Recommedations on editing software that works well with Ai?

[Trillium]

I am thinking about getting Ai for my new Canon 8800f to scan negatives, slides and pictures. I spent about $180 on the scanner and was not prepared for the bad software that came with it, PSE 5.0.

Can not justify spending more on the software than the hardware so willing to look at buying Ai if I can find a good organizing free program that works well with Ai. I have Windows Photo Gallery.

My goal is to scan the negatives and then tag them as I go since some times I will only know the date or year by looking at the actual slide or negaive or picture at the time of scanning. I want to save in RAW format since that sounds like the best.

I down loaded Picasa 3.? and was not that user friendly. I looked at my Windows Photo Gallery but not sure how you tag a date if it is other than the date you are scanning.

I noticed another person who recently purchased a Canon 8800f received SF SE version bundled with their scanner. I don't understand why I didn't get SE too.

I have given up on Boris to answer my questions at the U.S. location. Perhaps someone can get me an answer.

[LSI_Luebker]

Dear Trillium,

I think the best thing would be to buy an SilverFast Archive Suite as they allready include a SilverFast HDR that can process the SilverFast 48 & 64 BIT RAW Files.