Thoughts on Silverfast 8

[daveywaugh]

Just wondering what people think of the new version of Silverfast?

I've just a had a day with it and it runs my Plustek 7600 well on the iMac with Lion - so that's a big plus ;-) User interface seems slick (although not necessarily any easier to use IMO). Somewhat disappointed there are no profiles for new films (like Portra 400). There's obviously been no work on anything other than the interface. Few new profiles that are 'missing' would have been a nice addition.

So top works for stability on Lion (and I assume Windows 7) but nothing really that new... at least nothing I have seen yet. What are your thoughts?

 

[Clancycoop]

I am having a hard time getting decent scans--though I am new to Silverfast and negative scanning in general. I'm probably not much help. Are there profiles for older films? I haven't seen any profiles at all.

 

[shambla]

Lion compatibility is obviously a big plus for us OS X users, but from what you say it seems to be just GUI changes - I assume that you haven't noticed any improvements in image quality between V8 and earlier versions?

Regarding the film profiles, I read somewhere (possibly on the Silverfast support forums) that the 3rd party company that used to manufacture the film profiling targets that Silverfast use to create the negafix profiles went out of business some years ago. In the absence of a new source, they are unable to add profiles for any newer films. I am a big fan of the new Portra 400 and 160, so I agree this is a little annoying - I've just settled for using the existing 400NC and 160NC profiles and the results aren't bad with my V700.

 

[nonuniform]

I've been using Silverfast 8 for the past few days with my Epson v750.

Some thoughts:

Managing Color - I'm sill learning the color balance interfaces, and my initial response is that they aren't working well for me. I find it very difficult to manage color. I'm hoping that this will improve as I learn how I'm supposed to use the app.

Managing output curves - it seems simple, but still not quite getting what I want in terms of control over the output curve.

File naming - Want the app to just do sequential file numbering while I scan. I know this is because I'm missing something about how the app works.

Create multiple scan frames - I seem to recall being able to select multiple areas in the scan area to scan as separate images. Haven't figured out how to do this yet.

Documentation - there is none. That's part of my problem.

Overall scan output - actually, very good. Given my feedback above, you'd expect that I would be unhappy overall, I'm not. My scans are actually better than with the previous version of Silverfast.

 

[photoninja]

Hi davey

There's obviously been no work on anything other than the interface. Few new profiles that are 'missing' would have been a nice addition.

So top works for stability on Lion (and I assume Windows 7) but nothing really that new... at least nothing I have seen yet. What are your thoughts?

pretty bald statement yours. Perhaps you are not really very familiar with the previous version.

These guys have done more than a simple GUI revamp.

In previous versions of SilverFast you had no preview of your individual adjustments in real time, you had to open every window individually and generate a new preview for every tool to see your adjustments, these would not be reflected in the big preview windows.
To keep working with your picture you had to close the last tool to open the next one (loosing the last adjustment preview on the way).
For some tools you had to even wait until the endscan was ready to really see the adjustment.

SilverFast 8 now let me see all my changes in real time, I can activate and deactivate all filters with the checkboxes at will to see the effects (without losing my changes or destroying the image), from my experience I can not find anything similar in any other scanning application.

Another thing they changed is the size of the resulting files, previous versions had the 2 GB hurdle, this is practically non-existent anymore.

Image quality improvements, well SilverFast 6 did a pretty good job, it did get the most out of my scanners (even the crappy ones), I could obtain a much higher quality than the manufacturer programs or other scanning apps.
I have certainly seen some improvements in the noise level of a few negatives and Kodachrome slides with my plustek 7600i and ME.
Given the quality of the scanner compared to my Nikon 5000 I dare to say it might be almost impossible to get more juice out of it.

In my humble opinion I believe there is more than meets the eye here (I mean its developers deserve a little more credit), sure the program needs some polishing and adjustments here and there but all in all they have made a fine job.

 

[gnuyork]

Given the quality of the scanner compared to my Nikon 5000 I dare to say it might be almost impossible to get more juice out of it.

How much better if at all is the Nikon vs Plustek with Silverfast Studio? I have an Epson v750 and I am considering upgrading to a dedicated 35mm scanner (and keeping the v750 for the LF scans).

I get pretty good scans on the v750 that print well, but I don't know any different. I keep reading that dedicated film scanners are better, and I tend to believe that, but how much better? Worth getting a second scanner?