What is your favorite scanning software?

[Ron (Netherlands)]

Nikonscan didn't work on my iMac 27" with OSX 10.8.2 so took a chance with vuescan. Not easy to use interface. Btw I'm using a Nikon coolscan 8000. Scan results are a bit mixed. B&W comes out ugly so I always scan as if a color film is inside. Slides are nicely scanned though.

 

[Gabriel M.A.]

Absolutely false. The scans come out flat, whether you like it or not. That's how the hardware works. No software can change that. Applying adjustments in the scan software does the exact same thing as applying them in photoshop, except Photoshop allows more precise and extensive controls.

Actually, neither answer is absolutely either true or false. Little nuance: while the hardware does what hardware does, you must tell the hardware how to do it. In Nikon's case with their last two Coolscan models, you can adjust channels individually; the engineers did this with the understanding that knowledgeable users have the understanding that different films will scan better with certain channel(s) than other(s).

While "raw data" is "raw" data, the "raw data" is not an absolute in this context since the hardware itself can be adjusted, and the resulting information with one setting "vs" the other will be different from one sampling to the other.

Nikon Scan software and Silverfast (not SE) allow you to adjust each channel individually. While colorspace is already an esoterical concept (specially for the "who cares!"-ists), I can understand how even more obscure and outofthearse-ish this may seem to many.

So, no absolute truths or falsehoods. Details and nuances.

 

[cabbiinc]

For Coolscan 5000: Silverfast. The IR channel when using VueScan is effectively useless.

I still manage to use the Nikon Scan software with Windoze 7 64-bit.

I only have a Nikon 2000, but the IR channel in Vuescan is quite useable for me. Possibly an update fixed a problem that you've seen before. A moot point as you have software that you're happy with, and I'm not actually trying to persuade you into another.

 

[luuca]

I'm not going to vote here. I use silverfast, but would never endorse it. The results are probably about as good as you can get, but the user interface is just awful. I was hoping version 8 would be better, but no it was just different. Another steep learning curve.

exactly what I think.

I use silverfast 8 with v700, but man, who invented this interface???
but results are very, very good.

 

[whitecat]

I like Vuescan but the setup for batch scanning is tough.

 

[Rangefinder 35]

Having used Silverfast, as well as Vuescan, I have to say that the latter's ability to scan in RAW has won me over. Now, if I only could adapt 35mm slide carrier (minolta multipro) to wet mounting...

 

[Pioneer]

Epson Scan works, is relatively intuitive, and fits the scanner quite well. I have Silverfast but never really warmed up to the interface so I went back to Epson's software.

 

[Blaufeld]

I have Epson Scan, and I've tried the Vuescan demo. The Epson prog give me excellent medium format results, and very good 35mm ones, Vuescan is too much an hassle for marginally better results and give me big probs with redscaled film,so no way I'll ever use it.

 

[tarullifoto]

I just bought Vuescan. I'm stunned at just how much better it delivers on my Coolscan V-ED than the Nikon Scan I was using before. My only complaint is that it seems to have a hard time finding the edge of my frames on Velvia and Ektar.

 

[DrTebi]

just raw scans

just raw scans

I have been using Vuescan for a while, but I never really liked the interface too much. Somehow it always wants to make it's own settings, even after saving settings and re-loading them. It also appeared a bit slow compared to the original scanner software (in my case a Minolta Dimage Multi Pro).

But after my "discovery" of Colorperfect, I now don't really care much about what software I use. Because I always get the best results by doing "raw" or "linear" scans, and then running the Colorperfect filter on the raw file in Photoshop. It really gets me very close to the originals (when comparing to the slides on a light table). So I now actually use the Minolta software that came with the scanner, and set it to 16bit linear scan. The software hardly ever crashes (Vuescan does sometimes), it's quite fast, and just works. I don't have to worry about the software messing up colors etc., since it will be "raw" and Colorperfect can handle the rest from then on.

 

[Harry Lime]

I have a love - hate relationship with Silverfast.

One one hand it is expensive, the interface is convoluted and the documentation is spotty. I also hate that you need get your liciense keyed for multiple scanners.

On the other hand the multiexposure feature delivers a very noticeable boost in image quality over any other scanning software I have used (NikonScan, Vuescan, minolta something...). I'm consistenly impressed by how much more detail I can pull out of the shadows and highlights. Basically it does a bracketed exposure and generates an HDR scan of your negative. I'm going back and rescanning all of my key negatives because of this and it's also the only reason why I am willing to put up with all of the bad points.

Oh, and unlike NikonScan it will run on a current version of OS X.

 

[Godfrey]

Been working with VueScan a lot again lately. Learned a whole bunch of new tricks using it for automating scans with odd formats like Minox submini and 24x24 mm. Still my favorite scanning app. 🙂

 

[Pete B]

I used to get poor results with vuescan on a V700. Much better with EpsonScan. I've now a Plustek 8100 and Vuescan is superb with it. I guess it depends on what scanner is being used.
Pete

 

[Dralowid]

I used to get on well with Epson Scan but my new Imac (10.8.2) won't run it so it looks like Vuescan for me, which is a shame. Epson Scan is so easy.

Michael

 

[rbiemer]

I voted "other"--my favorite software is what ever Precision Camera uses...
Rob

 

[Godfrey]

I used to get poor results with vuescan on a V700. Much better with EpsonScan. I've now a Plustek 8100 and Vuescan is superb with it. I guess it depends on what scanner is being used.
Pete

It is interesting. When I had the V700, I never liked its output with VS as much as when I used the Epson 2450. Sold the V700 and kept the 2450. But it ran my Polaroid SprintScan 35E/S, Minolta Scan Dual II, and now the Nikon Coolscan V and 9000 very very well, better than the original software by far.

G

 

[maitani]

Nikon Scan

 

[Murchu]

Favourite is a strong word, I pretty much hate using them all, and thus opted for Vuescan by way of pain minimisation and not having to learn another tortorous piece of scanning software..

 

[DrTebi]

Vuescan. It's capable and it works on Linux - both very important pluses. Having said that, I tend to avoid scanning colour negatives since I find getting the final colours right to be an utter pain in the bum.

To get a grip on the colors of negative scans, there are a couple of things I do:
I scan the image as a tiff, then open Adobe Bridge, right-click on the image and do "Open in CameraRaw". This allows me to adjust the white balance, vibrance and more details which can help with colors. If your scans are consistent (as in consistently wrong color), CameraRaw also as an option to apply previously used settings or save settings.

Another option is ColorPerfect. I have been using it since a couple of month and am quite happy with the results. The user interface is definitely awkward, but making positive raw scans of negatives with my scanner and then sending these through just the default setting of ColorPerfect got me always a great start that only needed small color adjustments.

If you want a free solution however, you should check out Photivo. It's my favorite post-processing software for images. It has countless modules for adjusting color and much more; it also allows to save settings and even batch-process images based on a setting.

I often use all three of the options above... here is my latest set, shot on Ektar 100, which I think turned out quite nice in terms of colors etc:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/drtebi/sets/72157632884579029/detail/

 

[tsiklonaut]

ColorQuartet

ColorQuartet

ColorQuartet 5+ uses some black magic algorithms for colours and tonal rendition. Together with ScanView drumscanner's photomultiplier signal output it's capable of some stunning colours and tonality IMHO. It sets the white and black points not so precise automactically, but the manual fine-tuning algorithm is very intuitive if not one of the most elegant way doing it that I've seen on any scanner software I've tried i.e. SilverFast, Epson, VueScan - almost like the engine works in LAB-space for continous tonality and RGB-space for colours only simultanously - you really feel in control in just few adjustments while in other softwares you oten need to mess with a lot of ajustments to get simple things right to get a very decent flat raw scan from E6 slide. If you get the rest right and with intuitive play around those adjustments CQ just renders the image superbly for a raw-scan that is a joy to work on in PP.

It's good for B&W negatives as well.

Colour negative scanning in CQ is allright, nothing spectacular, but decent if you know your way around in CQ.

So although it's an "obsolete" software it's still overall a very nice software to work with and my current workhorse.