Why I selected Silverfast 9 over Scanvue (Nikon 5000 ED)

[PhilBurton]

When I first starting comparing these two applications, I thought I would end up with Scanvue, because it was a lot less money than Silverfast and honestly I don't need all the image editing features in Silverfast. I use Lightroom for all my digital photo cataloging and editing, etc., so all I wanted was the best possible scan that I could process in Lightroom with the same tools.

My specific use case is that I have this scanner, including the SF-210 batch feeder, which has a 50 slide capacity. I have, at a rough estimate 30-40 thousand slides, all Kodak. The vast majority are Kodachrome, with Ektachrome probably 15-20%. I also have about 10 thousand B&W negatives, and maybe one thousand color negatives, all 35 mm.

So I selected Silverfast on the basis of doing a better job with Kodachrome than Scanvue. Specifically:

• Multi-scanning Kodachrome produced much more shadow detail with Silverfast. With Scanvue, there was no perceptible increase in shadow details.
  
• Silverfast took about 1/3 to 1/2 the time to multi-scan than Scanvue, and the scanner made less noise.
  
• On several multi-scanned slides, Scanvue actually "unsharpened" a diagonal line. There was no such issue with Silverfast.

These results were not what I expected, and I certainly would not generalize my results to say everyone should choose Silverfast. But for me, it was the right choice.

IR dust and scratch removal is just not an issue with me, because it can be used for only a small fraction of my total material. I will use Lightroom and Photoshop as needed for that purpose.

Yes, I know that the Silverfast interface is challenging, but since I don't need to actually edit images in Silverfast, I can safely ignore many of the settings. Also, I would add that since I already know how to use the DEVELOP image editing tools in Lightroom, I don't think I would have the same learning curve as someone without that experience.

 

[MattKing]

Are you, by chance, meaning to refer to "VueScan" software?
I'm not familiar with Scanvue.

 

[PhilBurton]

Are you, by chance, meaning to refer to "VueScan" software?
I'm not familiar with Scanvue.

Yup, I meant Vuescan. My bad.

 

[fs999]

I really like SilverFast 9, but I would prefer the old job window, now I must specify on every scan the filename with the image number...

 

[grat]

I really like SilverFast 9, but I would prefer the old job window, now I must specify on every scan the filename with the image number...

Ugh. They did away with the batch scan window as well?

 

[Les Sarile]

Hey Phil, curious how many frames of film you've scanned so far?

 

[Wallendo]

Since both programs generally directly access the scanner instead of using system drivers, the relative speeds of each vary with different scanners (my personal experience).

I actually use both programs:
SilverFast does a better job with dust removal and color balance, but my version is limited to 8/24 bit images, there is a hefty upgrade fee to get 16/48 bit TIFF's. It also doesn't support ProPhotoRGB which is the native color space used by Lightroom.
I tend to use SilverFast for color and VueScan for black and white.
Fortunately for me, SilverFast was included with my film scanner and was offered as a free download for my Epson flatbed.
Both programs have very poor documentation. VueScan is frequently updated, but sometimes features change without warning

 

[grat]

Silverfast discounts the upgrade fee if you have an Epson-- at least, they did 6 months ago.

 

[PhilBurton]

Hey Phil, curious how many frames of film you've scanned so far?

Several hundred slides, about 100 B&W negatives. I'm still in the process of inventorying my entire collection of slides and negatives and organizing them by year. It's a lot of work. I'm catching up on 40 years of film photography.

 

[fs999]

Ugh. They did away with the batch scan window as well

No the job window is unchanged. In version 8 you had to select all the scans to start the job, with version 9 all the scans are automatically selected, which is problematic when you want to not use one or more shots.
I meant the window when you start the job where you select the directory and the name of the scans. I had the habit to name Imgp0 and start the counter with 01. In version 9 they add an underscore after the name of the frame and you cannot specify a global name.

 

[Les Sarile]

• Multi-scanning Kodachrome produced much more shadow detail with Silverfast. With Scanvue, there was no perceptible increase in shadow details.

Do you have results that you can share that show this difference?

 

[SchwinnParamount]

I really like SilverFast 9, but I would prefer the old job window, now I must specify on every scan the filename with the image number...

Yeah, this is annoying... and easily fixed if that feature's developer was freed from schedules and resources to just fix it. Blame some product manager for our annoyance.

 

[SchwinnParamount]

... VueScan is frequently updated, but sometimes features change without warning...

Most of these updates are because the father/son developer team has time to write code but not test it. You are their tester. The frequent updates are really "Oops! I guess we broke that feature, thanks for telling us we f-ed up. Here's a fix"
I know, because I worked for the biggest software company in the universe before, during, and after it fired all of its test engineers - Microsoft.

 

[TheFlyingCamera]

Most of these updates are because the father/son developer team has time to write code but not test it. You are their tester. The frequent updates are really "Oops! I guess we broke that feature, thanks for telling us we f-ed up. Here's a fix"

THIS ^^^^^ is why I won't buy VueScan. That and their demo won't let you see actual results that you would want to produce. If I can't produce high-res results that aren't watermarked, then I cannot see what the software is capable of, so even if it were free, I wouldn't get it.

 

[grat]

I know, because I worked for the biggest software company in the universe before, during, and after it fired all of its test engineers - Microsoft.

While Windows might run on more computers, I suspect IBM has written more lines of code in the past 75 years than Microsoft.

And who knows how many lines of code are present in Deep Thought.

 

[SchwinnParamount]

While Windows might run on more computers, I suspect IBM has written more lines of code in the past 75 years than Microsoft.

And who knows how many lines of code are present in Deep Thought.

Quite possible, but you have to remember that IBM developers have been writing in an Assembly language or Cobol whereas Microsoft engineers write primarily in C++.

 

[SchwinnParamount]

THIS ^^^^^ is why I won't buy VueScan. That and their demo won't let you see actual results that you would want to produce. If I can't produce high-res results that aren't watermarked, then I cannot see what the software is capable of, so even if it were free, I wouldn't get it.

Silverfast is just as bad, if not worse about watermarking their demo scans.

 

[nickandre]

Most of these updates are because the father/son developer team has time to write code but not test it. You are their tester. The frequent updates are really "Oops! I guess we broke that feature, thanks for telling us we f-ed up. Here's a fix"
I know, because I worked for the biggest software company in the universe before, during, and after it fired all of its test engineers - Microsoft.

I will say though there was quite an exhilarating rush having big bucks Fortune 500 company customers doing the testing for my terrible OneNote code

PS: some crazy person released a signed driver for Nikon Scan 4 for my Coolscan V to get it running on Win10. Been a while since I tried others but it seems to provide better color than others. I actually just scanned some slides from 1959 and it did a great job restoring the fading: this is my grandmother on her wedding day.

 

[Les Sarile]

I will say though there was quite an exhilarating rush having big bucks Fortune 500 company customers doing the testing for my terrible OneNote code

PS: some crazy person released a signed driver for Nikon Scan 4 for my Coolscan V to get it running on Win10. Been a while since I tried others but it seems to provide better color than others. I actually just scanned some slides from 1959 and it did a great job restoring the fading: this is my grandmother on her wedding day.

Lovely image! It's not often one has the actual film that far back.

 

[SchwinnParamount]

I will say though there was quite an exhilarating rush having big bucks Fortune 500 company customers doing the testing for my terrible OneNote code

PS: some crazy person released a signed driver for Nikon Scan 4 for my Coolscan V to get it running on Win10. Been a while since I tried others but it seems to provide better color than others. I actually just scanned some slides from 1959 and it did a great job restoring the fading: this is my grandmother on her wedding day.

Oh man, I loved my Coolscan V... until the USB port on the back (not properly supported and allowed to flex at the solder joint... grrr!) broke. The scanner is otherwise fine. I wonder if I can find someone to re solder the port?

 

[Alan Edward Klein]

Most of these updates are because the father/son developer team has time to write code but not test it. You are their tester. The frequent updates are really "Oops! I guess we broke that feature, thanks for telling us we f-ed up. Here's a fix"
I know, because I worked for the biggest software company in the universe before, during, and after it fired all of its test engineers - Microsoft.

Oh! So you're the one.

 

[SchwinnParamount]

Oh! So you're the one.

Yep. That's me. Bill G and I were talking one day and I said "Bill, why don't you fire all the tester? We don't need 'em. The engineers write perfect code. No need to test" I guess he bought it.

 

[brbo]

Vuescan supports (or "supports") hundreds of scanners. All of them for the same lifetime licence of a whooping $79. And here we are, bitching that Vuescan doesn't FULLY support EVERY scanner produced from day one. And doesn't test every device for regressions or bugs with every new version they release. Report the bugs or just spend 5x the money for every scanner you own and use/suffer with Silverfast.

Btw, MS didn't get any worse at some point when they presumably fired all testers. It was always horrible.

 

[Alan Edward Klein]

Yep. That's me. Bill G and I were talking one day and I said "Bill, why don't you fire all the tester? We don't need 'em. The engineers write perfect code. No need to test" I guess he bought it.

You made him a billionaire saving him all that money.

 

[Alan Edward Klein]

Vuescan supports (or "supports") hundreds of scanners. All of them for the same lifetime licence of a whooping $79. And here we are, bitching that Vuescan doesn't FULLY support EVERY scanner produced from day one. And doesn't test every device for regressions or bugs with every new version they release. Report the bugs or just spend 5x the money for every scanner you own and use/suffer with Silverfast.

Btw, MS didn't get any worse at some point when they presumably fired all testers. It was always horrible.

One thing nice about my ten-year-old Epsonscan, I don't think they ever updated it. There's something to be said for obsolescence.