new Silverfast 6.5

[nathantw]

There's a new Silverfast 6.5 version out that supports multiple exposures.
The multiple exposures is suppose to increase your Dmax by a lot vs. a
single scan. Anyway, all the things posted on their website indicate that
multiple exposures is for Silverfast SE and Studio only and not AI. Can
anyone verify this? I'd hate to upgrade AI only to find that the feature I
want isn't even available.

Their website forum is lame in that it requires an admin to verify your
registry before you're able to post any type of message.

 

[-]

Anyway, all the things posted on their website indicate that multiple

exposures is for Silverfast SE and Studio only and not AI. Can anyone
verify this?

You are correct. As it states on the Silverfast site, "A new feature of
Silverfast Ai Studio and SE Plus 6.5."

Doug

 

[nathantw]

Thanks. I guess I'll wait until they decide to update AI (not studio) with
the multiple exposure.

Nathan

 

[odesmaison]

nathantw a écrit :

What would be good to know is whether multi-exposure is achieved in a
single scan or if it requires multi-pass. If the later, registration is
an issue, if not this is a valuable added feature.

 

[Robert Feinman]

There's a new Silverfast 6.5 version out that supports multiple exposures.
The multiple exposures is suppose to increase your Dmax by a lot vs. a
single scan. Anyway, all the things posted on their website indicate that
multiple exposures is for Silverfast SE and Studio only and not AI. Can
anyone verify this? I'd hate to upgrade AI only to find that the feature I
want isn't even available.

Their website forum is lame in that it requires an admin to verify your
registry before you're able to post any type of message.

Whether multi-scan gives any improvement or not depends a lot on
the scanner. If it has marginal response at high densities and
therefore generates a bit of noise than multi-scanning may help.
If you are scanning negatives you probably won't see the difference
with any scanner.
One idea is to download Vuescan from hamrick.com and try it out.
It has this feature and you can see if there is any improvement.
Then either use Vuescan or upgrade the Silverfast if you prefer it
for other reasons.

In many cases even if the noise is reduced that part of the image
prints as black or near black and the noise doesn't show up anyway.

 

[nathantw]

It's definitely 2 scans, hence the name multiple-exposures.

If you look on their website for it they say it's better than multi-sampling
and their pictures are nothing short than incredible. You do need a scanner
that's capable of multi-scanning.

I just received a message back from the Silverfast people and they said that
it is indeed a product of AI Studio. Argh.


nathantw a écrit :

What would be good to know is whether multi-exposure is achieved in a
single scan or if it requires multi-pass. If the later, registration is
an issue, if not this is a valuable added feature.

 

[nathantw]

Whether multi-scan gives any improvement or not depends a lot on
the scanner. If it has marginal response at high densities and

One idea is to download Vuescan from hamrick.com and try it out.
It has this feature and you can see if there is any improvement.

If you look at their marketing graph you'll get much better dynamic range if
you use their 2x multiple-exposures vs. 4x multi-sampling. Their sample
picture is pretty convincing. Then again, I know it's just a marketing ad,
so of course it looks good.
http://www.silverfast.com/highlights/multi-exposure/en.html

In many cases even if the noise is reduced that part of the image
prints as black or near black and the noise doesn't show up anyway.

So true.

 

[odesmaison]

It's definitely 2 scans, hence the name multiple-exposures.

If you look on their website for it they say it's better than multi-sampling
and their pictures are nothing short than incredible. You do need a scanner
that's capable of multi-scanning.

I just received a message back from the Silverfast people and they said that
it is indeed a product of AI Studio. Argh.

Let's make sure we understand each other (English is not my native
language) : are you meaning there are several readings at the same
position with multi-exposure or there are several scannings (passes)
with different exposures ?
The LS50 seems to be supported and this is a single (vs multi-sampling)
scan ; unless SF unlocks a restricted feature.
Olivier

 

[Roger S.]

What they're posting seems consistent with my experience:
http://jingai.com/vuescan2/long exposure comparison.html

Being able to do this in driver would be a timesaver. I use Photomatix
on two Vuescan scans. Unfortunately, Vuescan's long-exposure pass
feature isn't well implemented and has artifacts (see above), at least
on my Canon FS4000US. The LS-5000's singlepass multisampling seems
quite effective as well.

Roger

 

[Roger S.]

I also think it's interesting that Silverfast claims the V700 has
better Dmax than the LS-5000.
I read somewhere that a user thought the Epson was inferior to the
Canon FS4000US for dmax, and the Canon's quite noisy. Scroll down the
page for the chart.

http://www.silverfast.com/highlights/multi-exposure/en.html

Roger

 

[nathantw]

I also found that the claim of the V700 dynamic range was better than the
Nikon 5000 really interesting. It made me wonder what they were smoking.
Then again I have a V750 so I'm pleased to see that.

One thing I think LaserSoft Imaging is doing by not including the
multi-exposure scanning to Silverfast AI is trying to milk the users for
more money. The code is in Silverfast AI to have multi-exposures, proven by
the demo being both Silverfast AI and Studio. A toggle will flip
multi-exposures on. The fact that Silverfast AI is included in all the Epson
V750 scanners made their marketing wizards say "hey, we can get $159 (the
cost of the upgrade to Studio 6.5) out of each of those users instead of $40
(AI 6.5 without multi-exposure) ." It's sneaky. They got their money from
Epson so their software would be included with each V750 made, yet they want
to make the same users shell out more money to upgrade their software to a
program that probably has more than most people need except for the
multi-exposures.

A person on LaserSoft's forum wrote what their website used to contain:

"Welcome to our download area!

On this site you will get updates for your SilverFast versions. Within
version 6 you are allowed to download all updates for free after having
registered your serial number on our website."

From the above statement I think the company shouldn't be charging for
version 6.5. I'm really starting to realize that the way the company is run
is pretty shady to say the least.

 

[Ralf R. Radermacher]

I'm really starting to realize that the way the company is run
is pretty shady to say the least.

They've always been like this.

I've had a few serious arguments with their CEO in this very newsgroup,
some years ago, when they advertised "full colour-corrected 48 output
with Nikon scanners" while it was universally known that the Nikon
libraries for the LS-30 would only output 10 bit per channel and
Silverfast was nothing but a shiny front-end for exactly those Nikon
libs.

Eventually, they had someone from outside the company admit it.

And yes, that's what Lasersoft is all about: milking their customers
with an endless succession of so-called upgrades and updates.

Ralf

 

[nathantw]

I think I'll try your idea with Photomatix. Thanks for the idea.

Nathan