Vuescan or Silverfast for initial scan...does it matter?

Flatbed and Film Scanners
1

Hello All,
I have been using NLP for a few months now and I am very impressed. That said, I have been using a Plustex 8200i with SilverFast. I have been testing several scenarios, for example, DNG, DNG with and without ME, TIFF with iSRD with and without ME, embed Adobe RGB, ProPhoto, or no profile etc.

What are your thoughts when comparing Vuescan to Silverfast for the initial scan? Pros, cons? As you can imagine, I am not interested in any real color conversion/UI settings, but more interested in are you noticing workflow or quality differences between the two?

My initial thought is since the hardware is the same (the scanner) results will be similar, but I also know that the software is driving what the hardware does with the info it is receiving.

I hope to download the trial and run my own tests, but I may not have the time for a few weeks and was curious about what your experience has been.

Much appreciated.

2

Hi there, I’m experiencing the same! Any suggestions?

3

I personally prefer Vuescan over Silverfast.

Vuescan Pros:

  • One license works with thousands of scanners
  • I find the UI and workflow to just be a bit easier (Silverfast is not very intuitive, imo)
  • You can use IR Dust Removal when making RAW DNG files (You can’t do that with Silverfast)
  • The scanner metadata coming out of Vuescan is more consistent, which means less chance of issues with the profiles in Lightroom / Negative Lab Pro.

Vuescan Cons:

  • You have to pay for a license (many recent Silverfast users are using the free license provided by Epson)
  • Some users have reported that Vuescan’s dust removal is not as accurate as Silverfast’s iSRD. This may vary with scanner models though.

I haven’t seen any quality differences using both with my V600 , but again, it may vary by scanner model.