Vuescan worth the purchase?

Geert · Nov 12, 2007

Hello all,

my first post here on hybridphoto. Most people on APUG know me as argus, an analog fundamentalist
Since last summer I'm back into slides and purchased a Canon 9950F. It came bundled with Silverfast SE.

I had a lot of trouble controlling highlights and highkey slides were sometimes simply not recognised by Silverfast, where the Canon firmware did that just fine.
I have just downloaded and tried Vuescan on a few of my problematic images and the difference is huge! Better highlight control is the first advantage that I notice.

Here are some scans of a non-problematic image, note the difference:
Dead Link Removed
Dead Link Removed
Dead Link Removed (not the $ for unregistered version )

I applied some of my limited PS skills after scanning:
Auto color
levels: black & white point
a bit of brightness & contrast correction
different degree of sharpening

What are your experiences with Vuescan? 80 $ is not that much (for the Pro edition) so I consider purchasing.

Thanks and greetings,
Geert

donbga · Nov 12, 2007

Geert said:
Hello all,

my first post here on hybridphoto. Most people on APUG know me as argus, an analog fundamentalist
Since last summer I'm back into slides and purchased a Canon 9950F. It came bundled with Silverfast SE.

I had a lot of trouble controlling highlights and highkey slides were sometimes simply not recognised by Silverfast, where the Canon firmware did that just fine.
I have just downloaded and tried Vuescan on a few of my problematic images and the difference is huge! Better highlight control is the first advantage that I notice.

Here are some scans of a non-problematic image, note the difference:
Dead Link Removed
Dead Link Removed
Dead Link Removed (not the $ for unregistered version )

I applied some of my limited PS skills after scanning:
Auto color
levels: black & white point
a bit of brightness & contrast correction
different degree of sharpening

What are your experiences with Vuescan? 80 $ is not that much (for the Pro edition) so I consider purchasing.

Thanks and greetings,
Geert

I think Vuescan Pro is worth the $80. It has a number of nice features and you get a lifetime upgrade for your money. I've made many nice scans with though there are times when I hate the user interface.

Don Bryant

David A. Goldfarb · Nov 12, 2007

Well, if you have an old SCSI scanner with no drivers for current operating systems, like I do, it's worth it. It also offers more control than I had with the manufacturer's interfact on my Minolta Dimage Scan Dual (I). On the other hand, I prefer Agfa's Foto Look for my Duoscan, and fortunately, it runs in Windows XP.

Baxter Bradford · Nov 13, 2007

I haven't used Vuescan for a long while, but was a huge fan. It significantly improved the performance of my Epson scanner in many respects. Multipass scans improved dynamic range and IT8 profiling using the inbuilt feature made colour more accurate.

Tried switching to a Microtek for a while and had to use Silverfast - despite trying really hard with much reading of manual and following tutorials, could not get consistent results. Vuescan wasn't available for this scanner at the time being a new model. But Ed Hamrick was very proactive in trying to get hold of a scanner in order to make it work with the 1800F.

Unlimited upgrades and platform switching adds peace of mind. Silverfast license is scanner specific.

I particularly liked the ability to save presets. Also sampling from rebate to set filmbase+fog density worked well for B+W.

THardy · Nov 13, 2007

I think it depends on
1. The scanner
2. Operating system

I've used Vuescan with my 35mm film scanner with excellent results. The supplied software was almost unusable.

Vuescan does not work very well, with my Epson 4490 flat-bed. I just checked and there seems to be an issue with Vuescan, the scanner and my intel powered Mac. (no Intel plug-in found).

Do a search on the website to make sure there are no issues. But if the free version works, it should be ok after you purchase it. Right?

donbga · Nov 13, 2007

Baxter Bradford said:
Also sampling from rebate to set filmbase+fog density worked well for B+W.

Baxter,

Can you elaborate on what you mean here?

Thanks,

Don Bryant

Baxter Bradford · Nov 14, 2007

Hi Don

Please accept that I haven't done this with Vuescan for 4 years or so! It involves intentionally including some film rebate in the area to be scanned. You can then sample from this rebate to set the Black point and save this as a preset for each film+developer combination. I think you can do it from a pre-scan, then realign the neg before making the proper scan.Thus the scanner knows what a true black should look like. I think that the feature was explained in the Help menu.

I still use this technique with my Flextight. It is especially good with E6 when some film bases seem to have slightly different blacks.

HTH

frugal · Nov 14, 2007

Baxter Bradford said:
Hi Don

Please accept that I haven't done this with Vuescan for 4 years or so! It involves intentionally including some film rebate in the area to be scanned. You can then sample from this rebate to set the Black point and save this as a preset for each film+developer combination. I think you can do it from a pre-scan, then realign the neg before making the proper scan.Thus the scanner knows what a true black should look like. I think that the feature was explained in the Help menu.

Just elaborating, there's a process of scanning an "image" with a good amount of clear film base (could just scan the film base) and you then use lock film base and lock exposure too if memory serves (been a little while since I've done this too). Even if you don't do this for every developer and film combination, it's very handy to do this just before you scan a batch of the same developer and film combination, makes all the scans go quicker (doesn't have to calculate this for each image) and you'll get more accurate/consistent results.

If memory serves, I think you can do the same thing with colour negs for adjusting for the colour mask.

Vuescan worth the purchase?

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