David Brooks as a photographer and editor is always interested in new photographic equipement and technologies. He has been digitizing his own work since the early 1990s, always striving to achieve the best possible image quality. Therefore, he has tested a wide range of flatbed and film scanners,
but always took SilverFast as the best choice regarding the software component.
The new Plustek OpticFilm 7600i is the only dedicated film scanner on the market today; additionally it features impressive values on its data record sheet. David Brooks has written down his own thoughts and observations about this device operated with SilverFast in an interesting article for Shutterbug magazine.
David Brooks concludes: “So, if you want a new, high-performance 35mm film scanner at an affordable cost, this is it. As far as the performance of the hardware and SilverFast software is concerned, it provides better scans of 35mm film than any other scanner I have used, and that includes all of the popular brands and models of the past.”
Vikmans is the official SilverFast distributor in India. Visit Vikmans & SilverFast at the PC Expo, South India’s biggest ICT trade fair, and become acquainted with the latest scanners and imaging technologies.
“Scanner for Connoisseurs” headlines the FotoHits, a German photography magazine in their latest issue 9/2010.
Regarding its features the 9000F can keep up with the competitors, thus, its price is a real challenge in the view of the FotoHits’ editorial staff. The new Canon scanner is ideal for many applications, an all-round device for almost any user group. The Grandiose here: SilverFast SE is already included.
FotoHits: “LaserSoft Imaging’s SilverFast SE is well suited as the primary software for digitizing photos, […] It offers a variety of settings and outstanding image automatics for color optimization and image correction.”
Note: Our launch discount of 25% on any SilverFast version and Upgrade for the Canon 9000F is valid just for a few more days, until end of august.
As a photographer and editor for Shutterbug Magazine David Brooks works with SilverFast for many years. He appreciates SilverFast software for scanning, but also for image postprocessing of scanned images and especially of his digital camera shots. In this article he illustrates the differences between SilverFast HDR and conventional image editing software. [Read more →]
In the first part of the article I mentioned the advantages of this procedure and briefly introduced concepts about the bit depth of image files. Also explained the creation of raw files from SilverFast, the different types as well as their differences.
Now it’s time to explain Multi-Exposure (not standard in all SilverFast versions). [Read more →]
Who else should shoot the very last of Kodak’s iconic 36-exposure Kodachrome rolls if not photographer Steve McCurry ? His world-famous portrait of the afghan girl that appeared on the June 1985 cover of National Geographic magazine was a Kodachrome.
Trailed by a TV crew Steve recently took a trip around the world to find those special subjects for his last Kodachrome shots.
Steve: “I thought, what better way to kind of honor the memory of the film than to try and photograph iconic places and people?”
For harmonizing the OpticFilm 7600i with SilverFast the companies of Plustek and LaserSoft Imaging have worked together closely when developing the scanner. This allows the 7600i to obtain best results, which are normally only achievable by devices of clearly higher-priced market segments.
Professional photographer Mark Segal has put the OpticFilm 7600i through its paces in a comparative test with the established scanners Nikon Super Coolscan 5000ED and Epson Perfection V750 Pro. Mark has used SilverFast with all three scanners to digitize 35mm color positives and negatives. Regarding the characteristics that are relevant for the scanning process like detail rendition, color consistency, dynamic range, speed and efficiency of dust and scratch removal the 7600i is hardly inferior to its competitors or performs even better. For this price range it’s a real surprise!
Mark Segal concludes: “The combination of the Plustek OpticFilm 7600i and SilverFast Ai Studio with Auto IT8 profiling provides a viable colour management solution for the scanner component of a colour-managed workflow. [...] SilverFast iSRD works well with this scanner, which is a real boon to productivity in terms of obtaining clean scans in little time.”
Although very unusual this video is a timelapse of an antfarm “installed” in a scanner and filmed each week over half a decade. Lots of stuff happening in there and the ideas and the footage are really interesting. See yourself:
Photographically speaking, we tend to believe that what we see is all we get and there is no room for improvements.
Shoot your pictures in a color negative filmstrip and get copies of those on paper or shoot with your digital camera and opened those on your computer to see the result on the screen.
We think what we have in front is all we got. right?
Joan O’Brien, membership secretary of the North Coast Mac Users Group (NCMUG), has reviewed the SilverFast Archive Suite. As an photography amateur she has never used SilverFast before. Nevertheless, after a short learning curve, she was able to scan and optimize some very old material.
“The program is speedy and powerful and using just a
fraction of its capabilities can produce good results, …”
Faded photos from the 1890’s, family photos from 1960’s and 70’s with red cast and even old negatives and slides have proved to be no problem for Joan. She quickly and easily restored details and original colors using the SilverFast automatics. The ScanPilot – a step by step guiding system – was a great help to familiarize with the new software.
(Click to enlarge)
Joan has tested the SilverFast Archive Suite and she has given the opinion, that it could be the perfect solution for archiving processes. Batch processing with edge detection and automatic quality correction could save a lot of time.
David Brooks concludes: “So, if you want a new, high-performance 35mm film scanner at an affordable cost, this is it. As far as the performance of the hardware and SilverFast software is concerned, it provides better scans of 35mm film than any other scanner I have used, and that includes all of the popular brands and models of the past.”
Note: Our launch discount of 25% on any SilverFast version and Upgrade for the Canon 9000F is valid just for a few more days, until end of august.
Who else should shoot the very last of Kodak’s iconic 36-exposure Kodachrome rolls if not photographer Steve McCurry ? His world-famous portrait of the afghan girl that appeared on the June 1985 cover of National Geographic magazine was a Kodachrome.
For harmonizing the OpticFilm 7600i with SilverFast the companies of Plustek and LaserSoft Imaging have worked together closely when developing the scanner. This allows the 7600i to obtain best results, which are normally only achievable by devices of clearly higher-priced market segments.
Professional photographer Mark Segal has put the OpticFilm 7600i through its paces in a comparative test with the established scanners Nikon Super Coolscan 5000ED and Epson Perfection V750 Pro. Mark has used SilverFast with all three scanners to digitize 35mm color positives and negatives. Regarding the characteristics that are relevant for the scanning process like detail rendition, color consistency, dynamic range, speed and efficiency of dust and scratch removal the 7600i is hardly inferior to its competitors or performs even better. For this price range it’s a real surprise!
Mark Segal concludes:
