Vuescan

[Jack the boatman]

Hello,
I am currently scanning my negatives, both colour and B&W using a Canon flat bed scanner. This seems to work OK, but I hear good reviews about Vuescan. What extra will this give me?

Thanks

Jack

[Ed Richards]

A lot better control of everything. I use it with an older canon scanner and it is much better than the factory software. But it has a trial - give it a try.

[patrickjames]

You will get more control with Vuescan. For black and white it isn't even close. Vuescan wins hands down. Color negative is pretty easy to do with the canon software. Transparencies will be better in Vuescan.

This of course assumes you spend the time to learn Vuescan, but it really isn't that difficult. A few simple things will get you 90% there.

I have been using Vuesan for a few years now with several different scanners. I love it. A lot of the scans I do at this point barely need any post.

Make sure you get the professional version if you buy it. It is twice the price but includes updates for life. I wish Adobe was like that!

[Brent Long]

I pretty much concur with what others have said. What I personally think is such a winning point for Vuescan is that it lets you get the software out of the way of the scan very easily and, comparatively, intuitively. It is a guess as to what controls are really doing what in most OEM software. They label controls based on perceived effect, rather than what is actually being done to achieve a certain effect. It is very confusing and can take a lot of guesswork and testing to figure it out. Some things cannot be done/turned off, etc. in the OEM software, while you do have that option in Vuescan.

That isn't to say that you won't find yourself doing testing in Vuescan, but I'd say it is more straightforward, and a quick consultation with a Google search will almost always shorten (or even do away with) your testing. Someone has invariably already done it, or at least tried.

[h2oman]

I don't know what scanner you are using, but I have a CanoScan 9950F. I use Vuescan, but one issue is that Vuescan will not work with that scanner and a computer with a 64 bit processor. I use the scanner with our older computer, which has a 32 bit processor. With a newer scanner you might not have that problem.

[Preston]

I have a Microtek 1800f and Vuescan was the only driver I could find that would work with my scanner and Win 7-64 bit.

Vuescan works well and is the best bang for the buck. Ken Lee has some great tips for using Vuescan on his web site. They sure made a difference for me when scanning color transparencies. Check it out.

--P

--P

[Brent Long]

I don't know what scanner you are using, but I have a CanoScan 9950F. I use Vuescan, but one issue is that Vuescan will not work with that scanner and a computer with a 64 bit processor. I use the scanner with our older computer, which has a 32 bit processor. With a newer scanner you might not have that problem.

Have you checked with Ed Hamrick about this? I doubt that this is a shortcoming of Vuescan.

[h2oman]

Yes, I have, and he told me I'm out of luck. I'm kind of an IT moron, so I don't know what the problem is, but I sent him a query when I found it didn't work with my new computer.

[patrickjames]

I have Osx Lion on a new mac mini and use the 32bit version of Vuescan on it (per Hamrick) in place of the 64bit after having problems with the 64bit. One of my scanners is a 9950f as well. It runs fine. No problems. I imagine he will fix it at some point. I really don't care myself since it works.

[Ed Richards]

I have a 9950 and use Vuescan 64 bit under Win 7. No problems.