Odd Silverfast / Nikonscan comparison on silverfast's page

[bloosqr]

Hi all, I originally posted this to photo.net and someone suggested
that I ask you guys this as you may have a better gauge of what is
going on.

I've been trying to see if silverfast is worth the money in comparison
to nikonscan and moreover see what people thought about the new
multi-exposure scanning option that silverfast has just added (which
seems really intriguing!). So while searching for comparisons I found a
really odd "testimonial" on silverfasts page here :

http://www.silverfast.com/show/sf-vs-nikonscan/en.html

that seems to imply that silverfast is unlocking secret hardware
features of the LS40. I am quoting the relevant bits below :

"If you are using LS40, you'll realize too that you don't need the
LS50, why? The Silverfast allows you to scan your slides up to 5700dpi!
- compared to NikonScan4(2900dpi) and this is on 48bit(Nikon doesn't do
this). On 5700dpi resolution, you can see the grain of the film
"clearly" with the proverbial smoothness(doesn't mean blurred). It
makes you think that probably Nikon is using the same CCD chip for both
the LS40 and the higher end models and the only difference is the
software(which enables the scanner to scan on the minimum of 2900dpi
only - on the Silverfast, this one is bypassed and allows you to use
the maximum resolution of 5700dpi! amazing isn't it?)but yes, you would
question yourself this after seeing a 5700dpi created out of your LS40
at 150Mb - that is why Silverfast is quite expensive because it is very
good or near excellent. "

Silverfast definitely has an interpolation mode which scans at twice
resolution (this is really software interpolation) As I believe the
LS50 is the coolscan V which is 4000 dpi and the LS40 is 2900 dpi which
"doubled" is 5800 (reasonably close to the purported 5700 dpi mode,
which as far as I am aware does not exist on a nikon scanner does it?,

For these reasons, my first inclination is to think this must be an
interpolation. But if it *really* is interpolation, why is it on
silverfasts own site as a testimonial particularly showing up as a
comparison btwn nikonscan and silverfast?

-best,
-avi

 

[bloosqr]

Actually just to follow up

An example of the interpolation mode can be found here with regards to
the LS20

http://www.silverfast.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=1815&sid=95e4cd9da12b7b363f7cb3076615f363

"In your trial software I seem to be able to scan up to 5400dpi. Is
this real? I thought my Nikon LS-2000 had a 2700dpi maximum. Please
advise. Thanks.
Ted"

"Interpolated Resolution with LS2000

You are right! The LS 2000 has a max optical resolution of 2700 dpi.
SilverFast Ai allows to scan at higher resolutions using a method
called "Interpolation", where between 2 optical achieved pixels a new
one is inserted through the interpolation method.
You will see that interpolation will cause the data to look smoother
and less sharp."

 

[Roger S.]

I wonder if anyone has done resolution chart comparisons or other tests
of the Nikon at 2900 and "5700" DPI to see if it's really resolving
anything more.

It's very strange that Silverfast would post a testimonial like

"5700dpi resolution, you can see the grain of the film "clearly" with
the proverbial smoothness(doesn't mean blurred). It makes you think
that probably Nikon is using the same CCD chip for both the LS40 and
the higher end models and the only difference is the software(which
enables the scanner to scan on the minimum of 2900dpi only - on the
Silverfast, this one is bypassed and allows you to use the maximum
resolution of 5700dpi! amazing isn't it?)but yes, you would question
yourself this after seeing a 5700dpi created out of your LS40 at 150Mb
- that is why Silverfast is quite expensive because it is very good or
near excellent. "

on their own website without any sort of rejoinder or clarification of
what the user is actually seeing.
Roger