Epson Software vs. Vuescan

[Jeffrey Scorsone]

Ok, I've downloaded the vuescan trial and have played with it a bit.
I'm left to wonder if there are advantages for the way I'm scanning
though, or
if I should change what I'm doing.....

I was doing negatives on an epson 3170, and didn't notice much
difference
between the two programs, except that vuescan seemed to take a bit
longer
to set up.

Now, when I scan anything, negatives, photos, etc, I don't let the
software
do color correction, I take it into photoshop and rework it there.
That way
I can get excactly what it should look like. Or what I want it to
look like.

If I'm doing the color work, it seems like the epson software is
faster at just
scanning.... Should be letting the software do more of the "work"?
Does it
do a good enough job to make it time effective.

Vuescan seemed to take a long time to scan an image before moving on
to the next one. even when I told it not to correct anything.

I'm worried about software correcting during scanning, because I don't
want to lose any information. I can always throw out what I don't
need at another time.

thanks for any help and advise.

-Jeff

 

[hellome]

Using Vuescan as I see it, like most other things has pros and cons:

Pros:
- Gives you near complete control of the process, and unlike some other
programs doesn't do things behind your back. Things like being able to
control the amount of light through the neg from the CCD sensor (Lock
Exposure) and tricks like multi-pass scanning are what is needed for serious
scanning.
- ICC compatible
- RAW files.
- Price. While not a bargain anymore definitely worth the dough compared to
SilverFast.
- Constantly updated.
- Supports Mac, IBM and Linux.
- Like it or hate it VueScan has a method that works...almost all the time.
I've never been able to claim that about Epson Scan which I often use for a
quick one off.

Cons:
- Requires understanding many principles behind the technology.
- There doesn't seem to be a "best way" to do anything in VueScan although
having the ability to create RAW files does mean you can redo any
corrections applied. Ask the top ten users on this group the same question
and chances are you get a variety of answers.
- Figuring out the color stuff drives me nuts still but I'm almost there.
- Constantly updated.