Silverfast 8 SE plus vs. AI?

[Landberg]

Hi!

Is there any difference between Silverfast 8 SE plus vs. AI that will have an direct impact on the IQ? Will the scans look better if i upgrade to AI? I have read the comparison on silverfast website but i don't really get it.

http://www.silverfast.com/comparison/scanner/en.html

Anyone with experience?

 

[BLKRCAT]

subbed.

10char

 

[Landberg]

I bought it and the difference is there. The colors are now more correct. 48bit makes a difference. If it is worth €180, i do not know. But i shoot a lot of film so i hope it's worth it in the long run.

 

[MartinN]

Siverfast AI is much more usable than Silverfast SE. Image quality vise it might be possible to get equal results from SE and Ai if you are lucky and skilled. Silverfast Ai gives a bit more flexibility and somewhat advanced controls for adjusting the image. But the real and great difference between Ai and SE is in workflow when doing a lot of scanning work. Ai has a lot of streamlined features for making the work faster and more consistent from image to image. SE is really limited to doing some occasional scans.
However Silverfast Ai is no silver bullet and I still work on images in Lightroom or Photoshop afterwards because I am not satisfied with what I can do in Silverfast Ai.

 

[MartinN]

And Ouch! is that software Silverfast Ai expensive but good to have !

 

[MartinN]

I would recommend the Ai version for flatbed scanners and autofeed units but I find it probably unnecessary for 'one image at a time' manual feed scanners.

 

[KEH]

I upgraded my Plustek 8200i from SE to Ai in order to get the 48 bit scans - definitely worth it. Plus you can colour calibrate the scanner, and some of the tools you can use before saving a tiff are worth it - especially the contrast control (ACCO).

Expensive, though.

Kirk