Which Version of Silverfast?

[Frenzy]

Hi,
I recently bought an Epson Perfection 2450 scanner and was wondering if anyone could give me some advice on which Silverfast version I should use. For the most part I will be scanning damaged prints (with the occasional slide) to do photo retouching/restoration in Photoshop 7. Silverfast SE came bundled with the scanner, but I understand it is a very scaled down version of Silverfast Ai and can only export 24 bit scans into Photoshop(as opposed to Ai's 48 bit exporting). Since I will be working mostly with prints instead of tranparencies, are there any features beneficial to me in Ai that are missing in SE?(besides 48 bit exporting) If so, is it worth my while to get the IT8 calibration as well? (what exactly do you get for the extra $85 anyway?) My Viewsonic P810 monitor isn't calibrated so IT8 may be a moot option.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[LSI_Flyvbjerg]

Dear Frenzy.

SilverFast offers better image correction methods, has manual unsharp masking, descreening and a lot more. To see, if an investment in Ai is worth for you, check out the demo plugin. The demo contains all the features from Ai, but there will be a watermark in the scanned images.

Eric Flyvbjerg