Vuescan home page https://www.hamrick.com/ I see that the standard edition doesn't support film/slide scanning, whereas my current standard version on the Windows machine does. I find it hard to believe that this feature has been removed.

Has anyone got sufficient experience with the current standard version to comment on this?
 
NickT said:
On my current PC I have Vuescan 8.6.21 running under Windows Vista (Yuk). My PC is no longer good enough for the software development tasks that I want, so I've replaced it with a laptop and installed Ubuntu on it. I just can't stand Windows anymore and Windows 10 is very intrusive. I'd like to be able to run Vuescan on the new machine and connect my ancient Dual Scan II to it. It quite happily scans negatives and slides in their respective holders. Looking at the Vuescan home page https://www.hamrick.com/ I see that the standard edition doesn't support film/slide scanning, whereas my current standard version on the Windows machine does. I find it hard to believe that this feature has been removed.

Has anyone got sufficient experience with the current standard version to comment on this?
Click to expand...

Nick, that is very odd, I think they must have changed things. Although I did actually buy the pro version, I'm confident the standard version did support film and slide scanning then. I thought the pro version was well worth the extra money anyway (considering I was comparing it with upgrading to version 8 of Silverfast SE), as it unlocked additional features that I use every time I scan, and also that I get continued upgrades for no further cash. Vuescan itself is also good value in that it supports all the scanners you own; I've even used it to scan stuff on my Canon All-in-one printer/scanner! So if you do buy a new scanner, you won't need new software with it.

EDIT: I see with standard you get free upgrades for one year. I'm still getting regular upgrades nearly 3 years later, makes the Pro version a good choice!
 
Last edited:
It's not much use if it only scans documents and not negatives or slides. Ubuntu comes with a built-in app called 'simple-scan' which recognises my old Canon 35 LIDE flatbed without requiring any additional drivers to be loaded. It just works out of the box and does a perfectly adequate job of scanning documents or photographs. It doesn't need any of the junk such as 'Canoscan Toolbox' that my Windows machine requires to make the flatbed work. Although the Linux command lsusb shows my Dual Scan as being connected, unsurprisingly the simple-scan app can't drive it.
 
Last edited:
I don't think you would regret Vuescan Pro...
 
I bought the original vuescan when it first came out, a year or so later it was upgraded to the pro free of charge, with lifetime upgrades (as did the original version)
I would not even consider anything else, it works on anything.
 
My current version of Vuescan Pro is 9.5.36 and it tells me there is a version 9.5.47 available for free upgrade. There is also a Compatibility mode where you can choose an old version of Windows for it to be compatible with, and this seems to include Vista, so don't know if you could try that Nick?

Checking back for my receipt, it seems it cost me $79.95 in 2007 and it's still getting upgrades, so that's a whole lot cheaper than Microsoft!
 
Last edited:
All I want is the same functionality as I currently have under Windows but under Linux on my new machine. I don't want to spend 100 dollars to get it. I would spend 50 dollars on the basic edition if it scanned negatives and slides.
 
The Hamrick website seems to suggest that there is no film scanning available on the Standard version regardless of whether you are using Windows or Linux, so it looks like that really is the case? https://www.hamrick.com/#download
 
As I've also got a flaky old laptop which my friend's student son threw out and I put an older version of Ubuntu on, I'll download the standard trial version on to that and see what it does. I was rather hoping that a forum member had got the standard Linux version and could tell me with certainty whether negative scanning worked on it.
 
Nick, why not email Ed Hamrick and ask him? He's answered every one of my half dozen questions, often within a day.
 
ChrisR said:
Nick, why not email Ed Hamrick and ask him? He's answered every one of my half dozen questions, often within a day.
Click to expand...
You're right Chris. It's the only way to be sure, so I have e-mailed support @Vuescan. I downloaded the single Linux tarball to the old laptop, selected the standard option and tried to scan. It did scan and save watermarked (as expected , I was in trial mode) files but then popped up a screen saying it required a professional license (sic). I shall await the reply. If I can't have it for $50, I'll keep using the Windows machine.
 
The other option is the old version of Vuescan in a Windows/VirtualBox virtual machine on Linux. Bit of a pain in the arse but it saves having two computers set up.
 
There are many choices for me to consider, so many it would be a very long rambling post. Let's just say I'm thinking about it. Ed Hamrick kindly did reply to me, to say 'Yes I did need the professional editition' which I can get for about $50 by upgrading my existing licence. I have to enter my original serial number, which he helped me to recover. I now have all the information I need about Vusecan to assist me in making a choice. My thanks go to all contributors to this thread.
 
Peter B said:
Checking back for my receipt, it seems it cost me $79.95 in 2007 and it's still getting upgrades, so that's a whole lot cheaper than Microsoft!
Click to expand...

A bargain isn't it :)

I bought Vuescan in June 2001 for $40, that's 15 years so far of free upgrades :) And in all that time the price for new customers has not increased too much.
 
NickT said:
There are many choices for me to consider, so many it would be a very long rambling post. Let's just say I'm thinking about it. Ed Hamrick kindly did reply to me, to say 'Yes I did need the professional editition' which I can get for about $50 by upgrading my existing licence. I have to enter my original serial number, which he helped me to recover. I now have all the information I need about Vusecan to assist me in making a choice. My thanks go to all contributors to this thread.
Click to expand...

Sounds like a result Nick, and remember the future eupgrades will presumably be free for the Pro version. :)
 
NickT said:
There are many choices for me to consider, so many it would be a very long rambling post. Let's just say I'm thinking about it. Ed Hamrick kindly did reply to me, to say 'Yes I did need the professional editition' which I can get for about $50 by upgrading my existing licence. I have to enter my original serial number, which he helped me to recover. I now have all the information I need about Vusecan to assist me in making a choice. My thanks go to all contributors to this thread.
Click to expand...

It would seem to me that a lifetime $50 investment would be a no brainer, What ever scanning device you buy, or what ever operating system you care to use you know you will have the best scans possible with that mix. One nice thing is, that you are not constantly having to come to grips with new software, though some scanners offer different features.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top