Scanning old negatives and Slides: Hello all Have been on this site for months and my hats off to all the hoggers for the great advice given to us newbe's. My questions is this: I have...

Greatpapa Loc: MA

Hello all
Have been on this site for months and my hats off to all the hoggers for the great advice given to us newbe's. My questions is this: I have been given a Plustek 8100. I am having a problem using the Silverfast software supplied with the scanner. I have checked around and conclude there are many more having the same problem. Do any of you hoggers know of a scanning software that I can use? Have many many to scan.

thanks
Greatpapa

Wall-E Loc: Phoenix, AZ

Greatpapa wrote:

Hello all
Have been on this site for months and my hats off to all the hoggers for the great advice given to us newbe's. My questions is this: I have been given a Plustek 8100. I am having a problem using the Silverfast software supplied with the scanner. I have checked around and conclude there are many more having the same problem. Do any of you hoggers know of a scanning software that I can use? Have many many to scan.

thanks
Greatpapa

Reviews on Amazon suggest getting the latest version via download from the company website
http://plustek.com/usa/support/drivers-and-downloads.html

Or, the other software I've heard works pretty good is VueScan, but it's $40 for the standard edition (1 year of free updates), and $80 for unlimited updates.

If/when you get your scanner working well, could you please come back and say what it took? I've got hundreds of slides from my film days that I want to digitize, and I'm starting to look around for what's it's going to take to accomplish that.

corryhully Loc: liverpool uk

i gave up on the silverfast software on my plustek neg scanner. i found vuescan to be much better,and much easier.

Greatpapa Loc: MA

ALL

I am just about ready to give up on the silverfast software also. I have contacted their tech support and it takes days for them to get back to me. There is no instruction manual for the si9lverfast so its trial and error.

Corryhully - Thanks for the response - I shall try the Vuescan software Please e mail your address to greatpapa3@verizon.net and I shall keep you updated

Greatpapa

Wall-e I have thousands of negatives and slides to scan. I shall keep you updated.

MtnMan Loc: ID

Greatpapa wrote:

Hello all
Have been on this site for months and my hats off to all the hoggers for the great advice given to us newbe's. My questions is this: I have been given a Plustek 8100. I am having a problem using the Silverfast software supplied with the scanner. I have checked around and conclude there are many more having the same problem. Do any of you hoggers know of a scanning software that I can use? Have many many to scan.

thanks
Greatpapa

take them to Costco

bobcox Loc: the 'Ville

I fought the Silverfast software for about a year and it was an absolute nightmare, in my opinion. I have switched to VueScan and love it. The difference in the end product is unbelievable.

bw79st Loc: New York City

corryhully wrote:

i gave up on the silverfast software on my plustek neg scanner. i found vuescan to be much better,and much easier.

I have been using Vuescan for a number of years now and I consider it one of my "must have" programs. To be fair I have never tried Silverfast. Ed Hamrick seems to take his program quite seriously and answers my queries quickly. I don't think I have had a major glitch in all that time. Used currently with a Canoscan FS4000 slide & film scanner and a very simple Epson V200 Photo for my document needs.

Norm3 Loc: California

I have been using VueScan for many years now. I purchased the $80 (unlimited updates) version. I use it on my Nikon Coolscan 5000 ED film scanner and on my Epson V30 scanner. I have scanned over 10,000 slides and am quite happy with the results. VueScan is easy to use and it offers lots of options and flexabiltty.

flyguy Loc: Las Cruces, New Mexico

Greatpapa wrote:

Hello all
Have been on this site for months and my hats off to all the hoggers for the great advice given to us newbe's. My questions is this: I have been given a Plustek 8100. I am having a problem using the Silverfast software supplied with the scanner. I have checked around and conclude there are many more having the same problem. Do any of you hoggers know of a scanning software that I can use? Have many many to scan.

thanks
Greatpapa

It would be helpful you explained exactly what the problem is and on the type of computer you're using and be very specific in the details.

Kuzano

Scanning.. What a PITA!

I've purchased 4 scanners in the last ten years.

It's a miserable process. i used the Epson sw, Silverfast and Vuescan. Wasted time. I didn't shoot all that film to get the results received from scanning.

I've come to the conclusion, since I was only scanning to archive my images, that scanning makes them more likely to degrade or be lost, than proper storage for film negs, transparencies or prints. I am absolutely convinced that digital is not a better way to archive my work than what I have done for years. Furthermore, it won't last as long without maintenance and migration than film and paper.

I can still use them on wet lab processes, or pay to have someone properly digitize them with their professional equipment, as I need them one by one.

I sleep well with that decision.

speters Loc: Grangeville/Idaho

Greatpapa wrote:

Hello all
Have been on this site for months and my hats off to all the hoggers for the great advice given to us newbe's. My questions is this: I have been given a Plustek 8100. I am having a problem using the Silverfast software supplied with the scanner. I have checked around and conclude there are many more having the same problem. Do any of you hoggers know of a scanning software that I can use? Have many many to scan.

thanks
Greatpapa

What are your problems? The Plustek 8100 is an excellent scanner, and as far as software goes for scanning, you can't do any better then Silverfast ( it is the best for scanning)!

Ranjan Loc: Currently Cyber-Nation!

speters wrote:

What are your problems? The Plustek 8100 is an excellent scanner, and as far as software goes for scanning, you can't do any better then Silverfast ( it is the best for scanning)!

But their after-sales support sucks! I mean 7600i is barely 4-5 years old (I bought mine in 2010) and it worked fine on XP, but had problems with W7-64 and the drivers, driver packages just do not work. Installation of the scanner itself is a PITA.

Maybe they cleaned up their act with the 8200 newer models, leaving the older users to fend for themselves! Anyways, the days of film (whatever remains) are numbered anyways (few years at most, once the processing labs vanish or get too pricey, as too the films (other than the expired filmstock showing up on ebay) and then a few more years of folks interested in spending time with old negatives on an irregular basis!

As boomers peter out, so would film-related usage etc!

RWR Loc: La Mesa, CA

Greatpapa wrote:

Hello all
Have been on this site for months and my hats off to all the hoggers for the great advice given to us newbe's. My questions is this: I have been given a Plustek 8100. I am having a problem using the Silverfast software supplied with the scanner. I have checked around and conclude there are many more having the same problem. Do any of you hoggers know of a scanning software that I can use? Have many many to scan.

thanks
Greatpapa

http://www.hamrick.com/

RWR Loc: La Mesa, CA

MtnMan wrote:

take them to Costco

:?: :?: A lot of good Costco will do for scanner software problems! :?: :?:

Ranjan Loc: Currently Cyber-Nation!

RWR wrote:

http://www.hamrick.com/

The problem with Plustek Optifilm (pre-8200 version) scanners is that it does not get installed easily in W7 and higher, so the software (silverfast) does not even *see* the scanner! Vuescan would probably run into the same problem. I have tried all the drivers put out by plustek-silverfast (US and EU) but no go!

It is not the scanner software that is the problem, the scanner driver is and gets in the way of the operating system recognizing the scanner.