Scanning software choice

[Tim k]

Yesterday I found a v-700 for cheap. So it came home with me. It seems to work pretty good. I've attached my first scan. Actually its a hoot. Its frigging amazing the amount of info in a 400 meg file. And I've had all those old negs in a box, that I've been too cheap to have scanned. I think I've already broke even.

The Epson scan software works fine, The boxed Silverfast wont run on my Vista machine, and they want money to upgrade.

Question is, is it worth the money to upgrade? Vuescan is cheap enough, is that a better option? Or should I stick with the Epson and forget about it till I figure out what I'm doing?

Thanks guys

[SW Rick]

Tim,

whoa, this will bring 'em out of the woodwork! Suggest you work with the Epson software, probably using Pro mode, and get proficient. Then you can look at Vuescan or whatever if you're not satisfied. Vuescan has a trial mode BTW.

Rick

[Ken Lee]

"The Epson scan software works fine"

Precisely.

I've used all 3 programs. For that Epson scanner, in my humble opinion, the Epson software is not only fine, it's the best.

Great photo by the way

[Kirk Gittings]

I used to be a big supporter of Silverfast until I ran into the same upgrade issue you mention above and some ridiculous customer service from them. Frankly for b&w I now find the Epson software to be entirely adequate.

[Professional]

In fact i ignored SilverFast because of they money upgrade policy, so i went with Epson software and i also bought VueScan Lifetime, so i have 2 options, even i can use SilverFast the old version but i see it as weird and painful and i don't want to spend hours to figure out how to use it even it is the best, so i just prefer Epson and i have really nice results, and i started to use VueScan to see what it can do as well.

BTW, i have V750.

[Peter De Smidt]

Here's another vote to master the Epson Professional software.

[Moopheus]

even i can use SilverFast the old version but i see it as weird and painful and i don't want to spend hours to figure out how to use it even it is the best,

This is a huge drawback to Silverfast. You can get good scans with it, but what is the point of such powerful software if it is so hard to use? The user interface is terrible and the documentation is beyond terrible. Given that they charge a premium price for it, it should be better in that regard.

I haven't used Epson scan all that much--for some reason it keeps crashing if I try to use an icc profile.

[rdenney]

Start simple. Do what works. Those little phrases do make life easier.

I've been a Vuescan user for many years, and it has allowed me to use scanners for which updated software is no longer available from their makers. That would be my next step if the Epson software ever fails to "work".

Rick "who uses Vuescan as an obsolescence avoider" Denney

[domaz]

I use Vuescan- and as Rick says it is a great piece of software that can be used with many different scanners and Operating Systems. I do all my scanning on a Linux box, for instance. I like having a dedicated scanning machine that I don't have to pay any Operating System licensing fees to operate. That's not the only advantage of Vuescan though- it really has a lot of nice features like Locking the exposure/film base so you can get consistent scans from film that has been developed the same (i.e. same roll or same development batch). You can also turn on the "Show Density" function and use it as a basic densiometer. Just all kinds of cool features in Vuescan and I'm a features guy so I like that.

[ljsegil]

I prefer Epson Scan, but have one problem with it that I cannot decipher, and that upgrading to their current version did not help. I seem to hit a memory limit if I try to scan 8x10 film at the rated 2400 spi. The scanner just won't try. The older software version gave me an inadequate memory message, the newer just gives me a blank scan (but it's a quick scan at least). If I drop to 1200 spi the scanner happily goes ahead and gives me a file that has more than adequate pixels for any enlargement I can make, but I am concerned that I may be losing some resolution compared to the best that the v750 can produce. Smaller formats scan just fine at 2400 spi. Vuescan will produce a 2400 spi scan of an 8x10, so I'm pretty convinced that it is the Epson software that is limiting.
Any ideas?
Larry